Afghan students have to attend compulsory Islamic studies classes

Afghan university students will have to attend more compulsory Islamic studies classes, education officials said yesterday while giving little sign that secondary schools for girls would reopen.

Many conservative Afghan clerics in the hardline Islamist Taliban, which swept back into power a year ago, are sceptical of modern education.

"We are adding five more religious subjects to the existing eight," said Abdul Baqi Haqqani, minister for higher education, including Islamic history, politics and governance.

The number of compulsory religious classes will increase from one to three a week in government universities.

He told a news conference that the Taliban would not order any subjects to be dropped from the current curriculum.

However, some universities have altered studies on music and sculpture -- highly sensitive issues under the Taliban's harsh interpretation of sharia law -- while an exodus of Afghanistan's educated elite, including professors, has seen many subjects discontinued.

The Daily Star