On the eve of the five weeks since the Taliban regained power, they received a heavy educational report card.
Data released by UNESCO on August 11 shows that in 2026, approximately 2.4 million Afghan girls will be excluded from secondary education, an increase of about 200,000 compared to 2025. As a result, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where women are officially prohibited from receiving secondary and higher education.
This reference point for this regression is the educational achievements that Afghanistan has slowly accumulated over the past twenty years.
In 2001, when the Taliban regime collapsed for the first time, there were almost no girls in schools in Afghanistan. Since then, with international assistance and efforts to rebuild the national education system, the total number of students in all levels of education in Afghanistan has increased from about 1 million to nearly 10 million. The female literacy rate has also increased from 17% to nearly 30%. By 2021, before the Taliban regained power, nearly 1 million girls had entered secondary schools, and more than 1 million women had received access to higher education.
The education system in Afghanistan is far from perfect. There are still disparities between urban and rural areas, a shortage of teachers, and safety risks. However, it remains one of the most significant social changes of the past twenty years: girls can progress from elementary school to middle school, then to universities, and eventually into hospitals, schools, and government agencies.
Now, this ascending passage has been cut off in the middle.
In September 2021, the Taliban delayed girls’ return to middle school on the grounds that uniforms, curriculum, and gender-segregation measures were not yet ready. The so-called “temporary measures” were never lifted thereafter. In December 2022, women were again prohibited from entering universities; subsequently, the few educational opportunities available for women, such as medical training, were further restricted.
What's more serious is that the ban has begun to undermine primary education in reverse. Since girls cannot continue their education even after completing primary school, some poor families lose motivation to send their daughters to school. The total number of students in Afghan primary schools dropped from 6.8 million in 2019 to 5.7 million in 2022. A decrease in female teachers, increased poverty, and deteriorating school facilities have also affected the quality of education for boys.
The educational ban ultimately affects not only diplomas. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that if these restrictions continue until 2030, Afghanistan may lack about 20,000 female teachers and 5,400 female healthcare workers. In societies where access between men and women is strictly restricted, the absence of female doctors and nurses means that many women will have difficulty accessing basic medical services. Without female teachers, the willingness of families to send girls to school will be further reduced.
International organizations are maintaining limited learning channels through community classrooms, radio programs, and online courses. However, their scale is far from sufficient to fill the gap left by formal education. UNESCO projects currently cover nearly 70,000 learners, of whom 73% are women. Compared to 2.4 million girls who are out of school, this represents only a small fraction of the potential for learning to be preserved.
The Taliban’s reversal did not affect just a few education policies, but rather the country’s capacity to generate talent. The female teachers, doctors, and civil servants who were trained over the past twenty years are gradually leaving their positions, and the next generation is being kept out of the classrooms.
