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[KABUL, 27 November 2006] - Despite a five-fold increase in school enrolment since 2001, some 7 million Afghan children - nearly half of all children in Afghanistan - are still missing out on education, a new report from the international aid group Oxfam, warned on Monday. The report entitled ‘Free, Quality Education for Every Afghan Child’, said that 7 million Afghan children were currently out of school while 5 million children attend school, up from 3.1 million in 2003 and around 1 million in 2001, when the Taliban were in power. The report is based on nine months of research, including collecting information from the relevant government institutions. “Educating Afghanistan’s children is crucial in improving their lives and in the rebuilding and development of the country. But poverty, crippling fees and huge distances to the nearest schools prevent parents from sending their children to school,” said Grace Ommer, head of Oxfam GB in Afghanistan. Girls in particular are losing out, with just one in five girls in primary education and one in 20 going to secondary school, the report asserted. The report called on international donors to channel funds through the Afghan Ministry of Education and requested the international community to invest US $563 million to rebuild 7,800 schools across the country. “Rich countries have provided fewer funds in the past for education compared to their many promises,” Basira Mojaddidi, Policy and Advocacy Adviser for Oxfam in Afghanistan, told IRIN. Afghanistan needs nearly 53,000 trained primary school teachers immediately and a further 64,000 teachers in the next five years. There is also a distinct shortage of female teachers as currently less than three in 10 teachers are female, the new report estimated. More than half of Afghanistan’s schools need major repairs, the majority are without clean drinking water or toilet facilities while 2 million children study in tents or in the open air, the report said. Mohammad Hanif Atmar, the education minister, praised the Oxfam report. “We are 99 percent in agreement with the outcomes of the report and we have earlier voiced our concerns on the current problems and challenges facing education in Afghanistan,” Atmar said. Lack of qualified, well-paid teachers is also contributing to the education problem in the country. “Unfortunately, nearly 85 percent of our current teachers across the country are non-professional,” Atmar maintained.