Italian-led PRT to set up 17 schools in Herat

Herat City, October 3, 2005 - An Italian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) will construct a high school at the cost of 200,000 dollars in this capital city of the western Herat province. While laying the foundation stone of the school in the Nazargah area, PRT officials said on Monday the construction would be completed in three months. The school will have a capacity for 1,300 students including boys and girls.

Provincial education department's deputy director Aziza Safi told Pajhwok Afghan News the school would be named as Nazargah. With 16 classrooms, it will be built over an area of 1,500 square meters.

The PRT plans to establish 10 middle and seven high schools in different districts of Herat over the next three months, she said, adding budgeting for each of the schools would be done soon.

Sohaila Rahmati, a 10th class student, said: "I am very happy that a new school is going to be built for us; the building of the existing one is very old."

According to education director Mohammad Din Fahim, Herat is Afghanistan's most developed province, where more than 480 thousand students were enrolled in different schools. A big number of students, however, were still sitting in tented classrooms, he concluded.