World News
Afghan girls' boarding school opens permanent campus in Rwanda
Five years after evacuating Kabul, the School of Leadership of Afghanistan expands its in-person and digital reach in exile.
The short version
- The School of Leadership of Afghanistan (SOLA) opened a permanent campus in Rwanda, five years after evacuating Kabul following the Taliban's return to power.
- The new boarding school facility enrolls 122 girls, doubling capacity at an undisclosed location due to safety concerns.
- SOLA also serves 41,000 students via its free WhatsApp-based digital curriculum, mainly inside Afghanistan where secondary education for girls remains banned.
Key facts
- SOLA established a permanent campus in Rwanda, with classes scheduled to begin later in the month for 122 enrolled Afghan girls.[ABC News · Associated Press]
- The school evacuated a group of 250 students, faculty, and recent graduates to Rwanda five years ago following the Taliban's 2021 takeover and subsequent ban on girls' secondary education.[ABC News · Associated Press]
- A United Nations report cited in August indicated that approximately 2.4 million Afghan girls are currently barred from secondary schooling.[ABC News · Associated Press]
- SOLA operates SOLAx, an online learning platform via WhatsApp offering grades 6 through 12 curriculum in Dari, Pashto, and English to 41,000 students primarily in Afghanistan.[ABC News · Associated Press]
- A Taliban spokesperson claimed in August that over 10 million students are enrolled in schools and universities, adding that the administration is working on conditions for female education aligned with Islamic law.[ABC News · Associated Press]
What remains uncertain
- The precise timeline or conditions under which the Taliban administration might allow Afghan girls to return to secondary schools and universities remain unspecified.[ABC News · Associated Press]