These Children Are Studying in Rented Shops — And They Dream Big

When I read about 9-year-old Mustafa, my heart sank. He wants to become an engineer one day. But right now, his classroom is a rented shop in the dusty district of Khak-e-Afghan in Zabul province.

Students in Zabul are studying in rented shops due to a severe school shortage. Mustafa is not alone. Nearly 600 children in his district attend classes in cramped, rented spaces with no proper walls, no clean water, and no toilets.

Ali Mohammad Mohammadi, a local teacher, told TOLOnews: “Our area has never received enough attention. We have many students, but the education department has limited staff.”

According to Zabul’s education department, out of 160 schools in the province, 60 have no buildings. That means over 85,000 students are learning in open spaces or rented rooms.

I believe this is not just a local problem — it is a national crisis. If we read reports from UNICEF Afghanistan, we see that millions of Afghan children are already out of school. But Zabul shows us something worse: even when children want to learn, the system fails to provide them a proper place to sit.

Mustafa and his classmates deserve better. They deserve real schools, trained teachers, and a future. If we fail them today, we fail an entire generation tomorrow. Read more about this in my latest article.