Disorder in Afghan Classrooms Sparks Calls for Greater Oversight of Schools

The widespread circulation of a video from inside an Afghan school has raised serious questions about the state of classrooms under Taliban administration. The video shows students chatting, joking, and playing inside the classroom without a teacher present and with no educational supervision during lessons. This video, which has recently been shared extensively on social media, has prompted reactions from education activists. They say the Taliban administration does not give adequate attention to the management and supervision of schools, and the lack of effective control by school officials has led students to engage in unrelated activities during class hours. According to these activists, schools and all their equipment—from blackboards to chairs and desks—are public property and part of the national assets, and protecting them is a shared responsibility between students and educational authorities. They emphasize that damaging or misusing these facilities reflects weaknesses in the social and intellectual upbringing of students. Education experts believe that alongside academic instruction, curricula should strengthen responsibility, patriotism, and the protection of public property—a topic they argue has received little attention in recent years. Observers warn that the release of such videos not only calls into question the educational standards in Afghanistan but also highlights serious shortcomings in the moral and cultural development within classrooms, shortcomings for which the Taliban administration is directly responsible.