A new UNICEF and UNESCO report shows that participation in higher education in Afghanistan has fallen sharply because of restrictions on women\u2019s education and economic factors. The total number of male students at the country\u2019s universities dropped from 306,000 in 2019 to 208,000 in 2026.<\/p>\n
While the number of female students stood at about 119,000 in 2019, it fell to nearly zero in 2023 and has been completely banned since 2024. Women\u2019s university education was formally banned by the Taliban administration in December 2022.<\/p>\n
The decline in educational participation is not limited to women. The report points to a significant fall in the number of university lecturers, especially women lecturers, whose numbers dropped from about 2,600 in 2019 to just over 100 in 2025. Male lecturers have also declined, though less sharply.<\/p>\n
Such a steep reduction in university staffing has severely weakened the country\u2019s academic capacity and raised challenges for the future of critical professions in sectors including health and education.<\/p>\n
The report also says private universities are under severe financial pressure, as tuition revenue has fallen significantly since the ban on women\u2019s education. In 2026, the Taliban administration\u2019s Ministry of Higher Education suspended and revoked the licences of several private institutions.<\/p>\n
In another section, the entrance exam known as the \u06a9\u0627\u0646\u06a9\u0648\u0631 also saw a sharp drop in participants. The number of candidates fell to 118,000 in 2026, compared with more than 210,000 in 2020. Since 2023, no female student has registered for the entrance exams.<\/p>\n
The decline in secondary school students and their enrolment rate is also notable. The number of boys in grades 10 to 12 fell from 750,000 in 2023 to 660,000 in 2025, while gross enrolment in upper secondary education dropped from 48.5% to 40%.<\/p>\n
UNESCO warned that the continued ban on women\u2019s education could result in economic losses of more than $9 billion by 2066, underscoring the deep and far-reaching impact of the Taliban administration\u2019s policies on the future of education and development in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNICEF and UNESCO say Afghanistan’s higher education system has shrunk sharply under Taliban restrictions, with women’s enrolment falling to zero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-social-affairs","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}