USA Donates 5,000 Computers to Schools in Afghanistan

Text of report by privately-owned Afghan Ariana TV on 13 September

[Presenter] The Afghan Education Ministry says that in three years time, Afghan elementary schools will be connected with other elementary schools around the world via Internet. Afghan Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar says the US government will provide special computers with installed Internet facilities for Afghan students. He says distribution of these computers will start in Kabul in the next six months.

[Reporter] Afghan Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar says the US government has provided 5,000 computers to the Ministry of Education. According to Mr Atmar the computers will be distributed among 500 schools in various provinces of the country. The education minister says they are planning to computerize over 1,000 schools around the country. Education officials say that the project costs around 30m dollars and this is a separate donation, not included in the budget of the world community for this ministry.

[Education minister] These are special computers with Internet facilities. Each school and each Afghan child will have a connection with the outside world.

[Reporter] According to the Ministry of Education, the computers were designed for Afghan students, with special software both in the Dari and Pashto languages. Atmar says the computer is one of the school subjects now.

Originally published by Ariana TV, Kabul, in Dari 1530 13 Sep 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.