Although student attendance at schools in Afghanistan has increased markedly since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the educational system was in such disarray that years of work remain to meet the needs of most students.

During Taliban rule, girls were forbidden to attend school and most education that was available was based on strict Islamic teachings.

According to Sakena Yacoobi, the president of the local education organization Afghan Institute of Learning, the country's educational problems stretch back even before the Taliban came into power in 1994.

"For 30 years Afghanistan was out of education. We lost three generations of educated people," said Yacoobi of the country ravaged by decades of war and strife. "We had the highest illiteracy rate in the world, even before the Russians invaded."

There are now 6 million children in school in Afghanistan, according to March 2007 estimates from the United Nations children's fund. The number is up from 1 million in 2002, but 7 million children are still not in school.

The biggest barriers to education continue to be a lack of proper resources: schools; teachers, especially female teachers; and textbooks. Where there are no school buildings students study in private homes, tents or even gather under a tree to learn. Blackboards and pencils are luxury items.

One of the deepest scars from the rule of the Taliban, and made worse by the strict cultural code in much of the nation, is the lack of women in the classroom. Across Afghanistan, enrollment skews heavily male, with two-thirds more boys are in school than girls, and more urban as children in rural areas particularly lack schools or resources.

As students move through the system, the differences become even more apparent. Although 20 percent of girls attend primary school, only 5 percent of girls are enrolled at the secondary level compared to 20 percent of boys, according to a report published in November 2006 by British-based aid group Oxfam International.

Despite the challenges facing the female students, Yacoobi said they are some of the most enthusiastic at her program's schools.

"We have a 65-year-old grandmother who sits side-by-side with her grandchildren. We have a woman who gets up at 4 a.m. to do housework and then comes to the class to work, because they are so anxious to learn how to read and write," Yacoobi said.

Culture and customs also have been changing to encourage female students. In some communities, local citizens groups have worked to encourage mullahs to use mosque sermons to preach that the Quran does not forbid girls from receiving an education.

It is culturally sensitive work like this that aid workers say is essential to success in the region.

Charito Kruvant, president of Creative Associates International, a USAID-funded group helping with education in the country, said working closely with local communities is key to showing that the success of the entire community is dependent on educating everyone.

"Young women are to be of service to their communities and their families and in today's world you have to be literate, literacy is a basic commodity," Kruvant said.

Literacy continues to be a problem for Afghans in general -- 90 percent of rural women and 65 percent of rural men are illiterate in Afghanistan, according to UNICEF education chief David McLoughlin.

Security challenges

The largest hurdle to improving the education system remains the violence that has, at times, specifically targeted schools and teachers.

As of March 2007, at least 40 teachers had been killed by the Islamic extremist group in the past year, according to the Education Minister Mohammad Hamif Atmar, Agence-France Presse reported.

A report issued in April by Amnesty International stated that more than 300 schools in southern and southeastern Afghanistan were closed due to militant violence.

According to NATO and Afghan officials, the numbers of school attacks have decreased from years past, but violence and intimidation remain a problem. Education officials link the decreases to efforts to engage local leaders in school safety matters.

Tribal elders and Islamic clerics help form "defense committees" for schools. These groups are charged with keeping schools intact and teachers safe.

"There just aren't enough police to watch over every school in the country," Zuhoor Afghan, an Education Ministry spokesman, told the Los Angeles Times. "But the local people know their own towns and villages best. They know who is a stranger; they know who has business there and who does not."

Some speculate that the drop in violence is due in part to the colder weather, when attacks tend to decrease, or because people may be growing frustrated with Taliban tactics.

"People hated it during the time of the Taliban, when their daughters could not study and when nothing was taught in the schools but theology," Mohammed, a local headmaster in Wach Tangi, where the only school was burned down by the Taliban, told the LA Times. "Attacking schools is not going to make them popular again. Even they can see that."

With violence and limited resources continuing to plague the education system, experts such as Kruvant say that success in Afghanistan has to be measured in the context of the complexities of the country. She said she believes that creating educational opportunities is the true catalyst for change and security but that it will take a long time.

The Afghan government's benchmarks, such as the Millennium Development Goals -- crafted with the help of the United Nations -- of universal enrollment for boys and girls by 2015, might be unrealistic, she said.

"We from the West need to understand it is more complex. They were so behind, they need so so much that there is an endless need for a budget. They work in tandem. A society that does not send their child to school is in real trouble. Security and education work hand-in-hand," Kruvant said.

But Kruvant added that she remains hopeful, especially because of the students' attitudes.

"The motivation and their ability to concentrate and do the work is fascinating. They were hungry for learning," she said.

-- By Annie Schleicher, Online NewsHour