With Election as Backdrop, Afghan Children Go Back to School

On the brink of the first direct presidential election in Afghanistan’s history, some 4.5 million Afghan children had returned to school, despite crude facilities, poorly trained teachers, a lack of basic supplies, and growing security concerns.

Efforts to rebuild the country’s school system—including more than 5,000 school buildings that are in need of repair or replacement—have been slowly, but steadily, marching forward, observers say. Reconstruction since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the extremist regime harboring Osama bin Laden in 2001 is boosted by strong community support and millions of dollars in aid from international organizations and the U.S. government.

But in a country that prided itself on its public education system before the rise to power of the Taliban in the mid-1990s, progress has not kept pace with an intense desire for schooling among children and their parents, according...