Threadbare Kids Drop Out of School

In the Rudaki district south and west of Dushanbe, teenagers like Madina say their family cannot afford to let her attend school.



“If I went to school now, I’d be entering the sixth grade now,” says Madina. “But I’ve never been, from the very beginning. Now I’m thinking I should go and study but I can’t. There’s no possibility of it.”



Safina Shakirova says she regrets keeping her son out of school when he should have been getting an education.



“I couldn’t send my child to school because I didn’t have the resources. You need a school uniform to go to school, but I earn barely enough to keep us fed. My son left school after second grade, and now he should be going into the ninth [penultimate] year . He’s a boy as well[ie. a breadwinner], and now I don’t know what he will do with his life.”



Feruza Abdulloeva, the deputy head of education in Rudaki district, admits the existence of drop-outs but says most are children in outlying areas or whose families are only temporary residents. She insists there is not a single case where poverty is the root cause.



Tajik education minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov says there are about 20 children missing school in every town and probably more in the countryside.