A suicide attack at a tuition centre in the Afghan capital Kabul has killed at least 19 people, most of them female students, police and witnesses say.
Nearly 30 others were wounded at the Kaaj Education Centre in the Dasht-e-Barchi area in the west of the city.
Students had been sitting a university practical exam when the bomber struck. Many of those in the area were minority Hazaras, who had often been targeted by Islamic State (IS) militants.
Footage on local TV and shared on social media appeared to show scenes from a nearby hospital, where rows of covered bodies were laid out on the floor. Other media reportedly from the site of the private college showed rubble and upturned tables in the damaged classrooms.
“We didn’t find her here,” a woman who was looking for her sister at one of the hospitals told a news agency. “She was 19 years old.”
Some reports say the number of dead is far higher than Taliban officials have acknowledged. The attacker is reported to have shot at the guards outside the centre, entered a classroom and detonated a bomb.
Eyewitnesses told the newsmen that most of the victims were girls who sat in the front row, near the blast. A student who was wounded told journalists that there were around 600 people in the room when the attack happened.
Friends and relatives have been looking for their loved ones in hospitals in the capital. The Kaaj Tuition Centre is a private college which teaches both male and female students. Most girls’ schools in the country have been closed since the Taliban returned to power in August last year, but some private schools are open.
Hazaras, most of whom are Shia Muslims, are Afghanistan’s third largest ethnic group. They have long faced persecution from the regional affiliate of Islamic State (ISKP) and the Taliban, both of which adhere to Sunni Islam.
On Friday 30 September 2022, the Taliban’s interior ministry spokesman said security teams were at the site and condemned the attack. Abdul Nafy Takor said attacking civilian targets “proves the enemy’s inhuman cruelty and lack of moral standards”. The attack was also strongly condemned by the United Nations and the US. “Targeting a room full of students taking exams is shameful; all students should be able to pursue an education in peace and without fear,” said Karen Decker, Charge D’affaires at the US mission to Afghanistan, in a tweet.
The security situation in Afghanistan, which had improved after the end of fighting following the Taliban takeover, has been deteriorating in recent months, with a number of attacks on civilians and Taliban supporters. Some have been claimed by IS, which is a bitter rival of the Taliban.
Schools and hospitals have been targeted in the Dasht-e-Barchi area in a series of attacks, most of which are thought to have been the work of IS.
Last year – before the Taliban returned to power – a bomb attack on a girls school in Dasht-e-Barchi killed at least 85 people, mainly students, and wounded hundreds more. No group has yet claimed responsibility the attack.
As A Teacher, Here Are 5 Ways To Always Build Up The Confidence Level Of Pupils
By Newsland Media
There are many teachers whose major concern about their class is only the subjects such as English, Mathematics, Sciences, etc, which they teach. Little wonder did they realize that in grooming children to acquire knowledge, adequate skills, growth and development they require, their self-belief, independence and confidence level are key factors.
As a classroom teacher or subject teacher, if you must build up the confidence level of your pupils, you cannot do without the following factors.
Answer every of their questions
Has your pupil ever asked a question you felt was foolish or an irrelevant one? Has your pupil ever asked a provoking or out-of-point question? Listen, whenever you refuse to answer a child’s question, what you’re indirectly telling him or her is not to ask you questions again. This will automatically reduce the child’s morals.
Yes, indeed, some questions from these young ones may sometimes be irrelevant or out of point, but you can still answer them. However, if you think the question might distract the class and it’s not in line with the day’s topic, wisdom is what you need to apply to avoid the question in such a way that the pupil will understand you didn’t deliberately refuse to answer his question.
Explains to them why you carry out certain actions on them
The mistake most instructors make when carrying out some actions on their pupils is to feel that there’s no need for any explanation of any actions they carry out. So, to them, it’s a matter of a superior to an inferior, or a master to a servant. For example, when you explain to a child that you’ve punished him for not doing his assignment because you never wanted him to repeat such an act and wanted the best for him in the future, that child understands he has not just been punished unjustly.
Live by example
If you want children to easily carry out certain instructions, simply live by example and that’s all. For example, if you do not want your pupils to be late to school, don’t use curse words on them or be harsh with them, just explain to them gently why you insist they must come early to school. Be gentle but firm.
Never shun a child or underrate a pupil
Here again is where you will see some teachers making mistakes. Some teachers even have preferred candidates in the class, maybe because they are a little bit more brilliant than the ones they don’t so much cherish. Note that it is important to take time to understand every child in your class, as a good teacher. Also, you should never shun or underrate a child because he’s having a low performance presently.
Always have this at the back of your mind that no child is poor or bad, they only have different ways of responding to learning as well as individual specialty that requires concentration.
Never call a child an unpleasant name
You will be damaging the confidence level of a pupil, if after he scored low marks in your Mathematics, or any other subject, you begin to call him such names as ‘Olodo’ ‘dullard’, ‘nonentity’ and any other unprintable names.
There is a story of a 10-year-old Nigerian boy named, Kanyeyachukwu Tagbo-Okeke, who lived in Austria with his parents some years ago. His parents and teachers were worried that he knew nothing in Mathematics. Whenever his mates were engaged with class subjects, he would be playing. After a long period, one good teacher discovered that this boy that people thought was dull could do one thing better than the rest- that is expressing himself, and stories with art.
In the long run, this boy won the best Art competition in his region that year, in Austria. In 2019 Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was even reported to have given him an art project to do. Remember, ‘there’s no dull child unless there’s a dull teacher’.
