Education in Afghanistan includes K–12 and higher education, which is under the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education. In 2021, there were nearly 10 million students and 220,000 teachers in Afghanistan. The nation still requires more schools and teachers. Soon after the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021, they banned girls from secondary education. Some provinces still allow secondary education for girls despite the ban. In December 2022, the Taliban government also prohibited university education and primary education for females in Afghanistan, sparking protests and international condemnation. According to Acting Education Minister Noorullah Munir, "Afghanistan has 20,000 official schools in which 9,000 are of no use, 5,000 have no building and the remaining 4,000 needed rehabilitation." Compulsory education in Afghanistan is through the ninth grade. "The academic year consists of 2 semesters, and runs from March to January." Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, officials under the Islamic Emirate have suspended formal education to teenage girls. The suspensions did not initially apply to female students of grade 1 to 6, but has since been extended to younger girls. Some of the major universities in Afghanistan are the American University of Afghanistan, Kabul University, Kabul Polytechnic University, Al-Beroni University, Kardan University, Balkh University, Herat University, Nangarhar University, Shaikh Zayed University, Kandahar University, Bost University, Paktia University, Kunduz University, Badakhshan University, and Ghazni University. History One of the oldest schools in Afghanistan is the Habibia High School in Kabul, which was built by King Habibullah Khan in 1903 to educate students from the nation's elite class. In the 1920s, the German-funded Amani High School opened in Kabul, and about a decade later two French lycées (secondary schools) began, the AEFE and the Lycée Esteqlal. Kabul University was established in 1932. Education was improved under the rule of King Zahir Shah between 1933 and 1973, making primary schools available to about half the population who were younger than 12 years of age and expanding the secondary school system and Kabul University. Of the 10.3 billion Afghans. spent on the first "Five Year Plan" (1956-1962), "7.7% was appropriated for education and health as compared to 49.5% for transportation and communication, 26.5% on industrial development, 12.6% for agriculture, and 3.8% for miscellaneous development works." By the end of the program, "the number of students (primary, secondary, and vocational) rising from 96.34 to 169.06 per 10,000 of population. The