The outcome of the Kankor University entry exam in Afghanistan declared on 05 November was an indicator of how deprivation of schools for senior girls has led to a declin in standards.
Education of girls is a contentious issue in the Taliban governed Afghanistan. Senior girls cannot attend school after Class VI as the radical conservative clique of clerics led by the so called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah does not approve of the same.
Each year hundred thousands of high school graduates take this exam in order to continue their higher education in public governmental or private universities.
Kankor exam is controlled and managed by Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan, Kankor has 160 multi-choice questions with a top score of 360. Kankor includes all subjects from all High Schools in Afghanistan.
In this year's university entrance test, more than 140,000 boys and girls participated, and 86,000 of them passed. In the past two years, girls won the first position in the exam.
Khaama Press reported that the top 10 students on the Kankor entrance exam 2022 are “all-male,” similar to the Taliban government in Afghanistan, while two brilliant Afghan girls, Shamsia Alizada and Selgai Baran, won the top places on the Kankor exams in 2020 and 2021, prior to the Taliban taking power in Afghanistan.
The top position in last year's Kankor Exam was earned by Selgai from the Northern Balkh province, a young woman.
The top 10 participants in this year's university entrance exam do not include any female candidates.
This could be seen as a process of natural elimination however there are concerns as girls were not afforded equal opportunity for preparing for the exam thus leading to their decline.