KABUL (PAN): Not a single child, who attains the schooling age, would stay out of school by year 2020 under a strategic plan drawn up by the Education Ministry. This was stated by minister-designate for education Dr. Ghulam Farooq Wardak, who appeared before the Wolesi Jirga for trust vote here on Monday. He said they had five and 10-year plans in different sectors of the ministry to promote education in the country. Under the plans, he added, all children across the country would be able to go to school by the year 2020. Wardak said around five million children could not go to school, with the number of illiterate people staying in the region of 11 million. He promised the ratio would be reduced by 50 percent. The minister-designate informed MPs 175,000 teachers were imparting education to children in different parts of the country at the moment. Their number will mount to 240,000 over the coming five years. "We are planning to establish an agriculture school in each district of the country in the coming five years," said the minister, who added the salaries of teachers would be enhanced to 32,000afs per month. He said the Education Ministry was still facing numerous problems. Those included scarcity of professional teachers, closure of schools in different areas because of insecurity and non-availability of proper buildings for schools. To a question about government efforts to educate the nomadic Kochis, Wardak said the number of Kochi children would be enhanced from the existing 12,000 to 50,000 in the coming years. About the foreign scholarships, Wardak said only those students were nominated for study abroad to emerge successful in the test and interview. He admitted some problems in the private sector and said they had constituted a delegation to investigate the same. He said efforts were being done to increase education ratio across the country. dk/mud