UNESCO says that three years of Taliban rule has barred 1.4 million girls from accessing secondary education, wiping out “two decades of steady progress for education” in Afghanistan, while an “increasingly massive drop-out rate” at the primary school level threatens a “rise in child labour and early marriage” in the country. At least 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, with the future of an entire generation now “in jeopardy”, the United Nations’ cultural agency said Thursday. Access to primary education has also fallen sharply, with 1.1 million fewer girls and boys attending school, UNESCO said in a statement as the Taliban authorities marked three years since retaking Afghanistan on August 15, 2021. “UNESCO is alarmed by the harmful consequences of this increasingly massive drop-out rate, which could lead to a rise in child labour and early marriage,” the agency said. “In just three years, the de facto authorities have almost wiped out two decades of steady progress for education in Afghanistan, and the future of an entire generation is now in jeopardy.” There are now nearly 2.5 million girls deprived of their right to education, representing 80 percent of Afghan school-age girls, the UN agency said. The Taliban administration, which is not recognised by any other country, has imposed restrictions on women that the UN has described as “gender apartheid.” Afghanistan is the only country in the world to stop girls and women attending secondary schools and universities. “As a result of bans imposed by the de facto authorities, at least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education since 2021,” UNESCO said.