CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to the news in Afghanistan. With the Taliban gone, schools are once again open to young girls. There are no desks, no chairs, no electricity, few books and only a few pencils, shortages that seem almost overwhelming. Still, at one school in Kabul visited by our Walter Rodgers, the girls smile because finally they are allowed to learn again.</s>WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Reading, writing and arithmetic, talk to the girls with an Afghan stick. Two weeks into the new school year, Afghan girls still eagerly rush to class a half an hour earlier. But appalling shortages and educational deficiencies cripple learning, the byproduct of the Taliban's Islamist conservatives shutting down education for women for five years. "The Taliban told us not to go to school. We were afraid, because those who tried to learn were beaten," she said. Only enthusiasm is in abundance. "Raise your hands," I told these girls, "if you're glad the Taliban's gone." Seventy or eighty hands shot up. Liberation, learning and joy. These Afghan girls are still pious Muslims; they study Islam in school. "And God revealed the holy Koran to the prophet by the angel Gabriel," she recites. Learning is by
With Taliban Gone, Schools Once Again Open to Young Girls