But the challenges remain colossal:
-Less than half of Afghanistan's six million children go to school, and the figures are significantly lower for Kandahar province.
-Just 17 per cent of Kandahari students are girls.
-Literacy levels are shockingly low: Only 16 per cent of people in Kandahar province, and a mere five per cent of its women, can read.
-Many schools remain closed because of a nationwide teacher shortage, which the Afghan government pegs at a staggering 97,000. Current budget constraints only allow for 12,000 more.
Other schools lack basic equipment and infrastucture.
And there's the security problem, as evidenced by the number of schools bombed and burned by pro-Taliban insurgents.
Last year, 157 teachers were killed. The figures appear even worse for 2008, with 72 killed in the first four months of the year.
"They resort to the most inhuman methods," Atmar said of the insurgents.
"And of course they intimidate people by sending out those infamous 'night letters"' - printed warnings in which insurgents implore families to keep their kids out of Western-style schools.
Background on the fighting in Afghanistan.
