Several public university professors have complained that Taliban members and those around them have started taking some of the top positions at universities and other educational institutions in Afghanistan as the Taliban-led government's Higher Education Ministry increases its control of the school system.
According to the professors, some of whom spoke to RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, Akram Shah Asim has been appointed president at Kandahar University, while Mohammad Yaqub Haqqani has been installed in the same post at Khost University. The social media pages of the state universities now show the two -- both of whom come from the madrasah religious school system -- as presidents of the universities.
Three others who are linked to the Taliban -- Shafiullah Haqqani, Mohammad Sediq Kamal, and Shir Ahmad Abbas -- have been appointed as the head of higher education institutions in Maidan Wardak Province, Nimroz Province, and Paktika Province.
The professors said that most of the vice chancellors of the financial and administrative departments at universities have also been filled with people linked to the Taliban, and that people close to the Taliban have taken the lead in other scientific departments.
Since regaining power following the exit of international troops in August 2021, Taliban militants have moved to assert control over the country's education sector, converting scores of secular schools, public universities, and vocational training centers into Islamic seminaries.
The group also has banned women from attending university and girls above the sixth grade from going to school.
The Taliban's efforts to eradicate secular education and replace it with radical religious instruction has raised fears among observers that the moves are likely to contribute to the spread of extremist ideologies in Afghanistan.
"When I was in the university, they brought many changes. In the university, they identified those who were like-minded [and] brought them to professorships, heads of departments, vice presidents, and presidents of universities," Mohammad Qayyum Sial, a former professor at Paktia University who went to France a year ago to continue his studies, told Radio Azadi from France.
Qayyum Sial said he expects that after the changes in the leadership of the universities, professors will end up experiencing the same fate.
Jandad Jahani, who taught at an Afghan government university before going to Germany after the Taliban came to power, said the Taliban promised in the beginning to only make changes in political positions and not replace professional and academic positions.
But according to Jahani, the Taliban has not kept to its promise and instead brought "nonprofessionals and uneducated people to strategic and academic positions -- those who have not even finished high school," Jahani said from Germany.
Hamed Obaidi, a spokesman for the Higher Education Ministry in the former government, also noted that the Taliban has made many changes in the leadership of public universities and appointed its own people. In his opinion, these appointments will have a negative impact on the educational process and on academic institutions.
According to Article 23 of the Law for Civilian Higher Education in Afghanistan, a university president should be appointed from among a group of professors who have the proper academic qualifications, a guideline Obaidi says needs to be followed to ensure quality education.
"The president of the university is an important position. Without an academic figure, it is very difficult to manage an academic department. It will be the biggest punishment if professional people and professors are removed from their duties and are replaced by people who have no idea about how an academic institution works,” Obaidi said.
Ziaullah Hashemi, the spokesperson of the Higher Education Ministry, declined to comment on the issue of the appointments when contacted by Radio Azadi.