KABUL -- Girls now make up 30 percent of Afghan classrooms less than eight months after the ouster of the Taleban which effectively barred them from attending school, the United Nations said recently.

An ongoing survey by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), which has now covered 20 of the country's 32 provinces, also found that 36 percent of teachers were women. Female teachers were the majority in the capital Kabul.

"The latest information shows that 30 percent of pupils now attending school are girls and the ratio between girls and boys is relatively similar across the country," UNICEF Spokesman Edward Carwardine told AFP. "Even in (the main southern province) Kandahar, where girls' enrolment prior to the Taleban era was negligible, girls now make up 10 percent of the student population."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai made education the top priority of his transitional government as a national fund for learning was launched by Education Minister Yunus Qanooni.

The Afghan school system virtually collapsed under the Taleban, who refused to allow boys and girls to attend school together.

Although the fundamentalist regime acknowledged that girls should receive an education, they failed to set aside funds for their schooling as the lion's share of the budget went on waging the civil war.

Women were also barred from teaching children under the Taleban but they have now made a rapid return to the profession.

"Across the 20 provinces, over 27,000 teachers are involved in education -- 36 percent are women," said Carwardine. "In Kabul City, the number of women teachers exceeds men by more than 3,000.