KUNDUZ: The new, sparkling white school building with its shiny sheet metal roof in Chesmai Sher stands out in the landscape of northern Afghanistan.

The road from Kunduz leading to Taloqan is otherwise dotted with green rice paddies. A river flows through dusty, brown hills past village dwellings, the colour of clay.

The new village school is a project of the German Society for Technical Co-operation (GTZ). Mohammad Arif worked on the building for 150 afghani or 3.50 dollars a day. "When I heard that the old school was being repaired and extended, I volunteered immediately. It is hard to find jobs in this region," he said.

Arif is illiterate and did not have a chance of attending the school as a young boy because the Soviet occupiers turned it into a military base in the early 80s. Only under the Taliban in 1997 did the school reopen in makeshift ruins and tents.

When the Taliban regime fell, the school soon ended up on the education ministry and relief organizations' lists. A spokesman for GTZ, Eberhard Halbach, said: "The region is still slightly unsafe and for that reason, we wanted to do something here."

Like so many projects in Afghanistan, the school in Chesmai Sher is a joint one. The GTZ finances the construction while the Aga Khan Foundation trains 26 teachers and ensures that overheads are paid.

"A school is an important signal for people that things are looking up," Halbach said, adding, "It is a sure sign that something is happening and encourages refugees to return home. The security situation becomes stable when troublemakers no longer have support among the population."

The school is made of red-clay bricks, plastered and whitewashed. A hanging, wooden ceiling prevents the rooms under the sheet metal roof from becoming too hot in summer. The walls have holes for stovepipes as winters in this region are cold.

Desks and other furniture out of metal frames and sheets of timber were made in Kunduz. German army trucks transported them whenever a Provincial Reconstruction Team's convoy was travelling from Kunduz to Taloqan. -dpa