Millions for textbooks bogged down in Afghanistan

KABUL: Day laborer Sayed Sekander spent more than half a day's pay on textbooks for his third-grade son, stuffing them into a dirty rice sack to take home. He will wait before buying any for his two daughters.

Only a handful of students in Sekander's son's class received books this year, so everyone else is buying copies, sometimes illegal, from market stalls in Afghanistan's capital, even when they can hardly afford them.

"My son told me, 'I have to have books so that I can pass the tests,'" Sekander said.