After months of negotiation with the Taliban, the United Nations (UN) has finally struck a deal to operate thousands of primary schools in insurgent-held areas in Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported. 

Under the deal, the UNICE will start around 4000 informal schools in the areas held by the Taliban in the war-torn country. The plan is to reach out to around 120,000 children, both girls and boys, to provide them basic educations.

UN officials held negotiations for months in Doha, Qatar, with the Taliban’s officials. UNICEF, in a statement, said around 3.7 million children are currently out of formal education in Afghanistan, and girls constitute 60 percent of those figures. 

For now, classes will be held for up to third grade only. According to the report on TOLOnews, some Afghans have welcomed the move as it would help provide education to more children. But others expressed their concern if the same textbooks, that are in normal schools run by the government, will be taught in these new schools. 

“The peace talks are one of the motives for the Taliban to show flexibility,” said a senior Afghan journalist, Maitullah Sarwar was quoted by TOLOnews as saying.