Education

NIAMEY

It Takes a Village to Educate a Girl

A decade ago, less than a third of school-aged girls in Niger were in class. Today, though significant cultural and religious opposition remains, nearly two-thirds of girls are enrolled in school.

Walking Tours Connect Palestinians to Their Past

By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours

A reddish-brown dome sits atop an ancient stone house, used hundreds of years ago for prayer. It peeks out from the surrounding trees as the rolling green valleys and hills of the central West Bank stretch out into the distance.

Unravelling the Civil War Propaganda

By Lal Aqa Sherin

Western fears of a civil war in Afghanistan are growing ahead of the scheduled pullout of international troops in 2014. However, experts here say the situation on the ground is not comparable to either 1988, when the Soviets withdrew from the country, or the mujahideen’s rise to power in 1992, which plunged the country into civil war.

Israeli Students Vow to Eradicate Malnutrition

By Pierre Klochendler

At the Gymnasia Herzliya School in Tel Aviv, 20 ninth and tenth graders are testing the simplest, cheapest and fastest way to solve the problem of malnutrition among their peers around the world.

The Challenge of Being a Maasai Woman

By Joan Erakit

The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Tanzania has long been a beacon of traditional culture to many Africans - and for Westerners on safari through Maasai Mara, Samburu or Amboseli, a familiar face.

Migrant Children Struggle to Learn

By Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau

In the hustle and bustle of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, a small learning centre located in the Bang Bon district is helping children hailing mostly from the war-torn provinces of Myanmar (Burma) gain access to a basic education.

Going to School Away From School

By Pavol Stracansky

As the Czech government comes under fire for apparently backtracking on commitments to inclusive education, Roma children and teenagers continue to be systematically shut out of Eastern Europe’s mainstream education system.

Hamas ‘Talibanising’ Gaza

By Mel Frykberg

The Islamist resistance group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is being accused by its Palestinian Authority (PA) rivals in the West Bank of Talibanising Gaza and turning the coastal territory into a new Muslim Brotherhood neighbourhood.

Q&A: Schools Need “Transliteracy”

By Clarinha Glock

A new social contract is needed in education, that would fully incorporate informatics and the 21st century conception of human rights, French professor Divina Frau-Meigs says in this interview with IPS.

OP-ED: How Bin Ladin’s Jihadist Message Continues to Lure the Vulnerable

By Emile Nakhleh

The surviving Boston Marathon bomber reportedly told authorities the U.S. “war on Islam” drove him and his brother to commit their terrorist act. Their linking the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with a perceived global war on Islam is at the heart of the Jihadist message Bin Ladin and Al-Qaeda issued to the Muslim world almost two decades ago.

U.S. Cities Joining Push to Dump Fossil Fuel Investments

By Carey L. Biron

Nearly a dozen U.S. cities have announced their interest in withdrawing municipal investments from fossil fuel companies, joining a fast-growing movement among colleges and universities that supporters say is allowing citizens concerned with environmental degradation and global climate change to act in lieu of federal action from the U.S. Congress.

The Free Market Fundamentalists Are Now in Europe

By Roberto Savio

For a long time it was a given that while Europe was based on defending a more just society, with social values and solidarity, the United States was based on the glory of individualism and competition, and anything public was considered “socialist”.

Homeschoolers Want Legal Vacuum Filled in Spain

By Inés Benítez

Isabel Rodríguez decided to pull her then nine-year-old son Ulises out of the school system and homeschool him instead – an alternative chosen by more than 2,000 families in Spain, who are calling for a law that would overcome the legal vacuum surrounding the growing phenomenon.

Learn From the Children

By Gordon Brown

“Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be any use to him.”

Religious Youth Could Swing Pakistani Poll

By Zofeen Ebrahim

From the local butcher, to the pavement fruit vendor, to the cobbler sitting beside his tools on Elphinstone Road, a busy street in the heart of Karachi, one question is on everyone’s lips: Who will win the upcoming elections on May 11?

Education is the second of the Millennium Development Goals, which include ensuring that all children complete primary schooling. The average primary completion rate has risen from 62 percent to 72 percent, but even at this pace Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia may not reach the MDG target. In spite of this, through education women are improving their chances in many societies: in 2004 girls outnumbered boys at secondary schools in 84 of 171 countries, according to the 2007 World Development Indicators published by the World Bank. At the university level, women do better still, outnumbering men in 83 of 141 countries. Reduction of child mortality rates is associated with education and gender. The bottom line is that education is a boon to development.