SWAZILAND: Dreams of Free Education Deferred

Ten-year-old Tembuso Magagula sat outside her classroom with her shoulders hunched against the cold today, tears streaming from her eyes. Her long-awaited first day of school had turned into a nightmare.

Q&A: ‘With More Political Space, Women Can Do More as Peacemakers’

As a political activist and president of the women's wing of the Awami National Party (ANP), Zahira Khattak has been working relentlessly for the empowerment of women in the war-torn North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan. She believes that by empowering them, they can contribute more to the peace efforts in the region.

LABOUR-ICELAND: Centre Gives Leg Up to Listless Youth

For young Icelanders at a loose end the Fjolsmidjan (multi-workshop) can prove to be a turning point.

ZIMBABWE: Training Teachers to Cope with HIV-positive Students

Eleven-year-old Memory’s grandmother wanted her to drop out of school because she is not going to live long enough to complete her studies. And the ridicule and stigma Memory endures at school because of her HIV status does not make her education seem worthwhile. Especially since this ridicule comes from her teacher.

DEVELOPMENT: China’s ‘Ant Tribe’: Between Dreams and Reality

Every day Yang Hongwei takes the bus home from work, staring silently at the European-style villas, luxury sedans and twinkling lights from the plazas that he sees through the window.

SWITZERLAND: Police Smash School for Undocumented Migrants

The Zurich police have raided and demolished an autonomously run school where undocumented migrants held language classes. The raid came as the Swiss government admitted that its harsh treatment of undocumented asylum- seekers has partly failed, and following an announcement that it is again planning a revision of federal asylum law.

CHILE: Eliminating Slums

Chile, touted as Latin America's great economic success story, has gone a long way towards reducing poverty and eliminating the country's slums. But a new study shows that disadvantages are still faced by 50,000 children living in shantytowns.

DEVELOPMENT-FIJI: Amid Economic Slump, Children Face Bleak Future

Shonal Chand, 16, has ditched school to work full time to assist his financially struggling family. He sells pineapples, watermelons and other local seasonal fruits by the roadside six days a week.

EDUCATION-INDONESIA: Students Learn Science the Novel Way

Students in Indonesia are learning science the fun way via a monthly comic magazine that also prepares them for the highly debated national examination.

POLITICS: China Revives Confucianism to Win the World Over

As western nations and the values of liberal capitalism received a battering in the financial storm, China's emergence as a pillar of economic stability and growth has fed a new craze in all things Chinese – from language to philosophy and culture.

INDIA: Teacher Training For Gender Sensitive Schooling

Four years ago, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a premier educational institution, laid down a new curriculum, radically changing the content of textbooks, particularly in social sciences, in Indian schools.

CLIMATE CHANGE: History Was Not Made

There is no Copenhagen climate treaty. History was not made here and no deal was sealed.

ARGENTINA: “Myth” of Egalitarian Society Fading Away for Young People

A study on young people and human development in South America's Mercosur trade bloc indicates that while in Brazil, the country's longstanding social inequality is the focus of at least somewhat successful efforts to combat it, in Argentina the vision of an equitable society is fading away.

MALAWI: Women Fight Harmful Cultural Practices

An experience which Belita Simpokolwe went through in December last year remains deeply etched in her memory. "Sometimes I fail to concentrate in class when these things come back to my mind," laments 13-year-old Simpokolwe, a grade six pupil at Kawale Primary School, in the northern Malawi district of Chitipa.

AUSTRALIA: Children, Youth Feel the Heat of the Financial Crisis

Once a week lunch order from the school canteen was something Emily and Damien’s children looked forward to, but since the global financial crisis began last year, little treats and outings are an absolute ‘No’.

DEVELOPMENT: Brazil’s Powerhouse Bank

With his slicked-back hair, neatly trimmed, close-cropped beard, and impeccably pressed suits, Luciano Coutinho looks like any other obscure Brazilian banker. But he is anything but an average banking man.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Commonwealth Champions Adaption Fund

South African President Jacob Zuma admits that before to coming to Trinidad for the bi-annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), he met with its secretary general, Kamalesh Sharma, to discuss the relevance of the grouping in today's evolving global power structure.

Q&A: ‘You Have To Be Educated To Be A Leader’

Traffic flowing in and out of her office, each interruption addressed with effortless calm, the nurse in charge of Hospitalisation and Immunisation at Nyamata Health Center in Bugesera District, is a confident woman in her element.

EDUCATION-US: Social Justice Schools Shape New Wave of Activists

While most U.S. public schools are responding to new high-stakes testing requirements by teaching more math and English to the neglect of social studies and civics, a very small minority of schools are pushing forward a different agenda.

MIDEAST: The Man Who Would Move a Hill

In this city of fraternal faiths and conflicting political aspirations, dreams need to be made of sterner stuff.

GUATEMALA: Sex Education, Family Planning Finally Available

Social organisations in Guatemala are celebrating the entry into effect of a family planning law that will usher sex education into the country's classrooms and facilitate access to birth control methods, as a victory in the fight against the country's high birth and maternal and infant mortality rates.