EDUCATION-NAMIBIA: “No Wonder Our Pass Rate Is So Poor”

"God looked at my work and he was pleased. But when he looked at my salary, he wept," says the computer-generated poster in Norbert Booi's office at A. Shipena Secondary School, a government school in Windhoek's oldest suburb, Katutura.

VENEZUELA: Play Keeps Indigenous Cultures Alive

A new study found that play is an essential vehicle of socialisation and transmission of traditions and customs among indigenous groups in Venezuela, who often live in an uneasy coexistence with mainstream society while the survival of their cultures and languages is threatened.

MEXICO: Death Toll Continues to Climb in Oaxaca Conflict

Murders of social activists, allegedly by state agents, and the publication of photographs of suspected criminals beaten, tied up and labelled with signs by protesters in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, have fuelled the social and political crisis raging in the area since May.

RIGHTS-DRC: A Glimmer of Hope for Children Working in Katanga’s Mines

Each day, thousands of children risk their lives by working in mines in the Katanga province of south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - something a coalition of organisations is trying to address.

MEXICO: Oaxaca, a Cultural Crossroads

"Christ himself brought us alms to repair the church, it's really miraculous," said Leobardo Sánchez, who was appointed sacristan by the community assembly of this indigenous municipality in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

EDUCATION-ARGENTINA: Sex in the Classrooms – By Law

For the first time in Argentina, sex education will be on the curriculum at public and private schools all over the country. Women's organisations are celebrating the passage by Congress of a key law which complements the programme on "sexual health and responsible procreation" instituted in 2003.

MEXICO: Repression of Opposition – Fuse For Oaxaca Conflict

The social and political conflict that has the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in check, with the local government accused of corruption and human rights violations, reached the streets of the country's capital city Monday.

LATIN AMERICA: Cozinha Brasil Goes Regional

A successful Brazilian programme aimed at fighting hunger and reducing waste of food will be expanded throughout Latin America, by means of an agreement with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

MEXICO: Oaxaca Children in Protest Camps, Not Classrooms

Because of the unrest in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, public offices in the state capital have virtually turned into ghost buildings, with no local public institution functioning normally. But the biggest vacuum is felt in the classrooms of the empty public schools.

HEALTH-VENEZUELA: Working on Behalf of the Deafblind

An organisation that assists the deafblind has helped make their plight more visible in Venezuela, while knitting a network aimed at improving the quality of life of those who are dual sensory impaired.

EDUCATION-IRAN: Students Brace for Second ‘Cultural Revolution’

Universities in Iran are bracing for a new academic year expected to be marked by tighter state control over student bodies and faculties and perhaps even the second ‘Cultural Revolution' that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to see.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Few “Positions Vacant” for the Young

A billion young people aged 15 to 24 unemployed, 85 percent of them in developing countries - with several hundred million more expected to enter the job market by the end of the decade: grim statistics indeed. However, a recent conference offered some ideas as to how they could be addressed.

NEPAL: Selling Daughters Into Bondage May End

With a young daughter in her lap, Sudhani Chaudhary, 30, carefully picks freshly harvested corn inside a small mud hut in Deukhuri Valley of Nepal's south-western Dang district. One of her four young daughters, not quite aged 10, lives in a distant town working as a housemaid for a family, she says. "I am told she is attending school.''

EDUCATION: 10 Billion Dollars Could Buy Universal Schooling

More than 43 million children living in conflict-affected countries are not able to attend school, according to a new report released Tuesday by the International Save the Children Alliance, which called on donor countries and multilateral agencies to commit 5.8 billion dollars a year to address the problem.

HAITI: Exhausted School System Gets a Second Chance

September is a particularly stressful time of year in Haiti. As schools open, parents across the country hope for help in the form of bonuses from employers or money orders from loved ones overseas. Many have already been skimping on food, medicine and other essentials just to pay for their children to attend classes.

UAE-9/11: Arabs, Muslims Shy Away From Going West

Saif Al Shaali, who was a United States resident since 2001, vows never to return to that country due to the shabby treatment that he, his wife and three children received at the Los Angeles, California airport in August.

MEXICO: Social Movement in Oaxaca Rejects Violence

Leaders of the social movement that has been at the centre of unrest in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca since May, demanding that the local governor step down, have asked self-styled guerrilla groups that have come out in defence of the protests not to interfere.

RIGHTS-US: For Muslim Law Students, Knowledge Is Power

His name is Junaid Ahmad. He is 24 years old. And he is among a rapidly increasing number of first generation Muslim-Americans who have decided to pursue careers in the law.

BRAZIL: Teens Teach Parents New Family Farming Techniques

For centuries, farming methods have been passed down from parents to children. But an innovative rural education programme has broken with that tradition, and students are now bringing home new techniques to teach their parents in the Brazilian municipality of Três Passos.

RIGHTS: Disabled Treaty to Reverse Years of Neglect

After five years of debate on a draft treaty to protect the rights of the disabled, which will directly affect 650 million people, or 10 percent of the global population, the United Nations has finalised its first ever legally binding treaty on the issue.

MEXICO: No End in Sight to Civil Unrest in Oaxaca

In the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, teachers are leading a strike that has dragged on for over three months, masked activists armed with clubs have occupied radio and TV stations, and the police have opened fire on demonstrators and journalists and are accused of abuses against protesters who have been arrested.