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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Schools and Teachers – Targets of War
Some 12,000 children in northern Colombia were unable to begin the school year Monday due to the intimidation and murders of teachers by irregular armed groups, and the destruction of schools.EDUCATION-BENIN: Nearly 30 Percent of School-Age Girls Stay Home
Nearly 30 percent of school-age girls in Benin stay home, says a top government official.EDUCATION-PERU: Enrollment Has Expanded, but Quality Remains Low
Peru's Education Ministry and non-governmental organisations involved in pedagogy are discussing an educational reform project aimed at overcoming serious problems of quality and inequalities that have accompanied the expansion of enrollment.EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Tight Job Market for School Leavers
Just less than 70 percent of South African pupils passed their school-leaving, or matric, examinations, but the prospects of their education securing them a formal job are bleak.EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Tight Job Market for School Leavers
Just less than 70 percent of South African pupils passed their school-leaving, or matric, examinations, but the prospects of their education securing them a formal job are bleak.EDUCATION-LIBERIA: Poverty, War Drive 800,000 Children Out of School
Poverty and war have driven more than half of Liberia's 1,628,726 children, between the ages of 3-18, out of school, according to records at the ministry of education.EDUCATION-LIBERIA: Poverty, War Drive 800,000 Children Out of School
Poverty and war have driven more than half of Liberia's 1,628,726 children, between the ages of 3-18, out of school, according to records at the ministry of education.EDUCATION: Europe, North America Tapping Africa’s ‘Brain Reservoir’
The effects of Africa's long-standing ‘'brain drain'' are becoming more apparent in Senegal, as more university lecturers leave for greener pastures overseas.EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Biggest IT Project to Provide Free Online Learning
South Africa's biggest internet projects, ever undertaken on the African continent, aim to provide every student in Gauteng province - where Johannesburg and Pretoria are situated - and eventually the entire country, with free access to email, the internet and an online learning curriculum.EDUCATION: Europe, North America Tapping Africa’s ‘Brain Reservoir’
The effects of Africa's long-standing ‘'brain drain" are becoming more apparent in Senegal, as more university lecturers leave for greener pastures overseas.EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Biggest IT Project to Provide Free Online Learning
South Africa's biggest internet projects, ever undertaken on the African continent, aim to provide every student in Gauteng province -- where Johannesburg and Pretoria are situated -- and eventually the entire country, with free access to email, the internet and an online learning curriculum.EDUCATION-ZIMBABWE: The Girl Child’s Struggle for Equal Opportunity
Loveness Phelimon, 24, dropped out of school soon after finishing her primary school in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.‘'My father opted to send my younger brother to school, so I did not get an opportunity to go on to form one, although I would have loved to if I had been given a chance,'' says Phelimon.
Like many other girls, Phelimon has had to pave way for her male sibling so as to keep him in school.
EDUCATION-ZIMBABWE: The Girl Child’s Struggle for Equal Opportunity
Loveness Phelimon, 24, dropped out of school soon after finishing her primary school in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.EDUCATION-SENEGAL: Sports Play a Major Role in Combating Juvenile Crime
Senegalese youths are embracing sports as a powerful educational tool to help combat juvenile crime in Dakar's impoverished neighbourhoods.EDUCATION-SENEGAL: Sports Play a Major Role in Combating Juvenile Crime
Senegalese youths are embracing sports as a powerful educational tool to help combat juvenile crime in Dakar's impoverished neighbourhoods.JAPAN: Child Rearing Pressures Fall Squarely On Women’s Shoulders
Kaoru Nishizono, 35, is a busy mother. She enrolled her 2-year-old at an English-language school last month and spends most of her waking hours driving her other daughter to cram school, swimming, ballet, and drawing classes during the week.JAPAN: Child Rearing Pressures Fall Squarely On Women’s Shoulders
Kaoru Nishizono, 35, is a busy mother. She enrolled her 2-year-old at an English-language school last month and spends most of her waking hours driving her other daughter to cram school, swimming, ballet, and drawing classes during the week.EDUCATION-DR CONGO: School-Age Children Engage in Cross-Border Trade
Jean Kalunga, 12, wakes up at dawn from his parents' home in Sodimico, a township in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province, near Zambia. With his brother Kadzadi, aged nine, the two carry bundles of brooms, on their shoulders, to sell in Zambia.EDUCATION-DR CONGO: School-Age Children Engage in Cross-Border Trade
Jean Kalunga, 12, wakes up at dawn from his parents' home in Sodimico, a township in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province, near Zambia. With his brother Kadzadi, aged nine, the two carry bundles of brooms, on their shoulders, to sell in Zambia.EDUCATION: Ibero-American Distance Learning Gets a Boost
The Ministers of Education from Latin America, Spain and Portugal have agreed to set up an interactive system for distance learning, using radio, television and Internet, with the Ibero-American Educational Television Association (ATEI) in charge of the endeavour.EDUCATION: UNICEF Reveals Disparities in Industrialised North
Profound differences mark the educational achievement potential of schoolchildren in industrialised countries and are related to the economic and employment status of their parents, says a study released Tuesday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).« Previous Page — Next Page »
Two teachers work in a classroom in Forces Vives School in Dori, Burkina Faso. Credit: UNICEF/UNI978361
Safe and uninterrupted education is a fundamental right for all children. Education is paramount to global development, as it has been proven that investing in education – especially for girls and children – contributes significantly to economic growth and prosperity. Although more than 1 billion children go to school, many are subjected to conditions that are not conducive to a proper learning environment, including makeshift facilities, a lack of supplies, violence in classrooms, inadequate sanitation, untrained instructors, and widespread school closures. Since 2015, there have been immense gains in education with an increase of 109 million children in school. However, as of 2023, 272 million children are still out of school.
High poverty levels in developing countries also impede children’s access to a proper education. For example, from the early to mid 2000s, Sub-Saharan African nations witnessed a dramatic decline in trained teachers due to inadequate funding in the education sector. Furthermore, major cuts to United States international aid threaten an estimated 23 million additional children's access to education, as USAID‑funded school programmes across Africa and Asia face closure.
Various other factors contribute to the decline of education, notably hunger, which has increased as conflict and climate change interfere with global food production and dissemination. Meanwhile, certain social and cultural practices also impede children’s access to education, with gender inequality, discrimination, child labour, and child marriages preventing millions of children from attending school. Economic conditions such as the inaccessibility of higher education also affect disenfranchised communities across the world. In extreme situations, such as warfare where educational facilities are destroyed in their totality, notably in Gaza and Sudan, entire generations of children might grow up without access to education. Rebuilding educational infrastructure is a long and arduous process, especially when violence persists across generations, and this significantly stunts the development of societal prosperity and stability.
IPS is dedicated to telling the shocking truths about worldwide education through impassioned opinion pieces and comprehensive articles, highlighting global issues that impede worldwide education and the courses of action being taken by organizations such as UNICEF and Education Cannot Wait.
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