EDUCATION-CHINA: Rural Schools Struggle to Make the Grade

Five or six pupils at the grade one and pre-school classes of Xiajiawan primary school here in south-western China share one desk. When there are not enough chairs for everyone, some students stand throughout a class session. Others have to do their written assignments while standing.

EDUCATION-CHINA: Rural Schools Struggle to Make the Grade

Five or six pupils at the grade one and pre-school classes of Xiajiawan primary school here in south-western China share one desk. When there are not enough chairs for everyone, some students stand throughout a class session. Others have to do their written assignments while standing.

EDUCATION-GUINEA: 30,000 Women to Benefit from a Major Literacy Campaign

Some 30,000 women will benefit from a major literacy campaign in Guinea.

EDUCATION-EAST ASIA: Region Learns Creative Ways to Literacy

In the remote, hilly and forested regions of northern Thailand, elephants are lending their weight for an enlightened cause -- educating illiterate members of ethnic hilltribe communities in this South-east Asian country.

EDUCATION-CUBA: More than 770 Refurbished Primary Schools

More than 770 primary schools have been refurbished or built in the Cuban capital over the past year and a half as part of a government programme aimed at improving the educational system.

EDUCATION-AUSTRALIA: Commercialisation Fuels Corruption Concerns

The commercially booming world of Australian academia received a rude shock when the New South Wales' corruption watchdog warned recently that the state's universities are more vulnerable to corruption than other taxpayer-funded public institutions.

ENVIRONMENT: Panama Creates ‘Knowledge Centre’ at Former Base

A group of scientists, academics, business executives and civil society leaders announced at the World Summit for Sustainable Development an alliance to create Latin America's first-ever institute of information and training for sustainable development.

POLITICS-JAMAICA: Campaigning Leaders Escalate Education Promises

Education has always been an emotive issue in Jamaica, associated with race, social class and economics. So it is perhaps no surprise that the issue is becoming one of the hottest topics in the country's election campaign.

PAKISTAN: Foreign, Religious Pressure Slow ‘Madrasah’ Reform

To win God's favour, 45-year-old Muhammad Mazhar, a taxi driver, enrolled his youngest son in a religious seminary in Pakistan and his eldest in a secular school.

VENEZUELA: Shortcomings in Secondary Education Need Solutions

Venezuela's education authorities should ease the difficult transition from primary to secondary school, and increase the number of spots available in high school, in order to curb the drop-out and failure rates, and to keep up with the progress made in boosting literacy and grade school enrollment, say experts.

EDUCATION-VIETNAM: Parents Race to Send Children to Study Overseas

It is an important day for Nguyen Xuan An, who has just passed what he believes to be the hardest test of his life: succeeding in an interview that will allow him to gain entrance to study in the United States.

EDUCATION-MEXICO: Quality Evaluation Institute Riles Teachers

A Mexican teachers association spoke out Friday against a government decision to create a quality assassment body for public education, charging that it will pave the way for privatising the country's school systems.

EDUCATION-CHINA: Youngsters Fidget under Overprotection

Asked about her growing pains, a third grader in Jiangning Primary School in Shanghai could not give an answer. "I searched in my mind and could not find what really worries me," she says.

PHILIPPINES: Islamic Schools Need More Support, Scholars Say

Amin is at a crossroads. This young Muslim Filipino scholar of the prestigious Al Azhar University in Egypt says he is just waiting for the papers that will make him a legal foreign resident in Cairo, before packing

DEVELOPMENT: Brazil Exports Initiatives that Benefit Children

Brazil has accumulated enormous social problems and inequalities that seem impossible to resolve, but the South American giant is an exporter of poverty-fighting solutions, particularly of those that help children.

EDUCATION-SYRIA: Teacher Fights Israeli Occupation Through The Television

A teacher in Syria is combating the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights in his own way - by giving lessons to the Syrian children still living in the strategic volcanic plateau television.

SRI LANKA: Differences Emerge on how to Fix Education System

While most Sri Lankans agree that the country's education system deserves a failing grade for being outdated and inefficient, there is disagreement among decision-makers about exactly what education reforms should be.

MALAYSIA: Colonial Master’s Tongue Now Politically Correct

In an industrial area not far from a squatter settlement on mainland Penang, a cloth banner strung in front of a road junction advertises a private language centre: "Cambridge English: Speak, Read, and Write Effectively."

EDUCATION: World Bank Promises Again to Reach All Children

World finance officials announced an education initiative late Sunday that would help ensure access to primary schooling for all children by 2015.

EDUCATION: Catholics Want to ‘Revolutionise’ Their Teaching

The education provided by Catholic schools, which teach 40 million students worldwide, must be transformed to face up to the challenges raised by the globalisation process and to meet their own goal of inculcating the concept of social justice as well as humanistic values.

DRUGS-CHILE: Prevention Campaign Focuses on Children

Authorities in Chile launched a new plan to fight and prevent drug use focusing on children and adolescents, in response to recent studies which showed that 13 is the average age at which drug abuse begins in this Southern Cone country.