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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
RIGHTS-GERMANY: Immigrant Children Fall Through the Education Net
Immigrant children in Germany are less likely than their peer group in other industrialised countries to improve their prospects through education./REPEAT/EDUCATION-ISRAEL: U.S. Rights Group Charges Discrimination
Israel systematically discriminates against Palestinian children in its public schools, a leading U.S.- based rights group said Wednesday.EDUCATION-MEXICO: Low Marks on Quality
Mexico has failed the exam on quality of education, according to a report released Tuesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which confirms the warnings of local experts and stands in contrast to the leap made in terms of enrollment and coverage.EDUCATION-ISRAEL: Irish Teacher Gives Voice to Palestinian Youth.
By mid-morning the young schoolgirls in blue and white striped pinafores have finished school for the day. They congregate in the hallway and wait for a teacher to escort them the short journey home.EDUCATION-AFRICA: New University Offers Hope for Mature Women
Two Zimbabwean academics are putting together the final touches to a new university seeking to help African women whose education was interrupted by family commitments or financial reasons.EDUCATION-VENEZUELA: Universities Join Hands in Cyberspace
The Venezuelan chapter of an Ibero- American portal of academic services and university exchanges, linking 36 of the country's 41 universities, was presented in the Venezuelan capital Thursday.EDUCATION-PERU: From Semiliterate to Computer Savvy
When six computers were first installed in the Huacrapuquio high school in Peru's Andes mountain region, the school's 83 students touched the new machines timidly, not even daring to remove the plastic protective covering from the keyboards.EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Wage Hike Aimed at Ending University Strike
The funding that the Brazilian Senate approved Wednesday for a salary increase for professors could finally put an end to the strike that has affected the country's federal universities for the last 70 days.EDUCATION: Global Forum Calls for Egalitarian Public Schooling
Public education for all, financed by the state and not seen as a merchandise or service but aimed at building a democratic, egalitarian society with solidarity was the key demand set forth by the World Education Forum, in Brazil.EDUCATION: Schools Fail to Halt Social Injustice, Says Forum
Schools have become a source of social injustice because they do not ensure that young people are ready for employment, and thus widen the gap between rich and poor, British academic Stephen Stoer told the World Education Forum, meeting in this southern Brazilian city this week.EDUCATION-GERMANY: Islamic Values to be Taught in Schools
Germany's education officials are increasingly concerned about how best to prevent alienation of the country's three million Muslims.EDUCATION: A Marshall Plan to School the World’s Poor
Researchers, academics and international personalities from Europe, Latin America and the United States meeting in the Costa Rican capital have issued a global call for greater investment in education aimed at closing the social gap between rich and poor countries.EDUCATION-BRAZIL: New Bill to Reserve University Quotas for Blacks
The Brazilian Senate is debating a bill that would reserve a minimum number of places in the universities for black students, a measure defended by the government at last month's World Conference Against Racism, in South Africa.TECHNOLOGY-INDIA: Poor Man’s Computer to Help Basic Education
The first assignment of a poor man's hand-held computer, developed in this global information technology (IT) hub, is to bring basic education to tribal children in central India.CULTURE-LATAM: UNESCO Gets Ready to Close Offices
UNESCO plans to close offices in Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a broad restructuring programme, leaving divisions open only in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jamaica and Uruguay for regional projects, and offices in Brazil and Mexico for local projects.EDUCATION-SYRIA: Reforms Underway
Syrian President Bashar Assad has issued more than 100 decrees since he succeeded his late father Hafez last year.RIGHTS-ASIA: Children’s Voices Not Being Heard Enough
Children in 17 countries across East Asia and the Pacific are aware about some of their rights -- education, health care and food -- yet they admit they know little about others, such as the right to free expression and information.RIGHTS-ASIA: Children’s Voices Not Being Heard Enough
Children in 17 countries across East Asia and the Pacific are aware about some of their rights -- education, health care and food -- yet they admit they know little about others, such as the right to free expression and information.ENVIRONMENT-VENEZUELA: Marine Museum Says ‘Do Pet the Animals’
Venezuelans - and particularly adults - are enjoying the thrill of touching aquatic species for the first time in their lives when they visit the Marine Museum on Margarita Island, located east of the capital, 30 km off the coast.EDUCATION: UNESCO’s New Approach Focuses on Tolerance
The objective of education worldwide, which until the last decade focused on universal access to schooling, is now heading towards a concept of teaching for learning to live together, says the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in a document distributed Wednesday to Education ministers from around the world.EDUCATION-CHINA: School Offers Rare Hope to Special Children
He has a far-off look in his eyes as he munches on some biscuits, and his mother still bears the bruises he gave her a month ago.« 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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