EDUCATION: Russia Lures Foreign Students

At the height of the Cold War era, the Soviet universities and colleges opened their doors for thousands of young people from developing nations to train as future revolutionary cadres.

HEALTH/EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Hearing Screening to Curb School Dropout

Efforts to curb the school drop-out rate in Brazil, one of the country's pressing problems, now include a campaign for identifying and treating hearing impairments among schoolchildren.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Doubts Rise about Ethnic-based School Policies

Ong Sheng Wuey just could not understand it. The Malaysian student was euphoric when he scored distinctions in 10 subjects in national examinations he took after secondary school, and was invited for lunch with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad along with the country's top students.

EDUCATION-INDIA: Children on Pilgrimage for Right to Education

Being on the streets is nothing new to Babloo, but this time the 10-year-old former child labourer is on a 'yatra' or pilgrimage to secure for himself and 72 million other Indian children the right to an education.

CULTURE-COLOMBIA: Pushing the Reading Habit

The 14th International Book Fair of Bogota is under way in the Colombian capital at a time when the country's habit of reading is at a low, dropping from 3.4 books read annually per person a decade ago to just 2.4 books a year today.

EDUCATION-ZAMBIA: A New Effort To Overcome Illiteracy

It seemed an act of courage for Barbara Chilangwa just to say, "Let's not throw up our hands in despair."

EDUCATION-MEXICO: Garcia Marquez and Fuentes, For Adults Only

A Mexican government minister has lodged a protest at his daughter's high school because the curriculum includes world-renowned writers Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez, a complaint that cost one teacher her job and triggered a national debate.

JAPAN: New Textbooks Teach ‘Narrow’ Nationalism, Critics Say

Aya Mita, 13, laughs loudly when asked her opinion about the Japanese government's decision this month to authorise new history textbooks that portray her country's colonisation of Asia decades ago as a liberation movement.

EDUCATION-NIGERIA: Universities Producing Poor Quality Graduates

A study by the World Bank and the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research has returned a low verdict on the quality of training received by the University graduates in Nigeria.

EDUCATION: Nordic Nations Have The Best System In The West – OECD

Only Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have a strong all-round performance on life-long learning in the Western world, according to a new report by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

EDUCATION-KENYA: The Death Of School Children Remains A Mystery

The latest fire disaster in a Kenyan school has raised serious questions about the safety of children in boarding schools, which majority of parents often prefer as a better environment for study.

EDUCATION-KENYA: UN Appeals For Crucial Food Aid For School Children

United Nations agencies, which launched a food aid appeal last month for 4.4 million Kenyans affected by a severe drought, have appealed for another emergency aid to save children from dropping out of school in the affected regions.

EDUCATION-CHILE: Student Loan Reforms, a Step Towards Commercialisation?

The president of the University of Chile Student Federation (FECH), Iván Mlynarz, said a proposal to reform the student loan system by incorporating private capital was just one more step towards the "commercialisation" of higher education.

EDUCATION-PERU: School Drop-out Rate High among Rural Girls

Some 200,000 girls in rural areas of Peru do not go to school. Most are drop-outs, although some were never even enrolled, due to the gender discrimination that persists in the Andean mountain region of this South American country.

EDUCATION-VENEZUELA: Caught in a Tug-of-War

The Catholic Church, private schools and other sectors of civil society have not given up their fight against a controversial decree in Venezuela granting the state a stronger supervisory role over education.

EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Family Stipends to Keep 10.7 Million Children in School

The Brazilian government plans to extend a bonus system aimed at keeping children in school to 10.7 million six to 15-year-olds this year, in order to reduce child labour and make basic schooling universal, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso announced Tuesday.

EDUCATION-AFRICA: Rethinking Strategy To Meet New Challenges

Faced with diminishing funding support from the government, mainly due to economic problems and donor pressure for reforms, the African University is being urged to rethink its strategy and invent new ways of supplementing its programmes.

EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Gov’t Promises to Wipe Out Illiteracy by 2010

Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso announced a National Education Plan on Tuesday that involves teaching 10 million adolescents and adults to read and write within five years, and eliminating illiteracy in the nation within the decade.

EDUCATION-LATIN AMERICA: New Experts in Reading and Writing Skills

High school teachers throughout Latin America have long observed with resignation the difficulties their students face in the area of writing and comprehension skills. But educators trained to tackle such problems will complete a new graduate programme this year in Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

EDUCATION-MEXICO: Govt and Teachers in Annual Showdown

The Mexican capital is under siege by more than 30,000 dissident teachers from the national educational system who, as they do every year around this time, are marching in protest by day and spending their nights in tents, on busses, or building entrances, all in the name of higher salaries.

EDUCATION-NEPAL: Poor Pupils Lose out to Better Off

Nearly a quarter million high school students in Nepal are anxiously waiting for school leaving examination results, but most know they will not make the grade.