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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
EDUCATION: World Forum Agrees on Access, But Worries About Quality
Participants at the World Forum recommitted themselves to making universal access to education a reality, and guarantee that such education will be of high-quality but many remained sceptical that all the elements of quality eeducation were in place.EDUCATION-COLOMBIA: ‘Diplomas’ for Schools with Full Enrollment
Colombia is working towards the Education for All (EFA) goal through a novel programme that grants "diplomas" and special aid to schools that attain the target of full enrollment.EDUCATION-ARGENTINA: All Schools On-Line by 2003
Argentina plans to hook all schools in the country to the Internet by 2003. At present only 30 percent of the 52,000-odd formal and informal schools are connected.RUSSIA: Education Suffers All Round Decline in Post-Soviet Years
The Russian government has vowed to honour the Education For All (EFA) commitment, but the country's education system is badly short of funds and faces growing numbers of out-of-school children.EDUCATION-TOGO: Youth Raise Right To Education Demand
Young Togolese activists are using the upcoming World Forum on Education in Dakar, Senegal, to remind their government of the commitment made 10 years ago to promote Education for All (EFA) people.UNITED STATES: Black Children Often Mislabelled as Hyperactive
African American children, especially boys, are at increased risk for being diagnosed with a hyperactivity disorder and placed in special education, but lack the same access to treatment as their white counterparts.EDUCATION: Time To Put Money Where Your Mouth Is, NGOs Tell Govts
Forget empty rhetoric; focus on the bottom line. That, in essence, is what an international coalition of education activists have called for on the eve of the World Education Forum, in Senegal, on Apr. 26.EDUCATION-PERU: Boosting Enrollment at the Expense of Quality
Peru has taken primary school enrollment to an impressive 90 percent, but independent experts say the expansion has been achieved at the expense of quality.EDUCATION-PHILIPPINES: Scrounging Funds to Finance Public Schools
Classes conducted under the shade of fruit trees or in dilapidated school buildings are not uncommon in rural areas in the Philippines.EDUCATION-BARBADOS: Helping Boys Become Educated Men
Education officials in Barbados are ready and willing to rescue the nation's boys from educational obscurity, but they're just not sure how to go about doing so.//REPEAT//EDUCATION-SRI LANKA: Scandalous Rush For Prestigious Schools
A respectable computer engineer had no compunctions about forging a fake residency certificate and paying a hefty bribe to secure admission for his son in a prestigious government school.EDUCATION-SRI LANKA: Scandalous Rush For Prestigious Schools
A respectable computer engineer had no compunctions about forging a fake residency certificate and paying a hefty bribe to secure admission for his son in a prestigious government school.EDUCATION: A New Kind of Teacher Needed for Lifelong Learning
"Lifelong learning", the new educational model taking root worldwide, entails changes in the roles, responsibilities and salaries of educational staff, according to a new study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Open Novel University
More than 700 students started classes this week at the new People's University in Argentina, a novel initiative of the local human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.EDUCATION: A New Kind of Teacher Needed for Lifelong Learning
"Lifelong learning", the new educational model taking root worldwide, entails changes in the roles, responsibilities and salaries of educational staff, according to a new study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Open Novel University
More than 700 students started classes this week at the new People's University in Argentina, a novel initiative of the local human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.TECHNOLOGY-BRAZIL: Engineering for a Knowledge-Based Society
A degree in information engineering is a new item to be found on the university menu, and is something Brazilian education strategists believe is the ticket for keeping up with the global trend towards a so-called knowledge-based society.DEVELOPMENT-ARGENTINA: Newspaper Vendors Receive Tourism Training
Some 500 newspaper vendors from the areas of the Argentine capital most frequented by tourists have been trained how to best respond to the questions of foreign visitors and how to guide them with explanations and brochures in Spanish, English or Portuguese.EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Universities Prepare Students for Bygone Reality
Universities in Brazil, as in many parts of the world, have let the world pass them by, and are now struggling to catch up and readapt to the new social and economic reality.EDUCATION-RUSSIA: The Science Brain Drain
The former Soviet Union, once renowned for its scientific achievements and for producing scientific talents, is finding that science is rapidly becoming a lost art.DEVELOPMENT-PERU: Indians Want Modernity without Losing Identity
Indigenous leader Santiago Contiricon was pleased to see his nephew, Benito, return home to the Ashaninka community in the Peruvian jungle along with 38 other schoolteachers who will conduct their classes in their native language.« 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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