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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
EDUCATION-US: Public Schools go Commercial
US commercial firms, forever hunting new markets, are moving more and more into the public schooling system in their eagerness to strike deals to increase revenues.EDUCATION-VENEZUELA: Drop-Outs and Gap Between School, Real Life
One-third of youngsters who should be in school in Venezuela remain outside of the school system, where the alarm has been sounded because part of the problem is that educational programmes are, simply, boring and out of sync with "real life."EDUCATION-SENEGAL: Children In Rural Schools To Receive Lunch
A new World Food Programme (WFP) project will encourage school attendance in rural Senegal and ensure that while in school, children will receive a nourishing lunch.EDUCATION: Latin America Gets Poor Marks
Latin America is noticeably lagging behind other regions of the developing South in the education sector and the majority of students are unable to obtain a top quality education, say researchers.EDUCATION-LATAM: Public Universities Serve the Rich
Far from helping the poor, the public universities of Latin America have in fact been subsidising the rich for years, claims US economist Darrel Lewis.EDUCATION: Africa Urged To Invest In Girls To Reduce Poverty
Investing more in the education of girls can make a significant contribution to the reduction of poverty in Africa, an official of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) says.EDUCATION: Is What Is Taught In African Schools Irrelevant?
A lot of what is taught in schools in Africa is irrelevant to the needs of the continent, claim a group of African educationalists.EDUCATION-GUATEMALA: Literacy For All a Distant Dream
Nearly one-third of the 11.6 million people of Guatemala cannot read or write - despite government efforts to boost the rate of literacy.EDUCATION: Womens’ Education a Priority Need
World governments must make girls' education a priority if their countries are to make any real advance in the future , senior United Nations officials noted Monday - International Women's Day.EDUCATION: Shocking Report On Racism In South African Schools
White supremacist belief systems still continue to affect inter-racial schooling in South Africa five years after a new government came to power.CULTURE-TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Women Take Over Town at Carnival Time
Almost 10 years ago, young balladeer-turned-calypsonian, Denyse Plummer, won the "Young Kings" Calypso Competition and raised a controversy that rages to this day.ENVIRONMENT-ASIA: Keeping Tiger Habitats Will Help Save Big Cats
For several months now, machete-wielding conservationists have been carving a trail deep into this national park and setting a series of traps -- of cameras, that is.ENVIRONMENT: Millions of Urban Indian Children Exposed To Lead
Developing countries like India need to take stringent action to reduce the high level of lead in the atmosphere which is poisoning children in the cities, experts said at an international conference in this southern city.ECONOMY-BOSNIA: Problems of Privatization
Delayed and heavily criticised plans to privatize Bosnia's economy have come under renewed fire, this time from representatives of two of the country's religious communities.HEALTH: Vitamin-B May Hold Key to Malaria Treatment
A lack of thiamine, better known as vitamin B1, could be a factor in causing the deaths of people suffering from malaria, according to a report published in the British medical magazine Lancet.DEVELOPMENT: World Bank’s Guilt on Indonesia Corruption
The fall out over the news that the World Bank failed to confront - and even colluded in - gross corruption in the regime of ousted Indonesian President Suharto has cast a pall over the institution's activities in Asia and elsewhere in the developing world.CHILDREN-ARGENTINA: Poor Children Have Their Say
The children of poor families in Argentina often suffer from a language barrier in the classroom where they are fearful of speaking out and expressing their emotions, a social study has revealed.RELIGION-US: Church Wants Stronger Ties with Catholic Schools
The Vatican has stepped up efforts to increase the Church's role in Roman Catholic colleges in the United States by warning that the schools could lose their identity as catholic institutions if they failed to comply.EDUCATION-ARGENTINA: Training Bug Infects NGOs
A new type of educational programme has gained popularity in Argentina in the last few years: those that impart skills needed in non-governmental organisations (NGOs).EDUCATION-TOGO: Student Strike Serves to Highlight Crisis
An indefinite strike by students has served to spotlight a crisis that has been affecting Togo's lone university for some time now.KENYA: School Doors Slammed In The Faces Of 200,000 Children
Kenya's schools have slammed their doors on about 200,000 pupils who are unable to find a place in secondary schools.« 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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