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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
EDUCATION-PAKISTAN: Girls’ Schools Catch Community Interest
Believe it or not, but there is a race on for school admission for girls in the frontier province of Balochistan, Pakistan's least developed and most conservative region.EDUCATION-KENYA: Teachers Leave, Schools Close
The mass exodus of teachers from Kenya's North Eastern Province due to ethnic tension between the teachers and the local residents has dealt another blow to the impoverished region.CULTURE-SPAIN: Cabrera Infante Chats with Miguel de Cervantes
Exiled Cuban writer and nationalised Briton, Guillermo Cabrera Infante had an informal, imaginary chat with the writer of Don Quixote, when he received the Cervantes prize, the Nobel of the Spanish language, Thursday.EDUCATION-PANAMA: City of Knowledge, Turning Bases into Schools
In the year 2000, when the canal zone returns to national control, the City of Knowledge will take over a former US army base in the canal zone, turning it into an education and research centre.EDUCATION-UGANDA: A Better Chance For Girls
Julius Namisano, a teacher at Kisowera Primary School in this southern district believes that it is a fact of life that boys outnumber girls in school.SINGAPORE: Out with Rote Learning, In with Creative Thinking
In order to excel in the information age, Singapore is instructing its schoolchildren to go easy on hitting the books.EDUCATION-COTE D’IVOIRE: Teachers in Transit
Martial B. (32) works at a secondary school here and, like many other teachers in this West African nation, he dreams of migrating northwards so as to get away from the frustration of working for the state.EDUCATION-ARGENTINA: Still Fasting for Funds a Year Later
A year after Argentina's public school teachers hit on an original form of applying pressure for increased financial support for education, there is still a waiting list of teachers keen on joining the hunger strike.EDUCATION-BANGLADESH: Ambitious Goals, But Slow Progress
Bangladesh is just two years away from a goal it set itself for universalising education, but progress is frustratingly slow despite the government's unwavering commitment.SIERRA LEONE-EDUCATION: The Legacy of Military Rule
One of the biggest challenges facing Sierra Leone's newly restored government is rehabilitating an education sector that received a battering during the anarchy that characterised military rule in the West African nation.EDUCATION-MERCOSUR: Weak Link in Regional Integration
The process of integration between the southern common market (Mercosur) countries so far has neglected education at university level, which researchers consider crucial for thinking strategically as a regional block.EDUCATION-INDIA: Literacy Changes the Face of Poverty
Election day this time was heady and memorable for Santosh, Roopmati, Harvati and Kamla Devi -- women from slums in the Indian capital who have learnt how to read and write only over the last year.EDUCATION-SRI LANKA: History Edged Out of Classrooms
The fascinating story of Sri Lanka's past, one of the longest written histories in the world, is contained in two great literary works compiled by Buddhist monks in the beginning of the sixth century B.C.EDUCATION-PERU: Poverty Blamed for Schooling Slump
Little Luis Huaman,11, will not be at school this year because he must tend to the family farm in Huancavelica, in the south-central highlands of Peru, while his father travels to the coast in search of work.EDUCATION-ARGENTINA: TV or Reforms to Blame for Poor Performance?
Teachers and analysts in Argentina spurned remarks by Minister of Education Susana Decibe, who blamed TV for poor student performance.SOUTH AFRICA-EDUCATION: Violent Crime Begins in the Classroom
A group of gangsters regularly drive, tyres screeching, into the yard of a Pretoria school, where burglaries are frequent and nightwatchmen are shot at.EDUCATION-CHILE: University Boom no Guarantee of Quality
While university tuition and attendance have been on the rise in Chile, the quality of higher education has been questioned by both local authorities and international experts.EDUCATION: Economic Crisis Sends Asian Students Home
The loss suffered by many universities in the United States, Britain and Australia may yet be Malaysia's gain, if the South-east Asian nation's plans work out.EDUCATION: Nicaragua Wants all Children in School
The Nicaraguan government has begun a drive to reverse the country's lamentable education record of allowing nearly more than one million children to remain out of the school system.EDUCATION: Re-think Needed for Latin American Education Systems
Education systems in southern Latin American countries need to to be overhauled because current programmes to reduce the number of pupils repeating a grade have resulted in a general lowering of standards, according to educators.EDUCATION-ZAMBIA: Teen Mothers Shy Away From School
Although the Zambian government is one of the few in the region with a progressive policy allowing teen mothers to return to school, girls have not been quick to take up the offer.« 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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