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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
EDUCATION: UNESCO Conference Highlights Gender Perspective
The question of gender must be a key point on national agendas for educational reforms, concluded the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education, which ended here Friday.EDUCATION-ARGENTINA: Schools for Rich and Schools for Poor
Argentina's public schools - the first to be established in Latin America - are bastions of income inequality with educational access increasingly difficult for poor people who are in greatest need of schooling.INDIGENOUS-EDUCATION: What Language Should Be Taught?
Latin American indigenous leaders participating in a U.N.-sponsored conference here are divided with respect to the language in which their people should be taught to read and write.MEXICO: Indefinite Teachers’ Strike Declared in 5,000 Schools
A partial but well-supported indefinite teachers' strike was launched here Wednesday, calling for better working conditions defending the right to free, public, non-religious education.CHILE: University Conflict Enters Crucial Phase
Students in Chile have paralysed the universities in an effort to regain the say in the running of the institutions robbed from them under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-90).PANAMA: Education Reform Debated in Shadow of Strike Threats
Panama's Parliament launched debate of a contraversial education decentralisation plan in the face of threatened strikes by 25,000 teachers from 4,000 State schools, forming another educational hot spot in a troubled continent.LIBERIA-EDUCATION: Students Left High and Dry by ex-Warlords
Some 1,100 students at Liberia's university are in a bind. The ex-warlords and other benefactors who sponsored their education have failed to pay this year's fees and now the students face expulsion from the institution.NIGERIA-EDUCATION: Public Schools Forced to Canvass to Get Pupils
The Land Rovers with public address systems that drove up and down Nigeria's streets during municipal polls in March are now back, but this time they are not being used by politicians.BANGLADESH-EDUCATION: Boom Time for Private Universities
Privately-funded universities in Bangladesh are making a killing on students whose parents are willing to fork out any amount to ensure their children get a professional degree.UN-POLITICS: Commonealth Chief Seeks Stronger Links with UNESCO
Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoku wants to see more cooperation with the UN Scientific Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to solve the "time bomb" of ethnic and cultural conflicts and environmental, labour and educational issues.VENEZUELA: Students Vote to Crack Down on Hooded Rioters
An unprecedented referendum showed that students and professors at Venezuela's largest university supported measures to crack down on hooded agitators who stage violent protests on an almost weekly basis at the gates of campus.EDUCATION-LATAM: Death of Paulo Freire, the Forgotten Master
Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educationalist whose methods revolutionised teaching theories in the developing world died in relative obscurity last week in his home country.NIGERIA-EDUCATION: No Easy Way to Root Out Cults on Campus
Not a day goes by without another report of students killed or injured in cult activities on Nigeria's university campuses, leading to renewed calls by citizens for stiffer punishment against cult members.ARGENTINA-WOMEN: Prestigious School Refuses to Go Coed
Students at one of Argentina's most prestigious high schools are refusing to open their classrooms to females, arguing that the educational level of the three-century- old institution would suffer.ARGENTINA-EDUCATION: Teachers on Hunger Strike for a Living Wage
Public school teachers have entered the second month of a hunger strike to back demands for a "living wage."THAILAND: Education Becomes An Expensive Race
"Having a child means being poor for seven years", says a Thai proverb that parents here are all too familiar with as the schoolyear starts off this month.SOUTH PACIFIC: In Cash Crunch, Education Gets Axed First
A rapidly growing population, economic slowdown and strict conditionalities for new loans from international lenders have hit the fragile budgets of South Pacific island nations, severely affecting areas like education.AFRICA-EDUCATION: Women Find A Shorter Route to the Classroom
African women, long deprived of information, education and training skills, can look to the advances of information technology to bring learning to their doorsteps.EDUCATION-LATAM: Women Hit by Discrimination in Education
The words of Pedro Carhuamayo, a 36-year-old peasant from the Peruvian Andes had a depressingly familiar ring:HONG KONG-EDUCATION: Once Shunned, pro-China Schools Now in Demand
When China's leader Deng Xiao Ping died earlier this year, scores of schoolchildren in Hong Kong attended the official week-long memorial service at China's de facto consulate.ZIMBABWE-HUMAN RIGHTS: Riot Police Clash with University Students
Truckloads of riot policemen armed to the teeth Thursday stormed the University of Zimbabwe, teargassing hostels and lecture theatres, to stop a planned protest march into town by the students.« 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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