Languages
Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
EDUCATION-INDIA: Ambitious Plans, But Where’s the Money?
After declaring it would make basic schooling, which is free in India, a legally enforceable right, the government appears to be having second thoughts.EDUCATION-CUBA: Classrooms Escape the Grip of Economic Crisis
With the arrival of September and the start of a new school year, Cuba's classrooms seem to have escaped the grip of the economic crisis that has battered Cuba since early this decade.NIGERIA-EDUCATION: Lecturers Dig In Their Heels For A Long Strike
Nigeria's 38 universities resemble ghost towns as the hustle and bustle of student activities and learning remains dormant.INDIA-EDUCATION: Free Meals are More on Paper
A bulk of the money set aside for education in India's present budget is for free mid-day meals for primary schoolchildren, but a recent report states that not all the money earmarked for the scheme last year was spent.CAMEROON-EDUCATION: No Money to Bring Graduates Home
An old man rushed into a hall where members of his loan-thrift society were meeting.ZIMBABWE-EDUCATION: Easing The Hunger For University Education
The mushrooming of universities in Zimbabwe may fulfill one of Patrick Matanga's dreams.SOUTH AFRICA-EDUCATION: No Order, No Control
Schools in the sprawling black township of Soweto near here bear the scars of battered and broken institutions.NEPAL-EDUCATION: Women Learn to Change their Lives
As the sun goes down, the women start shuffling in. Some come in pairs, in small groups. Others come alone, carrying babies at their hips. All carry a folded jute sack, a notebook and pencil.CAMEROON-EDUCATION: Escape Route Barred
For Cameroonian high school students who had decided to sit their final year examinations in the Central African Republic (CAR), the 1995/1996 school year has ended in disaster.NIGERIA-EDUCATION: Cults take over University Campuses
Nigeria's university campuses have been taken over by radical student cults, who even resort to beating up, maiming and terrorising members of rival groups to assert their power.INDIA-TIBET: Escape to Learn, Spill out of Classrooms
Five-year-old Tenzin Gelek is like any other playful child in the school in this small hill town near India's northern Himalayan border with China.EDUCATION: Differing Views on Progress in Education
There has been progress in making basic education possible for people throughout the world but problems remain in furthering the aim of "Education for All", delegates at an international conference agreed Wednesday.EDUCATION: Illiteracy is Down but Women still Lose Out
Education is one of those areas where ambiguity reigns: everyone recognises its merits, but few want to invest in it.EDUCATION: When Schooling Takes Place Amid War, Death and Terror
In Cambodia - the minister explained with Oriental serenity - there is nothing left. In its purifying fury, the Khmer Rouge regime destroyed everything: schools, libraries, texts - even the teachers and students.ZAIRE-EDUCATION: Forced to Choose Between School and Dinner
The falling value of wages here has been forcing Zairean parents to keep some of their school-age children at home so as to make sure that the family eats.ASIA-EDUCATION: Time to Foster the Creative Gift, Say Academics
Cheap labour and massive inflows of foreign investment have been two contributing factors in a decade of phenomenal economic growth in Asia. A bright future however may depend on an innovative workforce, say academics.PHILIPPINES-WOMEN: First Class Students Gain Second Class Jobs
When Philippine university doors reopen for the new semester later this month, most of the students will be female. They also dominate the honour roll at graduation time and outnumber their male counterparts as student association leaders.LABOUR-MEXICO: Dissident Teachers Twist Government’s Arm
Dissident teachers, striking in support of demands for more pay, have scored a victory of sorts in forcing the government to negotiate for the first time with an unofficial trade union.RUSSIA: Brain Drain in Science Causes Considerable Strain
Russia is being robbed of some of its best brains as an increasing number of scientists and researchers yield to the lure of lucrative offers from disparate parts of the globe.EDUCATION-INDIA: Delhi Daughter Is Teacher, Mother Is Her Student
In a makeshift classroom in a slum outside the Indian capital, a dozen women listen indulgently as their teacher cajoles and scolds them for careless mistakes in the day's assignment.EDUCATION-VENEZUELA: Community Schooling, the New Alternative
Parents in Venezuela, faced with the struggling State education system or profit-motive private schools are opting for an exciting new alternative, the community school - run by the parents, governors and teachers themselves.« 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.
The Week with IPS
NEXT STOP - SDGs
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
