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Monday, November 9, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
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.LATIN AMERICA/CARIBBEAN: The Yearning for a Literate Population
They speak different languages, are at different stages of economic development, but if there is one thing which educators in Latin America and the Caribbean share, it is the desire for a literate population.CARIBBEAN-LATIN AMERICA: Education Officials Search For Solutions
Ministers of Education from the Caribbean and Latin America meeting here this week are hoping to go away with firmly established strategies aimed at improving the quality of education in the region.LATIN AMERICA-CARIBBEAN: Education Sits an Exam in Jamaica
Ministers of Education from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean opened a five-day conference on Monday in Jamaica to analyse the progress and problems seen in the sector in recent years, as well as challenges for the new millenium.VIETNAM-EDUCATION: System Suffers Post Soviet Fall-Out
Vietnam's rapid economic growth is not being matched by advances in its higher education system, and this, warn Vietnamese and foreign educationalists, could prove a serious barrier to the nation's long-term developmental goals.VIETNAM-EDUCATION: System Suffers Post Soviet Fall-Out/REPEAT/
Vietnam's rapid economic growth is not being matched by advances in its higher education system, and this, warn Vietnamese and foreign educationalists, could prove a serious barrier to the nation's long-term developmental goals.EDUCATION: Adjustment is sapping Education, says ILO
Structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) have a negative effect on education, especially in developing countries, according to a study commissioned by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).CARIBBEAN-EDUCATION: Learning is an Expensive Affair
The news hit suddenly and hard and only served to add to the chaos of last minute studying for final examinations beginning next week.GHANA-EDUCATION: Rising Prices Push Books off the Shelves
When Anthony Obeng Afrane published 'The Greedy Woman and the Hidden Treasures' two years ago, a 500-sheet pack of A-3 printing paper sold for 30,000 cedis (about 30 U.S. dollars).WOMEN-COLOMBIA: Feminize Language to Balance the World
Calling an unmarried woman a senorita (miss) is no longer in style, not to mention referring to one's wife as fulana de tal ("what's her face"), and if reformists have their way, all women would be addressed as Ms (senora).TURKEY-EDUCATION: Protests Underline Crisis of Affordability
Turkey is being rocked by student protests over increased fees highlighting a crisis in public education.BARBADOS-EDUCATION: To Pay or Not to Pay?
The government here might have decreed it the state's responsibility to pay for students attending the local campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), but the debate on the issue is far from over.CONGO-EDUCATION: No Easy Ride for University Students
Congo's university students put up with cramped conditions, grapple with shortages of everything from books to scientific equipment and have to force their stipends out of the state.TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO-EDUCATION: Aging Schools Create Concern
The 1996 national budget has prescribed an improved role for the country's education system, but many are contending that the poor state of the physical plant in the sector renders it virtually incapable of delivering the goods. Finance Minister Brian Kuei Tung made it clear in last week's budget presentation that to stimulate and encourage sustainable and equitable development, the coalition government would "upgrade existing (national) institutions which will ensure the delivery of improved and efficient services." The head of the country's teachers' union, Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), is hoping the recently- installed United National Congress (UNC)/National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) coalition is serious. Anthony Garcia says he has heard it all before and he will oppose any plan that will not substantially change the situation. The reality is that, not unlike other Caribbean territories, education infrastructure in this twin-island state has been subject to what one observer describes as "benign official neglect." Horror stories abound. Every summer, for example, vagrants take up residence at the Woodbrook Presbyterian School situated in a middle class Port of Spain suburb.JAPAN: Ethnic Koreans Set Up Schools to Preserve Identity
Tucked in the poor side of this bustling industrial port is the Osaka Chosen High School, a symbol of ethnic Koreans' struggle to keep their identity in a country that prides itself on being homogeneous.JAPAN: Ethnic Koreans Set Up Schools to Preserve Identity
Tucked in the poor side of this bustling industrial port is the Osaka Chosen High School, a symbol of ethnic Koreans' struggle to keep their identity in a country that prides itself on being homogeneous.LATIN AMERICA-EDUCATION: Schooling, Salaries, Investment
Salaries for unskilled workers in Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by 58 percent by 2010 if the most favorable scenario for regional investment and schooling comes to fruition, a World Bank study concludes.U.S.-AFRICA: Charges of Racism Dog Africa Scholars Group
When hundreds of Africa scholars assemble in the United States for the annual Africa Studies Association (ASA) in November, it is usually to discuss the continent's economies, politics and history.COTE D’IVOIRE-EDUCATION: Many Fail to Find Places in Schools
Thousands of children are being shut out of Cote d'Ivoire's schools as investment in education fails to keep pace with population growth.COTE D’IVOIRE-EDUCATION: Many Fail to Find Places in Schools
Thousands of children are being shut out of Cote d'Ivoire's schools as investment in education fails to keep pace with population growth.COTE D’IVOIRE-EDUCATION: Many Fail to Find Places in Schools
Thousands of children are being shut out of Cote d'Ivoire's schools as investment in education fails to keep pace with population growth.« 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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