EDUCATION-LIBERIA: Civil War Leaves School System in Tatters

The Day of the African Child, celebrated Wednesday, is a sober occasion for Liberia, where fourteen years of intermittent civil war have undermined the education system on which many of the country’s children depend.

EDUCATION-FINLAND: Study Focuses On Immigrant Youth Problems

Mohamed is a Somali immigrant in his early twenties. He has not only completed the Finnish comprehensive school but also found a job as security guard at a super market here.

ARGENTINA: Joining the Big Leagues in Spanish Language Training

Three public universities in Argentina have joined together to offer their own exam to assess and certify the Spanish language proficiency of non-native speakers, with the backing of the Education Ministry - a move that will make this country an even more attractive destination for ''language tourism''.

RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Keeping Children Out of the "Go Slows"

It's a phenomenon that became noticeable in the 1980s, and is now a permanent feature of the urban landscape in Nigeria: children hawking goods on the streets.

JAPAN: Experts Put New Spin on Sex Education

Japanese health experts and officials are revising sex education in schools so they focus more on individual teaching yet accept traditional Asian values - pragmatic changes that they hope will make the subject more interesting and relevant to young people.

EDUCATION-JAPAN: Visa Crackdown Adds to Foreign Students’ Woes

It took Chaturani Perera two years to convince Japanese immigration officials to grant her a student visa. The 20-year-old Sri Lankan had to prepare the necessary documents and accrue a hefty 10,000 U.S. dollars - her family's life savings - in a bank account

EDUCATION-SWAZILAND: School Funds for AIDS orphans So Near – Yet So Far

Swazi school children returned to their hostels Friday (May 7) in preparation for the second term of the academic year. However, a question mark hangs over the fate of thousands of AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children who may not be permitted to continue their schooling this term.

EDUCATION-INDIA: Elite Schools Getting Lessons in Equality

Tripping along to her drab, run-down government school in the Okhla industrial suburb of India's capital, Minu Tanwar dreams of the day she can shift to one of the posh schools here, patronised by the rich.

BRAZIL: Violence in Schools – ‘Most Fights Are Between Girls’

Marcela, an 18-year-old high school student in this Brazilian city, told IPS that most of the fistfights and shouting matches these days in her school are between girls.

RIGHTS: Cult Students Control the Campus, their Parents Run Nigeria

Omoyele Sowore’s attackers wore red baseball hats and covered their faces.

COMMUNICATION-BRAZIL: Info Technologies for Social Change

Businessman Rodrigo Baggio, 32, decided 11 years ago to do what he could to "put an end to the digital apartheid" that prevails in Brazil.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: Deaf People Speak Out Against Marginalisation

People with disabilities in Uganda say they have been marginalised for too long. They are now demanding that their basic rights be restored and recognised.

LABOUR-BRAZIL: Unemployment Up for University Graduates

The Brazilian labour market trends of the past few years belie the notion that a university education is enough to ensure one a decent job and a tranquil future.

U.S.: Hub of 1960s Protests Turns Quiet

Walking through the famous Sproul Plaza at the University of California in Berkeley, it is hard to imagine it as the place where thousands gathered in the late 1960s to protest against the Vietnam War.

EDUCATION: EU Asked to Counter Child Labour

The EU must promote education as a way of eliminating child labour in developing countries, says an alliance of civil society groups.

HEALTH-ZAMBIA: Anger at Move to Declare Schools Condom-Free Zones

One step forward, three steps backwards: that's how various AIDS activists, parents and teachers in Zambia are describing government's decision to ban the distribution of condoms in schools on the grounds that it promotes promiscuity.

EDUCATION-PAKISTAN: Children Draw Line on Rights, War and Peace

''He's a freedom fighter,'' said the 11-year-old who had drawn Raphael, of Ninja Turtle fame. No one, however, had drawn the tanks, missiles or armed soldiers commonly seen at children's art exhibitions on war and peace.

EDUCATION-CHILE: No More Discrimination Against Pregnant Students

Ruth Muñoz told IPS she was kicked out of her private high school in the Chilean capital when she became pregnant at the age of 16.

PAKISTAN: Concern Rises over Torching of Foreign-Funded Schools

Arsonists have struck nine schools in the remote hills of northern Pakistan, sparking official concern that Taliban or other Islamist groups critical of organisations that get foreign aid could be targeting the area.

EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Too Many Lawyers, Not Enough Quality

A country with an intense production of sometimes overlapping federal, state and local laws and statutes like Brazil, Latin America's giant, needs many lawyers.

INDIA: Gov’t Backs Business Schools More than Primary Education

India's lopsided policy of supporting higher education with public money while grossly neglecting primary schools is now being reinforced by recent moves by the central government, led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).