RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Call to Spare the Rod in Schools Grows Louder

Schoolchildren in Pakistan have routinely been slapped, caned or spanked in an effort to get them to behave or perform better, but only after a federal minister's son was given the same treatment has the spotlight been turned onto an archaic, 143-year-old law which permits corporal punishment in schools.

CULTURE: U.S. Students Must Open Avenues to the World – Panel

America's global woes can be solved only with a greater understanding of different cultures and languages, attainable only if more U.S. students study abroad, said a panel of experts Tuesday.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Dearth of Trained Midwives Plagues Planners

In the village of Talhi, in Pakistan's Sindh province, water still tends to be transported on camel-back. That is how a midwife too gets her supply of water to carry out a delivery, and such a midwife is Margaret Gill.

DEVELOPMENT: Jamaica Suggests "Managed" Brain Drain

Struggling to cope with a growing brain drain of professionals to industrialised countries, Caribbean leaders are mooting ideas like "managed migration" and training professionals for "export" as ways to curtail the problem.

EDUCATION-KENYA: Striking Lecturers Say They Live ‘Hand-to-Mouth’

Winnie Mitullah was in no mood to take part in this year’s "Africa University Day" celebration on Wednesday (Nov. 12). She has joined other striking university lecturers in a demand for better pay.

IRAQ: War Comes to the Classroom

Shams Mohammed Ali is a shy 10-year-old girl. Sitting in her school principal's office in Baghdad, she tries to explain why she missed school last Saturday.

POLITICS: Middle East, Muslim Students Shun U.S. Schools

For many years, students from all over the globe have streamed into U.S. universities in search of a good education, career opportunities and, at times, freedoms not available at home, thanks to a relatively open and streamlined student visa process.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Greatest Cheers for New College Confined to State Media

Never had the rural outpost of Lupane received so much attention, not even when it was declared the capital of Zimbabwe's Matabeleland North province four years ago.

EDUCATION: 39 Years After Independence, British System Still Wows Zambians

Martin Mubanga's parents have changed his schools twice this year, because his class got too large, 15 pupils.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Impunity Surrounds Murders of 650 Teachers

The special United Nations rapporteur on the right to education expressed concern over the impunity surrounding the murders of 650 teachers in the past decade in Colombia, on her recent 10-day visit to this war-torn South American country.

EDUCATION: Private Sector Could Offer Solutions to African Universities

Radical solutions are being sought for the crisis in African universities, including new sources of funding to supplement government efforts.

ENVIRONMENT: UN Conference Stresses Need Of Disaster Reduction

The impacts of disasters across the globe have grown rapidly over the past three decades, with thousands of fatalities, hundreds of millions of people affected and tens of billions of dollars of losses.

HEALTH-CARIBBEAN: Community Programmes Help Stem Wave of Violence

Nineteen-year-old Dwayne Hutchinson knows firsthand the effects of violence. Living in one of the most volatile areas of Jamaica's capital, Kingston, he became involved with gangs, guns and knives as early as 13 years old.

EDUCATION-BANGLADESH: Private Sector Thrives at Students’ Expense

Exploiting the need of droves of students looking for higher education, private universities in Bangladesh are raking in cash. But their many critics accuse the parallel instruction structures of being little more than glorified coaching centres.

EDUCATION-VENEZUELA: University Doors to Open Wider

A half-million secondary school graduates in Venezuela will have the chance to enter university after two decades in which they have been refused admission due to limited space.

PAKISTAN: Arrests Put Spotlight on Reforms in Religious Schools

While Islamic schools and government officials remain in a tussle over 19 Asian students recently arrested for supposed links to terrorist groups, these detentions have put the spotlight back on the issue of reforms in Pakistan's religious schools.

EDUCATION-BRAZIL: Final Offensive Against Illiteracy

Brazil is taking another stab at illiteracy, after setting the ambitious goal of teaching 20 million people over 15 to read and write during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's four-year term, which ends in 2006.

CULTURE-NIGERIA: ‘Indecent’ Dressing Banned on the Campus

Sexual harassment of female students in Nigeria has often been blamed on randy lecturers, but the university authorities are fighting back.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Children Speak up to Shape Education Policy

Once, at a workshop for children, government officials were busy praising the efforts of a special desk for women and children in Sri Lankan police stations, until one child asked: "But how can it be successful if no one is at the desk?"

PAKISTAN: Students Get Real Lessons from Virtual University

Ali Haider is into the third semester of a bachelor of computer science degree course and is enthusiastic about his subject. The 22-year-old however wishes his teachers would answer the questions he has a little sooner - it is usually a day before he gets a reply.

EDUCATION-VIETNAM: Too-Successful Policy Leads to Brain Drain

Le Thi Xuan has all her plans neatly laid out, now that she has been admitted to the National University of Singapore (NUS) in September.