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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Education
JAPAN: Child Rearing Pressures Fall Squarely On Women’s Shoulders
Kaoru Nishizono, 35, is a busy mother. She enrolled her 2-year-old at an English-language school last month and spends most of her waking hours driving her other daughter to cram school, swimming, ballet, and drawing classes during the week.EDUCATION-DR CONGO: School-Age Children Engage in Cross-Border Trade
Jean Kalunga, 12, wakes up at dawn from his parents' home in Sodimico, a township in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province, near Zambia. With his brother Kadzadi, aged nine, the two carry bundles of brooms, on their shoulders, to sell in Zambia.EDUCATION-DR CONGO: School-Age Children Engage in Cross-Border Trade
Jean Kalunga, 12, wakes up at dawn from his parents' home in Sodimico, a township in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province, near Zambia. With his brother Kadzadi, aged nine, the two carry bundles of brooms, on their shoulders, to sell in Zambia.EDUCATION: Ibero-American Distance Learning Gets a Boost
The Ministers of Education from Latin America, Spain and Portugal have agreed to set up an interactive system for distance learning, using radio, television and Internet, with the Ibero-American Educational Television Association (ATEI) in charge of the endeavour.EDUCATION: UNICEF Reveals Disparities in Industrialised North
Profound differences mark the educational achievement potential of schoolchildren in industrialised countries and are related to the economic and employment status of their parents, says a study released Tuesday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).EDUCATION: UNICEF Reveals Disparities in Industrialised North
Profound differences mark the educational achievement potential of schoolchildren in industrialised countries and are related to the economic and employment status of their parents, says a study released Tuesday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).U.S.: Indian Enrollment up as Sep. 11 Shakes up Student Exchanges
India has become the largest source of foreign students in U.S. universities and colleges, according to a new report which found that the aftermath of last year's Sep. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon has hurt student exchanges between the United States and the Middle East.U.S.: Indian Enrollment up as Sep. 11 Shakes up Student Exchanges
India has become the largest source of foreign students in U.S. universities and colleges, according to a new report which found that the aftermath of last year's Sep. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon has hurt student exchanges between the United States and the Middle East.EDUCATION: Some Countries Are Going Backwards Says UNESCO
More than 70 countries will fail to make the deadline of Education For All set for 2015, and some are even going backwards, says a new report released by UNESCO in London on Wednesday.EDUCATION: Some Countries Are Going Backwards Says UNESCO
More than 70 countries will fail to make the deadline of Education For All set for 2015, and some are even going backwards, says a new report released by UNESCO in London on Wednesday.RIGHTS-AFRICA: Investing in Early Childhood Education
Perceived as a luxury and beyond the reach of the poor, community-developed pre-school education can prevent dropouts and generate positive results for African children, according to experts.THAILAND: Straight-talking Sex Educators Reach Youngsters
In a high school classroom here in the Thai capital, Nakorn Saniyothin takes out a condom packet, tears off the wrapper and uses a rubber model of a penis to show her male students how to use the protector.THAILAND: Straight-talking Sex Educators Reach Youngsters
In a high school classroom here in the Thai capital, Nakorn Saniyothin takes out a condom packet, tears off the wrapper and uses a rubber model of a penis to show her male students how to use the protector.ENVIRONMENT-CHINA: Little ‘Green’ Guards Show the Way
Tang Jiaqi, a third grader from an elementary school here in the Chinese capital, has become a teacher of sorts to his mother./REPEAT/ENVIRONMENT-CHINA: Little ‘Green’ Guards Show the Way
Tang Jiaqi, a third grader from an elementary school here in the Chinese capital, has become a teacher of sorts to his mother.EDUCATION-PAKISTAN: Liberalisation Drive Raises Teachers’ Ire
Thousands of teachers throughout Pakistan have been taking to the streets this month to protest against government proposals to bring the private sector into tertiary education and boost enrolment numbers.EDUCATION-PAKISTAN: Liberalisation Drive Raises Teachers’ Ire
Thousands of teachers throughout Pakistan have been taking to the streets this month to protest against government proposals to bring the private sector into tertiary education and boost enrolment numbers.HEALTH-U.S.: Bush Pushes Spending on No-Condom Education
Thousands of U.S students are being taught that chastity is the only way to avoid pregnancy or HIV/AIDS, although whether these abstinence-only programmes really work is highly questionable, activists say.EDUCATION-COLOMBIA: Culture As Tool to Foment Childhood Wonder
An integral educational programme, developed in Colombia by the Rafael Pombo Foundation, has helped two million children and a million teachers to establish a living relationship with art and culture, reviving childhood awe in a country troubled by civil war and economic crisis.EDUCATION-COLOMBIA: Culture As Tool to Foment Childhood Wonder
An integral educational programme, developed in Colombia by the Rafael Pombo Foundation, has helped two million children and a million teachers to establish a living relationship with art and culture, reviving childhood awe in a country troubled by civil war and economic crisis.EDUCATION-LATAM: Scholastic Achievement Scores Lag
The performance of Latin American and Caribbean students on international math and science exams tends to be below the global average, according to a new World Bank report.« 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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