UN calls for teachers to be prioritized to transform education
27/2/2024: A panel set up following the 2022 UN Transforming Education Summit has made recommendations for governments to invest in education and offer teachers competitive salaries. New data estimates that countries must recruit an additional 44 million primary and secondary school educators by 2030, including 15 million in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: Devex
To work toward world peace, invest in education
1/2/2024: The chief executive officer of the Global Partnership for Education highlights recent research that shows how countries with higher primary and secondary school completion rates are in general more peaceful. There is consequent concern that resources dedicated to education in middle- and lower-income countries have been dwindling.
Source: Devex
Can the US force Taliban to lift ban on girls’ education?
19/12/2023: The US has imposed sanctions on two influential Taliban ministers over their stance on girls' education. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with restrictions on female education. While the immediate impact of US sanctions on key Taliban leaders is uncertain, experts hope that persistent international pressure could contribute to reforms.
Source: DW
Delivering on our promise of universal education
24/1/2023: On the International Day of Education we should be concerned that almost 700 million children and adolescents worldwide cannot read. That’s more than 8% of the global population. World leaders will meet in February, aiming to raise $1.5 billion for education over the next four years.
Source: Inter Press Service
Creative financing aims to revive global education goals
19/9/2022: Globally, only 1 in 3 10-year-olds are estimated to be able to read, a 50% decrease from pre-pandemic levels. The International Finance Facility for Education aims to increase education funding in low- to middle-income countries through low-interest loans from multilateral development banks.
Source: Devex
300,000 teachers in DRC going unpaid
22/7/2022: Congolese families cheered in 2019 when President Félix Tshisékedi ordered the country’s schools to provide free and compulsory primary education. At least 3 million more children enrolled in school. But DRC’s schools depend on informal teachers reliant on parent donations which are no longer permitted.
Source: African Arguments
A call to expand the international right to education
6/6/2022: Leading humanitarians have signed a statement calling for the key target in the Sustainable Development Goal for education to be cemented in international law. This would ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality pre-primary education, and free, equitable and quality secondary education.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Bangladesh shuts largest private school in Rohingya camps
28/3/2022: Bangladesh has been sheltering about 850,000 Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar since a military offensive in 2017. Closure of the school is a further blow to the educational prospects of thousands of children stuck in the camps.
Source: CNA
Taliban backtracks on school re-opening for girls
28/3/2022: The Taliban leadership in Afghanistan has decided to keep girls’ schools closed until school uniforms are designed in accordance with Afghan customs, culture, and Sharia. Amnesty International is calling on the international community to make women’s and girls’ rights to education a red line during negotiations with the Taliban de-facto authorities.
Source: Amnesty International