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“The Children Take Action” gives basic facts about climate change through the story of a young boy learning about the issue from his grandfather. It is designed to accompany a new syllabus in Kiribati classrooms that focuses on elements of climate change, the environment, and sustainable development.

Kiribati, a nation of 100,000 citizens spread out across 32 atolls and one island in the South Pacific, is one of many countries in the region that will face the effects of climate change in the near future. The Pacific islands are among the most vulnerable areas of the world to global warming.

Rising temperatures and damage to coral reefs impact fish populations, threatening the food security of the region. The fishing industry accounts for 40% of Kiribati’s Gross Domestic Product. Kiribati’s leaders are also considering the scenario of evacuation in the coming decades, if the nation cannot adapt to the changing conditions. Rising sea levels are breaching outer atolls, and overpopulation is depleting fresh water reserves on the main island, Tarawa.

According to Seema Deo, spokesperson for the SPREP, the book is generating interest from other countries in the South Pacific and calls to have it translated into additional languages. In addition to learning facts about climate change, she says that one result of the program is that children learn “how their actions contribute to the betterment or otherwise of their natural environment.”

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Kumar’s students are the children of poor migrant workers, and most do not attend formal school. For some parents, the closest government school is too far away, others enrolled their children in formal school, but were dismayed by the poor quality of the education they received. A few families send their children to both government school and to Kumar, impressed by the education the children receive under the bridge. Parents view Kumar’s school as a place where their children’s teacher knows who they are, where children can ask questions and actually learn.

In recent years, educational standards in Indian schools have been declining, according to the nonprofit Pratham. India’s 2010 Right to Education Act guarantees free education to all children ages six to 14, but the 96% of Indian children that attend school often deal with overcrowding, teacher shortages, and lack of access to clean water and appropriate toilet facilities. According to Pratham’s 2012 report, almost 68% of third graders read below a first grade level.

Despite shortcomings in the system, India’s children are motivated to continue learning. For Kumar and the volunteers who teach with him, their purpose is to aid them any way they can. Kumar says his goal is to enroll the children in formal school, citing the importance of earning a degree.

According to Kumar, “To change the future of these children, education is the only weapon. If they go anywhere in the world, if they have education, they can achieve anything. And without education, they can do nothing.”

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Hamas, the Islamic group that governs the Palestianian territory in Gaza, passed a new educational law that mandates separate classes for boys and girls over the age of 9 and also excludes men from working at girls’ school.

Across 18 pages, the law indicates its purpose is to build nationalist values in students, preparing them to be “committed to the Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic culture” and encouraging them “to get to know Palestine with its historic borders, its history and its connection with its milieus.” The law will become active at the start of the next academic year in September.

“This law is a safety valve for our national principles, ” said Yousef Al-Sherafi, a Hamas lawmaker and a member of the education committee. “One male staffer among 20 female teachers in a girls’ school would not allow our sisters to feel comfortable,” he added.

Critics view the law as Hamas’ latest attempt to inculcate the people of Gaza with the Islamic lifestyle. Hamas previously tried to impose Islamic dress on school girls.

In actuality, the segregation of sexes above the age of 9 is already enforced in most government schools. Some speculate that the new ruling targets about a dozen private and Christian schools since implementing it will force these schools to generate new classrooms and teachers for each gender, possibly beyond their capacity.

While the law doesn’t prohibit the teaching of Christian-related subjects to non-Muslim students, it does warn against engaging in ties with Israel: a 10-year prison term and a fine of 20,000 Jordian dinar (about $28,200) awaits any educational institution receiving aid that promotes exchange programs or other activities involving Israelis.

Yet, since Israel’s policy already imposes strict limitations on Palestinians travelling in and out of the city, scarcely any school or association is able to initiative such activities to begin with.

Several rights groups have criticized the ruling, as it darkens the lines between culture, equality, and the law. In a press statement, the Gaza Centre for Womens’ Legal Research and Consulting asserted, “Such decisions don’t help to base Palestinian society on equality and justice, neither do they help the Palestinian cause towards national unity.”

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The Laotian duo Thoummy Silamphan, 26, who lost a limb to unexploded ordinance, and Manixia Thor, a 25-year-old leader of a female bomb clearance team, joined Washington-based nongovernmental organization Legacies of War on its “Voices of Laos” tour across a dozen cities.

Laotians have spent considerable efforts trying to help survivors of UXO explosions. The Cope Center, situated in Vientiane, supports victims and their families by equipping them with prosthetic limbs. Yet although this aid is present, the country needs support from larger nations if it is to deal with the issue in a fast, safe, and efficient manner.

Experts assume that more the 30% of the ordinance dropped on the country failed to detonate, leaving vast areas of the country treacherous to all who live or visit there. The north and the eastern Vietnamese border are the areas most affected, creating hundreds of annual injuries.

“To this day there are 600 living survivors of UXO [unexploded ordnance] explosions and many of them are children, Thoummy told RFA’s Lao Service in an interview last week. “Of the 600 survivors, less than 100 have received any aid and are in desperate need of it,” he said.

The tour around the US has been dubbed ‘ Voices of Laos,’  and began in New York on April 3 when the United Nations marked the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

Funded by the U.S. State Department, the trip has taken the two young Lao speakers through California, Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota, and culminates in the U.S. capital on April 30—the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

The ultimate purpose of the tour is to raise awareness about the issue, giving lectures and holding discussions about how Laotians lives have been affected. The true source of inspiration for the young travelling Laotians stems from Thoummy’s  realization that he is lucky to have been one of the very few to receive aid. His desire to attain an equal amount of attention for his country men is what has brought him overseas. “I would like Americans to be aware of the UXO problems in Laos and help us out,” he told RFA.

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Bagan, Myanmar

Share of the Week is open content stuff so great and awesome that we can’t keep it to ourselves.

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These street children, known as talibés, have been sent away from their families to attend Koranic school in the capital. A religious education is highly valued in Senegalese culture, and many legitimate schools, or daaras, exist. The problem stems from unethical daaras that traffic children in from rural areas and neighboring West African countries, and put them to work begging on the streets to earn money for the marabout, the head of the school.

Reports abound of children going hungry, living in filthy conditions, and receiving no education outside of memorizing the Koran. According to reporter Jane Labous, these children lack knowledge of fundamental subjects like math, and even the teenagers “can neither speak, read, nor write French – Senegal’s official language.”

Plan International has partnered with USAID to better conditions for talibés through the Basic Education Project. Over 100 daaras have enrolled in the program, which introduces school subjects into the curriculum, provides uniforms and materials, and improves living conditions. One goal of the project is to eventually re-enroll the children in formal school and help older teenagers find a profession.

Recently the government of Senegal has also begun to take action. In March 2013, President Macky Sall declared that all daaras that do not meet safety standards would be shut down, following a tragic fire in an overcrowded daara that killed nine children. The government is also expected to announce a new program to regulate education in these religious schools.

More measures to aid talibés have been coming from UNICEF, including a program of conditional cash transfers to help impoverished families feed their children, thus helping prevent trafficking. UNICEF is also working to identify street children in urban areas and reunite them with their families.

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Opened in 1963 in Mbabane, Swaziland, in opposition to South Africa’s apartheid regime, Waterford School was branded as “unnatural” by the South African government. Founder Michael Stern, a British teacher, was inspired to immigrate to southern Africa to educate students in an atmosphere of equality and tolerance. He opened Waterford School to children of all races, to show that students excel when educated side-by-side and given equal opportunities. Supporters of Waterford at the time of its founding included Swazi king Sobhuza II, who named it kamhlaba, meaning “of one world.”

Waterford’s curriculum emphasizes leadership, personal responsibility, and courage. Students participate in the International Baccalaureate program, and complete community service projects throughout the semester. Panelists and audiences for this year’s Forum on Youth and Leadership discussed challenges and opportunities facing youth in Africa. The school is also a member of the United World Colleges, a movement that brings together students from around the world in peace and sustainability efforts.

“We represent equal access to good education,” notes Bruce Wells, Acting Principal. Waterford takes this mission seriously. In addition to the children of diplomats and royalty, Waterford educates students from the world’s conflict zones, and those struggling financially. About one third of the school’s population receives tuition assistance.

Waterford School has long attracted exemplary pupils from Africa and abroad. It has educated over 5000 students from 86 countries. Former students include the children of Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and Walter Sisulu. The school currently has 600 students from 50 countries.

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According to official reports, education reform has been a pivotal issue since Kim Jong-un assumed the supreme leadership role of North Korea. Last fall, the Supreme People’s Assembly approved an education bill which proposed to tack on one extra year of compulsory education while also dividing the secondary school curriculum into three two-year periods.

Educational experts from abroad remain unconvinced that the country has the needed resources to apply the series of changes by the next academic year.

“Since Kim Jong-un took power, North Korea has been focusing on education reforms, but the conditions for training teachers and procuring education tools and materials are not that easy given the (difficult) environment the country is facing domestically and externally,” said Yang Moo-jin, a political science professor at the University of North Korean Studies. “The country may take some time and face difficulties in the short run before the new system takes off.”

Teachers now face increasing pressure to implement these rapid changes and adopt never-done-before approaches to learning in order to put the country’s technological and scientific capacities better in line with the demands of the modern world.

Skepticism of the education bill is not internationally exclusive, with state media also raising some concerns. According to an article by Rodong Sinmun, a mainstream newspaper, current inadequacies in teacher training staff and resources will serve as the most critical roadblocks to the reform.

Kim Yong-chol, an official at Kim Hyung-jik University of Education, stated, “one of the pressing issues for successfully implementing the 12-year compulsory education system is teacher training.”

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Per the plan, the country aims to increase the number of Master’s degrees earned by college lecturers at higher education institutions, research center employees, and ministry and other state officials.

The teaching profession will receive 60 percent of the funding; the remainder will be allocated among research institutions and government agencies.

Students demonstrating exceptional talents in science, as well as other technically specialized fields, will be hand-picked to enroll in “high-quality programs” at undergraduate universities in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia.

According to reports, Vietnam’s long-ranging goal is to have 1,650 people graduate with Master’s degrees and another 150 achieve university degrees by 2020.

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