Worldcrunch
-OpEd- BEIJING — When Macau authorities recently uncovered a prostitution ring, the most shocking aspect of the case was that its alleged mastermind was a 16-year-old boy. Needless to say, the teenager in Macau, one of two special Chinese administrative regions, represents an extreme example of the more diffused problem of the millions of minors […]
BAGUIO — In South Korea, learning English is a national obsession. Families pay billions of dollars a year on extra curricular education so their children can enroll in top universities and later land high-paying jobs that require good English skills. But it’s not always affordable at home, which is why the Philippines, where English is one of the two official languages, has become one of Korea’s top destinations for overseas language education. Like almost every other South Korean high school student, 17-year-old Kang Tae-won spends every weekday evening at a private academy learning English. He believes his future depends on […]
LONDON — At London’s Ladbroke Grove Tube station, a very steep set of stairs leads down to street level. If you turn right at the foot of the stairs it is only a short stroll to the famous Portobello Market and the even more famous Nottinghill, with its pubs and clubs, designer shops and cream […]
For the past 50 years, religion has been a key element in Moroccan diplomacy with its African neighbors. Now it’s part of the fight against Islamic terrorism on the continent.
Families of certain social standing in Egypt often educate their children in English. Publishing houses too are getting in on the Anglo influence, publishing literary works and texts written directly in English.
A German biologist spent two years on a project whose aim was to understand how people with Down syndrome think about the world. She wound up creating a magazine that capitalizes on their intelligence.
Countless displaced by the war in Syria include those forced to move from one part of the country to another. Misery tends to follow.
STOCKHOLM — Tove likes math because it’s so logical, the sixth grader says. If she doesn’t understand a question, the boy who sits next to her, Viggo, repeats it for her. Tove is deaf and wears a hearing aid, though it’s not visible under her long blonde hair. But it’s the reason that during class […]
In China, there is no shortage of economic commitment to research and technical advancement. But state graft and insider favors drive the process rather than a pure pursuit of innovation.
A mini boom in Chinese-language studies has hit Cambodia, which not only trades with mainland China but also counts many ethnic Chinese among its business leaders.
After last week’s deadly attacks in Paris, a passionate open letter from four high school teachers in a French neighborhood not unlike those where the killers grew up.
In the socially and religiously mixed neighborhood in northern Paris, security precautions at Lucien de Hirsch Lycée are high, but they were even before last week’s attacks.
A surprising take on China’s approach to education, and what it means for the country’s future.
CAIRO — Yasmine Hamed worked hard to save money for her marriage five years ago. But by the time her daughter Jannah was old enough for school, she realized that the savings race would have to start all over. Hamed had stopped working as a secretary after bouncing between two jobs so she could finally […]
Thailand takes national pride very seriously. Every morning in schools throughout the country, students gather to salute the flag, stand at attention — hands out of pockets — and sing patriotic songs.
GOMA — Teachers raping their students is tragically all too common in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But in the eastern region of South Kivu, it is a reality that is now finally being confronted, with the establishment of local committees in which parents, education officials and students report and track sexual assaults in […]
Gabi Orrù, a fifth-grade teacher at the Heinrich Andresen School in the northern German town of Sterup, has a staff of two, but they aren’t paid a dime and sometimes they scratch their ears during class. Her assistants, Stableford and Dimple, are Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers, who have been coming to morning classes since […]
HONG KONG — A journalist from mainland China asked me recently whether the current unrest in Hong Kong is perhaps because residents there “are losing their confidence.” The question took me by surprise. I’ve heard people in Hong Kong complain and criticize a lot, particularly with regards to Chinese mainlanders, but I never thought these […]
Thomas Sankara, the Marxist icon of the 1980s, was killed in a coup by now ousted Burkina Faso leader Compaore. Today’s youth movement is still inspired by the African revolutionary.
Germany’s prestigious technical universities have become a magnet for Chinese students. But not all adjust well, while German’s intelligence agency suspect some are spies.
BUENOS AIRES — A bit bored by that class on basic accounting? How about a course instead on money laundering? Or maybe one on how to stop transnational mafia groups? Some Argentine students will soon have access to just that kind of course material because certain universities, concerned about the expansion of organized crime in […]
Contrary to the West, where obesity rates are higher in poorer, less well-educated areas, China’s overweight youth are from wealthy families. It has been dubbed a “disease of affluence.”
The best-selling Argentine therapist pens a new book meant to help modern generations find a simpler path and, along the way, harmony and happiness. Self-help with a Latin twist.
MYITKYINA — For the first time in 40 years, ethnic languages are going to be taught in schools in Burma, also known as Myanmar. Starting next June, students from different ethnic communities will be able learn their mother tongue not only at home, but also in the classroom. When the military junta led by General Ne Win came to power in 1962, Burmese became the official national language, and teaching ethnic languages in schools was banned under the “national language policy.” In the outskirts of Myitkyina, in the northern state of Kachin, there is a summer school where children are […]
European universities are a bastion of original thinking, but as more and more gets taught and learned in the English-language, conformism is bound to spread.
Young do-gooders flock to Cambodian orphanages to volunteer, sometimes paying for the privilege. But child advocates worry if these visitors are more harmful than helpful.
BEIJING — While September is the moment for most children go back to school or start for the first time, more than 80% of the approximately 500,000 school-aged disabled children from China’s migrant families have never been schooled. Twenty Chinese organizations have just published a public letter calling on the Ministry of Education to change […]
A growing number of China’s upper class are investing in a foreign education for their children. There are costs and benefits, debates about teaching styles — and always some surprises.
Boys in the eastern city of Raqqa are forced into military training, and say their ISIS instructors show them how to decapitate blond-haired, blue-eyed dolls with kitchen knives.
Parents and health experts in had voiced outrage that the American fast-food giant was behind a program to teach German students about good nutrition.
The country’s proposed reforms don’t consider the two elephants in the room, an expert warns: below-mimimum-wage teacher salaries and goals for graduates.
More than two million Syrian children have lost all access to education. In western Syria, one principal is looking to change things.
Known as the “household registration” system, hukou has denied certain basic rights to millions who have migrated from rural to urban areas. This may be set to change radically.
Children as young as four are the main breadwinners for some families in the Syrian capital.
KATHMANDU — Uttam Sanjel, founder of Samata School, stands before the morning assembly. Samata means “equal for all.” Today he wants to talk about a story from one of his students, whose mother celebrated the birth of a son over a daughter. “After five girls, my mom finally had a boy. She named him “Holy life water.” But our life has become more difficult. Why is it happening? It’s all because of lack of education. You have to tell your family and neighbors that sons and daughters are equal.” They then sing a song called, “Mother is Great, Love Her, […]
Argentina is the patriarchal latecomer after moves by several Latin Americans to adopt norms to outlaw any physical violence inflicted on children.
New data shows high crime rates among children of the millions of rural migrants who moved to Chinese cities – both those brought along with their parents, and the ‘left-behind’ children.
Brazil’s national sport of ‘futebol’ is the expression of all that is right in a sometimes troubled country. Plans by protestors to take out their anger on the World Cup are destined to fail.
Many Syrian children are forced to leave school and work as child laborers for employers who ofter mistreat them. New statistics shows a 30% drop in school attendance since the war began.
KARACHI — It’s time for the evening prayer at the Edhi Shelter Home in Karachi, Pakistan. For nine-year-old Rehmatullah Khan, it’s a reminder of a painful childhood past. His parents sent him to an Islamic boarding school in the northwestern city of Quetta when he was just three. “At seminary, my teacher would beat me and the other students,” he recalls. “The teacher would beat us for not memorizing the lessons or making a noise. He sometimes hit us with sticks and would punch me when the other students told him it was me making noise in the classroom.” After […]