Education News

Op-Ed: Women continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields

Despite government campaigns women remain underrepresented in science and technology. Despite what an infamous ex-Google employee wrote, this is nothing innate. The low levels reflect institutional and societal biases.

Partition key battleground in India, Pakistan textbook wars

By AFP

Islamabad - Pakistani high school student Noman Afzal knows "traitorous" Hindus are to blame for the bloodshed that erupted when British India split into two nations 70 years ago. His history textbook tells him so.

Zimbabwe plans $1 billion 'Mugabe University'

By AFP

Harare - Cash-strapped Zimbabwe announced Wednesday that it plans to build a $1 billion university to honour Robert Mugabe, the 93-year-old president accused of brutal repression and bringing the country to economic ruin.

Partition key battleground in India, Pakistan textbook wars

By AFP

Artificial intelligence used to mark exam essays

By Tim Sandle

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to mark exam papers, taking the human marker out of the equation. This is not simple multiple choice scanning, but assessing essays too. One example is Assessment21, developed at the University of Manches

Digital technology provides personalized learning

By Tim Sandle

The digital transformation of education allows schools to move away from the one-size-fits-all approach to learning and adopt individual learning plans for students, based on individual ability. New apps help to design this process.

Increasing use of virtual reality in education

By Tim Sandle

Education is undergoing a digital transformation and one area being utilized to boost scholastic achievements is the application of virtual reality.

The Laos teens beating poverty as novice monks

By AFP

Luang Prabang - Each dawn, lines of teenage monks in orange robes criss-cross the temple-studded streets of Luang Prabang, the religious heart of Laos and the storied seat of kings and colonisers.

'Disturbing' sexual harassment at Australian universities

By AFP

Sydney - More than half of university students in Australia were sexually harassed last year and seven percent sexually assaulted on at least one occasion, a "disturbing" new national study revealed Tuesday.

School's out: migrants learn French on banks of Paris canal

By AFP

Paris - Sitting in rows on a grassy embankment overlooking a Paris square, around 50 asylum-seekers recite the alphabet in French following a young woman pointing to letters on a whiteboard.

Clooneys to help 3,000 Syrian children in Lebanon

By AFP

New York - George and Amal Clooney plan to help nearly 3,000 Syrian refugee children go to school this year in Lebanon, where the United Nations says around 200,000 Syrian refugee children are out of education.

Schoolgirls in Iraq's Mosul aim to catch up on lost years

By AFP

Mosul - Despite having fallen three years behind their peers elsewhere in Iraq, it's been mostly smiles all around for the girls at Mosul's Trablus school since it reopened its damaged gates after the jihadists fled.

Court orders Dutch govt to finance new Islamic school

By AFP

Den Haag - The Dutch government on was Wednesday ordered, by the country's highest court, to approve funding for a new Islamic school in Amsterdam which it had sought to ban.

Demonstrators backing Turkey hunger strikers arrested

By AFP

Ankara - Turkish police arrested dozens of people demonstrating in support of two hunger strikers in Ankara on Sunday, firing tear gas to break up the demonstration, an AFP journalist reported.

'Happy' Afghan girls compete at robotics meet after US visa woes

By AFP

Washington - Huddled around a small table in the halls of a cavernous Washington concert hall, a group of Afghan teenage girls tweak gears and sprockets on their radio-controlled robot, hoping to best the competition.

Malala meets her Chibok 'heroes' in Nigeria

By AFP

Abuja - Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on Monday called for a "state of emergency for education" in Nigeria, as she visited the country and met some of the Chibok schoolgirls whose cause she championed.

'Happy' Afghan girls compete at robotics meet after US visa woes

By AFP

Name lit up in lights: London's West End stirs dreams

By AFP

London - They're in their early 20s and dream of, one day, singing and dancing on stage in London's world-famous West End. But students at one of Britain's top drama schools face a gruelling path to stardom.

Guinea-Bissau parents coax truant teachers back to school

By AFP

Cacheu - The school year is ending in the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, but some pupils will hardly notice the difference.

Mastering manners at Switzerland's last finishing school

By AFP

Waadt - Eight women sit primly around an elaborately set table making pleasant small-talk about the weather, as immaculately starched waiting staff stand at the ready.

Special class for Rio's teachers: how to survive a shooting

By AFP

Rio De Janeiro - Teachers in violence-wracked Rio de Janeiro started a new course on Monday -- they are learning how to react to the shootings and violence plaguing the host city of last year's Olympic Games.

Outcry as Turkey moves evolution from curriculum

By AFP

Ankara - A move by the Turkish education ministry to remove evolution from the national school curriculum has sparked an outcry and accusations the government is "brainwashing" students.

Google wants to teach children about the world using Earth

By James Walker

The new version of Google Earth is being updated with a set of extra Voyager tours aimed specifically at educational use. They have been created in partnership with several media and conservation firms and are designed to let children explore the world.

Tanzania president says teen mothers should quit school

By AFP

Nairobi - Tanzania President John Magufuli said students who become pregnant should not be allowed to finish their studies after giving birth, sparking outrage from women's rights campaign groups. "I give money for a student to study for free.

Tanzania president says teen mothers should quit school

By AFP

One in five children in developed world in relative poverty: UN

By AFP

Paris - One in five children in rich countries lives in relative poverty, according to a UNICEF report published Thursday that put the US and New Zealand among the world's worst performers for youth well-being.

Norway to ban full-face Muslim veil in all schools

By AFP

Oslo - The Norwegian government on Monday proposed a bill to ban the full-face Muslim veil in all schools, from nurseries to universities, saying it hinders communication between students and teachers.

Puerto Rico crisis hits public education -- a way out for the poor

By AFP

San Juan - Beraliz Germocen still can't believe she won a scholarship to the University of Puerto Rico, but her dream school has been closed by weeks of student strikes, threatening her ticket out of poverty.

Soros's baby, Orban's enemy: the Central European University

By AFP

Budapest - The Central European University, co-founded by billionaire George Soros after the fall of communism to help eastern and central Europe's transition to democracy, is in the crosshairs of Hungary's government.

Op-Ed: U.K. election 2017: What do the parties say about education?

By Tim Sandle

London - A hotly discussed topic during the run-up to the British General Election is education, both at school age and for further and higher education (up to university level). As with many other issues, there are key policy differences.