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In October 2008, the school in Shin Kalay that had been nurtured for years by Dr. Kharoti and Green Village Schools was tragically destroyed and looted by militants with uncertain motives.

Education enhances lives. It ends generational cycles of poverty and disease and provides a foundation for sustainable development. A quality basic education better equips girls and boys with the knowledge and skills  necessary to adopt healthy lifestyles, protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and take an active role in social, economic and political decision-making as they transition to adolescence  and adulthood. Educated adults are more likely to have fewer children, to be informed about appropriate child-rearing practices and to ensure that their children start school on time and are ready to learn.

Education is a fundamental human right: Every child is entitled to it. It is critical to our development as individuals and as societies, and it helps pave the way to a successful and productive future. When we ensure that children have access to a rights-based, quality education that is rooted in gender equality, we create a ripple effect of opportunity that impacts generations to come.

In addition, a rights-based approach to education can address some of societies’ deeply rooted inequalities. These inequalities condemn millions of children, particularly girls, to a life without quality education – and, therefore, to a life of missed opportunities. UNICEF works tirelessly to ensure that every child – regardless of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background or circumstances – has access to a quality education. We focus on gender equality and work towards eliminating disparities of all kinds. Our innovative programmes and initiatives target the world’s most disadvantaged children: the excluded, the vulnerable and the invisible.

Despite their terrible loss, Fawzana and her family seem to have found a measure of comfort and stability in their daily routine. Fawzana’s father helps cut bread for her breakfast while she sleepily brushes her hair and gets her books ready. Then he drives his daughters and their friends to school. The Zahira school has been rebuilt. It now has high, protective walls and an effective electrical system, which the old building lacked. In one new room, rows of computers wait for children to start working the keyboards. Zahira, which serves 500 students, is now equipped with modern, separate toilet facilities for girls and boys. Zahira is one of 35 new schools UNICEF has been helping to build in Sri Lanka following the tsunami. Next door, builders are hard at work on a new secondary school. In Hambantota, as elsewhere, a school has an importance beyond its bricks and mortar. “In the aftermath of the disaster, you have to consider the psychological factor,” says English teacher S.M. Risham. “You know when the students get back to school they have the opportunity of sharing their experience. At the same time they can get a valuable education so that they’ll be able to stand on their own feet.” A new startFawzana and her classmates haven’t forgotten the tsunami. She’s still afraid of the sea at times, especially if it’s rough. But she is also beginning to turn her mind to the future. “I want to be a teacher because I want to follow my mother. I want to see other children studying and I want to help them do that in the future.” Back on the seafront, new fishing boats form a colourful arc, a strong sign that the local fishing industry is being restored. And just as Hambantota’s fishing fleet is a vital economic lifeline, its schools are anchors for the whole community. For Fawzana personally, the revival of the Zahira school represents a new start and new hope.         var emailarticleloc = location.href; emailarticleloc = emailarticleloc.replace("http://www.unicef.org",""); emailarticleloc = emailarticleloc.replace("http://unicef.org",""); var emailarticle = "Email this article Email this article var pageURL = encodeURIComponent("http://www.unicef.org/emerg/disasterinasia/index_36576.html"); var pageTitle = ''; pageTitle = encodeURIComponent("A new school means new hope in tsunami-stricken Hambantota, Sri Lanka").replace(/\'/g,'%27'); var pageBlurb = encodeURIComponent(("HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka, December 2006 – The wave of destruction that swept through Hambantota – a town known for its fishing industry on Sri Lanka’s south coast – is still visible two years later.").replace(/\s+/g,' ').replace(/^\s*/,'')).replace(/\'/g,'%27'); var pageImageOriginal = ""; var pageTitleOriginal = "A new school means new hope in tsunami-stricken Hambantota, Sri Lanka"; var pageBlurbOriginal = "HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka, December 2006 – The wave of destruction that swept through Hambantota – a town known for its fishing industry on Sri Lanka’s south coast – is still visible two years later."; var pageURLOriginal = "http://www.unicef.org/emerg/disasterinasia/index_36576.html"; function createBlogBox(id) { var s = ".unicef_embed h3 a:hover { text-decoration: unde

It's part of an intricate theory of counterinsurgency warfare that involves big money and grinding hard work for a long shot, distant payoff: that kids will grow up in a stable, moderate society not wrenched by extremist violence.That's our exit strategy from the Afghan war.

And, according to U.S. strategists, this school and others like it will help keep boys from drifting away to extremist madrassas in Pakistan and falling into the clutches of the Taliban

When 1.5 million children went back in school in Afghanistan in the spring of 2002, a tough lesson was waiting for them. While the country welcomed some semblance of peace for the first time in years, war remained very much a part of its classrooms. Afghanistan's teachers tried to erase war images from the textbooks, images that got there in the first place due in large part to Cold War policies in the United States.

A student learns to add and subtract bullets Math teachers use bullets as props to

It was pointed out by the RETF in its last visit report that 15 classrooms of this school have been declared dangerous and the students in large number are sitting in open.

These dangerous classrooms may collapse anytime and this Nithari Village of Delhi may be converted into another Nithari of Noida by causing death to many children.  

Most of the classes were being held in the tents, in the open space and in the corridors. The tents were in very pathetic condition and there were big holes in these tents.

In 1985 the structure of the educational pyramid consisted of three years of noncompulsory preschool education; six years in primary school; and six years in middle school, divided into two years of intermediate education and four years of secondary school, or into four years and two years (Plan de Reforma). Students who continued to that point received their high school degree (bachillerato) and might continue to the tertiary education provided by the Dominican universities, which conferred either licentiates (licenciaturas), ingenerias, or doctorados (doctorates—for law and medicine only), depending on the field of study.

I came away from the experience with a lot more than the standard shock at the poverty and conditions in the developing world. Instead, I was surprised by how little is really needed to change those conditions.

The children we worked with were up against more than just shabby schools. In Ecuador, as in many developing countries, public education costs money. Between books, matriculation fees, uniforms, and supplies, each child must pay at least 200 dollars a year—an impossible amount for families living on two dollars a day.

This year, that number totaled 48 matriculating students. Second, we prepare the students with summer courses in mathematics and English, subjects in which the students are typically lacking. Working in accordance with Ecuadorian standards for secondary education, we train volunteers to teach summer classes in the village schools.

Hurricane Ida has strengthened to a Category 2 storm with winds of up to 100 mph. The National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch for southeastern Louisiana that stretches to the Florida Panhandle. It does not include the city of New Orleans, the hurricane center said. The watch means hurricane conditions are possible in the next 36 hours.

In El Salvador, the Interior Minister Humberto Centeno reported 91 people were dead and another 60 are missing following deadly floods and mudslides.

"[School] toilets are not clean and well maintained. The current design and location of toilets are not acceptable for children, particularly girls... There are no facilities for grown-up girls," Stanikzai said.

Support school construction, provide educational materials, train teachers With your help, “Schools for Africa” will support the construction and reconstruction of schools and the provision of education materials in six African countries, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe. It will develop training programmes for teachers and strengthen school governance and management. In the six countries, schools will be established mainly in rural areas.

"The education is offered is good, even though we lack materials. The teachers teach well." But talk to her for a while and you realise that being the best school in Soweto is only relative. "Winter is coming, the windows and doors are broken - the classrooms are not worth being called classrooms. Not all of them have electricity. And the toilets... eish!"

Ten years after the introduction of democracy in South Africa, teachers, pupils and the government all agree that there is still a long way to go in terms of ironing out the inequalities in education.

The region of the Central North of Brazil is a region where there is lack of everything. Children do not go to school because there is no school. Having a job is a difficult task and then children start looking for a job to help the family necessities. Without jobs, children get involved with crimes and drugs, as an alternative to help their families. However, they do not just sell drugs to people who have money, but become users themselves. As a result, they quickly lose any funds they have and then turn to crime.