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Tokyo (CNN) -- Students in many districts across Japan brushed off their uniforms and shouldered their bookbags for the first day of the new school year on Wednesday. But while most were worried about meeting their new teachers or what their class schedules might be, some were facing the threat of nuclear contamination or the loss of former classmates.

"I just got a letter from my mom," he said. "It says that she is hurting because we're separated. But she says don't worry, we will go home together after the nuclear power plant settles down."

"I haven't got used to the life yet, because I have to live separately from my mom," he said walking into the Minamisuna Primary School. "I miss her."

Minister of Education Anne Tolley has reasserted a Government order for secondary principals to toughen up on school bullying.

The meeting followed a government letter being sent to every school board expressing concern over recent reports of extreme bullying

Grassroots Soccer is an innovative organization that uses the power of soccer as an entry point to achieve its main objective of providing rigorous health education, focusing on HIV and AIDS

Led by coaches, in addition to engaging students in critical learning about HIV prevention, the program provides psychosocial support and the opportunity for kids to form trusting relationships with responsible adults who are role models.

the Grassroots approach of using fun and games achieves results. In a 2007 evaluation, it was found that children who went through the program had significantly reduced incidences of multiple sex partners compared to children who did not participate.

At the end of this week, Southern Sudan will become an independent nation. Citizens of the newest country in the world, the people of Southern Sudan face immense challenges and immediate threats.

They also stand before a unique opportunity to build a country that is free of war, respectful of human rights and prosperous. Education will play a pivotal role in the future stability and economic development of Southern Sudan.

more than 100,000 Sudanese civilians have been displaced due to recent clashes over the contested border district of Abyei. About half of them are children who are being exposed to hunger, violence and disease. They are often separated from their parents and out of school due to the conflict.

Dominic, 6, from St Mary's Primary School in Erskineville, is one of the students whose command of technology is being harnessed in the trial use of iPads to boost literacy skills. Teachers in the Sydney Catholic diocese are trialling the iPads with children in reading recovery, a remedial program for year 1 students, with encouraging results.

The trial is in its early stages but integrating the iPad into lessons ''seems to unleash an engagement in learning, an increase in motivation and previously unseen independence in the reading and writing process''.

Kokolo is 20, just a few years older than her audience of 11th grade students at the Manzomthombo Senior Secondary School. The law student is part of a peer education effort that has young people teaching other young people about AIDS and prevention. "It works best when they get down to the real reasons why these kids are engaging in these behaviors and trying to warn them about the risks," said Melani-Ann Cook, a project manager for the program. "What we've found is that when our peer educators go (to the schools) ... they really look up to them." The success of the program and others like it is vitally important to the future of South Africa, which has the largest population of HIV-positive people in the world.

Peer education is only one of a wide array of programs under way to combat the problem. Some stress safe sex, use of condoms and care in selecting partners. Others stress abstinence. Some try to curb drug and alcohol use. Still others take aim at changing attitudes, gender roles, after school activities and erasing the stigma that attached to AIDS.

Each classroom consists of 18 to 20 kids and is named after a child killed in the war. Children paint various forms of the rebels' star-and-crescent flag. The girls learn to stitch small pillows as gifts to families who lost relatives in the fighting. Scrawled on a blackboard in Arabic is "Free Libya, out with Gadhafi."But mainly, Saffar said, the school is a way for the children to play, meet their friends and act their age."Our goal was to allow the children to express their emotions about what they have just gone through," said Saffar. "They are allowed to run free in the playground, sing, play, draw — whatever helps them to forget."

Teachers at Ras Mouftah said the children's behavior reflects what they have been through: They are rougher with each other, and new words have crept into their vocabulary — Kalashnikov, mortar, rape."Instead of cartoons they are now watching the news. They can even distinguish the types of rockets that fly overhead," said Fatma Tuweilab, a volunteer at the school.

In spite of numerous interventions by governments to ensure quality basic education for all Ghanaian children, the majority of children of school-going age in some parts of the Northern Region are still not in school.

Against this backdrop, the Right To Play, a child-centered international non-governmental organisation (NGO) operating in the three northern regions, has taken steps to ensure that all children of school-going age in their operational areas are enrolled in school.

The Right To Play, currently, operates in about 50 communities in four districts in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions. The NGO is using all forms of play activities including drama, talent hunt and football competitions to effect changes in the behaviour and development of its target groups.

WAJIR, Kenya, 26 September – 2011 – In a futile attempt to save the last of the goats, Ali Yusef Omar, 16, and one of his younger sisters had no other option but to feed the ravenous animals handfuls of shredded-up cardboard boxes they had scavenged from the local town. Kept in a make-shift pen made of thorn bushes, only three remain out of a herd that had once numbered two hundred. “Of course these goats are going to die,” said the boy with a resigned shrug of his shoulders. “You think they’re going to survive on boxes?” Burdened with the adult responsibility of providing for his mother and five half brothers and sisters, Ali was sent to town to attend high school, with the hope that it would lead to a job that could support his family. When the rains dwindled, however, so have his chances of remaining in school.

Trying to get an education had already been a struggle – now it’s a monumental challenge. Sharing a simple hut made of branches and straw with the rest of the family, Ali is forced to do his homework by flashlight.