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In Rwanda, children with disabilities typically face discrimination and are excluded from school and community life. Silas Ngayaboshya, a local programme manager for Handicap International (HI), says that "many families hide their kids at home because having a disability is a shameful thing for the child and the family, as it's considered to be a punishment from God".

Rwanda's ministry of education says that 10% of young people have disabilities, while the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2010 concludes that the number of disabled children at school is likely to be small. A few attend their local mainstream school, though most go to special schools and centres in urban areas, too far for most Rwandans and mainly for children with visual or hearing impairments.

Despite these shortcomings, Rwanda's education system overall is considered to be one of the most progressive in Africa. The government recently introduced free compulsory education for the first nine years of school for all Rwandan children (this initiative is expected to increase to 12 years from next year). According to Unicef, Rwanda now has one of the highest primary school enrolment rates in Africa (95% of boys and 97% of girls in 2009). 

“I believe the school environment was the main reason I dropped out. Mainly, I didn’t feel that I was learning anything. Teachers preferred using force and intimidation instead of listening to the students. I wasn’t able to understand a thing during class, and was constantly so scared.”

“I thought many times of going back to school, especially since my new school is very close to home. But at the time, my parents said I was too old to go back and that I’ll soon get married and have a home of my own. I still felt something missing from my life, and it was difficult for me to see my peers at the preparatory level going to school every day, while I stayed home.”

Safaa had the unique chance to tell her story to the USAID Mission Director, Mr. Jim Bever, on a surprise visit to Abou Harb School. “It was a really nice visit and had a huge impact on me. People came from such a far off place to visit our school, and spend time to talk to me! It really made a difference to me personally. I felt important and people were interested in listening to me and what I had to say.”

PeaceBuilders is an organization that provides training for teachers, parents and others involved in the lives and wellbeing of young children and teens. The training goes beyond the nurturing and disciplinary aspects usually associated with child care, and also strives for a peaceful environment more conducive to learning.

One of the steps teachers will implement as part of the PeaceBuilders program will be a campaign to give up "put-downs." Other time will include the PeaceBuilders pledge, "praise people" activities, and seeking wise people for input, making them the subjects in a PeaceBuilders Hall of Fame.

Teachers were also offered tips as "First Aid for Anger," strategies that work well in a school setting as well as the home, to help build a more positive life."It's a program that has many applications in life, regardless of age," Bustos said.

QUEBEC — All public and private schools in Quebec will have to adopt an anti-bullying, anti-violence plan under Bill 56, presented Wednesday in the provincial legislature by Education Minister Line Beauchamp.The minister also announced a major media campaign against bullying, in partnership with publicly owned Tele-Quebec, and Quebecor Inc., urging people to be "ordinary heroes" by standing up to bullies."Bullying doesn't start at 8 a.m. and doesn't finish at 4 p.m.," the minister said, adding that everyone has to get involved and the new policy will extend to cyber bullying as well.

Nearly 1 million youth between the ages of 12 and 18 have been cyberbullied (Robers, Zhang, & Truman, 2010). This anthology, co-edited by two widely published and recognized experts in online safety, is an ambitious compendium of the latest research and resources related to cyberbullying. Early chapters describe how the generational technology gap between many adults and youth magnify the challenge in educating adults about what cyberbullying is and how it can be addressed. In Chapter 1, Anne Collier depicts a modern, “living Internet” where young people (and others) contribute and consume both informational and behavioral content in a social space that youth do not perceive as being separate from their “real life” off-line. The dynamic nature of the web is one of the reasons why Collier recommends “…creating cultures of self-regulation [emphasis in original] which include critical thinking…and respect for others at home and school (p.3)” as a strategy to protect youth from cyberbullying and other online risks.

New research suggests that females such as Ms. Lee may be particularly vulnerable to bullying from other females, even as rates of male bullying decline. It’s a troubling finding that highlights where parents, educators and policy makers may need to focus their efforts to counter the effects of school-related bullying.

A comprehensive report released last month by researchers from the Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found that while overall rates of bullying have remained relatively stable in recent years, some significant gender disparities have emerged.

The study found that nearly one-third, or 29 per cent, of students reported being bullied since the start of the school year.

NIAMEY, Niger, 6 February 2012 – The effect of food insecurity on children’s health is obvious; children, particularly those under age 5, are vulnerable to life-threatening malnutrition. Less obvious is the devastating impact of the crisis on children’s education. When there is not enough to eat, school can quickly become an afterthought. This is the scenario now facing countless families in the Sahel region of Africa, where a food crisis is looming. Particularly at risk are children in Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad and localized areas of Senegal.

“We have never had so little food,” said Oumou. “Of course, I want to continue going to school, but sometimes I am so hungry and low on energy that I cannot even see the blackboard.”

“Last year was okay, but not this year,” Souleye said. “I eat at school during the day, but it is not enough. Sometimes, I cannot sleep at night because of stomach cramps.”

Investing in Women and Girls Development experts agree that investing in women and girls is critical to achieving broader development goals.

It’s true. After one year of intensive training in rights awareness, health and life skills, vocational training, and social networking, we have seen extraordinary results in the least likely of places. At least 80% of young women in Afghanistan, Nigeria, Kosovo, and Rwanda reported higher confidence and more awareness of their rights, which are critical resources to future political and economic participation in their families and communities. Afghanistan, DRC, Nigeria and Rwanda all had over 75% of young women report a better economic situation. 89% of our young participants in Afghanistan reported their general and family health to be better after graduation, and 87% of young women in Rwanda reported health improvements.

While life for many women in the country remains difficult, today Herat’s Gowarshad High School – named for the powerful Timurid queen who founded the city – is full of confident young girls who are well aware of their rights.

“If a woman is educated, she can effectively participate in society and transfer her knowledge to her children,” said Fariba, the school’s volleyball captain. “A society must not be led by men only.”

the Bangladeshi non-governmental organization BRAC runs a community-based school where girls who have not been able to enter the formal education system can get a basic education. There girls are tutored for two years, at which point they are prepared to join the formal school system at the fourth-grade level.

Ms. Fanilievna added that Kyrgyzstan’s schools are planning to include peace and tolerance education in response to the recent strife. The first month of school will be dedicated to Peace and Reconciliation, and UNICEF has cooperated with The Ministry of Education to finalize the peace-building lessons which will be integrated in the regular curriculum.

As the head teacher speaks, several female principals from other Osh schools come to the distribution point at Lomonosov to pick up their School-in-a-Box kits – bundles of basic education supplies designed for up to 80 students in an emergency setting – which were delivered by UNICEF to some 277 schools in Osh and Jalal Abad provinces.

“All the rest of my life depends on my education, and you find your best friends at school,” she said. “Schools also have a great peace-building potential as they are uniting students from different backgrounds.“For instance, at Lomonosov School we have 14 ethnicities,” Nazbiyke added. “We communicate and stay friends. Our hope is that this, in turn, will influence our parents and the community.”Nazbiyke knows that her parents are aware of the major role schools play in bringing peace back to the communities. The vital effect of school starting, of teachers and students coming together, resounds through Osh. It is bringing a sense of normalcy to a province that desperately needs it.

Enrolment at primary schools nationwide has leapt from 59% in 2000 to 95.4% today, putting the impoverished country well on course to achieve the second millennium development goal (MDG) of primary school education for all by 2015.

half of pupils will fail to qualify for secondary school, with 3,000 girls a year dropping out due to pregnancy.

The progress has come with a lesson in the law of unintended consequences. Enrolment has grown so fast in Tanzania that the school system is creaking with overcrowded classrooms, shortages of books, teachers and toilets, and reports of corporal punishment being used to keep order. In short, it seems that quality has been sacrificed for quantity.

even though the government has subsidised secondary school education, parents are still digging deep into their pockets. GA_googleFillSlot( "AllAfrica_Story_InsetA" ); GA_googleCreateDomIframe('google_ads_div_AllAfrica_Story_InsetA' ,'AllAfrica_Story_InsetA'); Each student, under the Free Secondary Education introduced in 2008, is allocated Sh10,265 a year. But the burden on parents remains heavy because of other requirements. For Ms Maureen Ngui, shopping for her first born-daughter, Grace Aurelia Akinyi, life has never been more hectic. "I have spent Sh30,000 on personal effects and textbooks yet it seems I am only halfway through," she said.

Under the "Child Friendly Schools" campaign launched in partnership with the United Nations, the students who will be joining secondary schools today shall not be allocated duties in the roster until the middle of the first term.

The principals are also organising a series of talks, commonly referred to as barazas, to hear the views of the students on various issues.

“My seven-year-old said he will only go to school if I sit beside him,” said Jean “Neil” Moretta,

Neil “Junior” and his mother, Kateline, were at her aunt’s house when the 12 January earthquake struck, so were unharmed when their apartment building collapsed.  But Neil “Junior” is still distraught about losing his home. Luckily, the grown-up Neil had had a house built in Port-au-Prince and already was in the process of moving his family there.  So he’s optimistic things will settle down for his son very soon.

The first days and weeks after the quake were not easy for Neil.  He swiftly relocated his wife and son to their new home.  He helped pay for emergency medical treatment for his wife’s first cousin, Danny, whose leg was crushed when her building collapsed, killing her 5-month-old baby and her aunt.  Neil stayed by her side as volunteer Cuban doctors amputated her leg the day after the earthquake.  The surgery was performed under a tent outside the city’s general hospital.  With no anaesthesia.

Ikotos, South Sudan-a scenic region that belies its tragic past. For the past two decades the area has been ravaged by conflict, disease and deprivation. Basic services are scarce with education facilities suffering from a desperate lack of trained teachers and teaching resources.

Education is vital to the recovery of a region. Education will enable Ikotos' youth to escape a life of poverty and lead prosperous lives.

UNICEF has launched an initiative to get children back to school but there is a significant and unaddressed gap in teacher training. Education was near nonexistent during the civil war and has been slow to recover. Schooling mostly takes place in temporary shacks or under trees with limited or no teaching resources. Only 67 out of 353 primary school teachers in the Ikotos region received any training at all. Not only are most of the teachers untrained but some of have not completed even primary school education. Few have access to basic teaching materials. Without sufficiently trained teachers, increasing the rate of school attendance will be ineffective. With 11,809 pupils in Ikotos needing education, this is a desperate situation and a severe block to Ikotos's recovery.