Education

Goodbye, Obama: A West African’s Loving Farewell

Opinion by Essan Emile Ako
• January 9, 2017

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The 2008 United States presidential election was an incredible time for me, here in West Africa. The election contributed to shaping my leadership skills and affected the course of my life. I used to take…

Categories: Africa, Education, OPINIONS, US Foreign Relations

Young US Graduates Falter in Knowledge of World Affairs, a Survey Finds

Barbara Crossette
• October 7, 2016

In a crucial political year when candidates’ knowledge — or ignorance — of international affairs and foreign policy are topics among public debate in the United States, a new survey of what young Americans of college age, many of them…

Categories: Education

John Kerry Celebrates Diversity (and His Niece) at UN School Graduation

Barbara Crossette
• June 4, 2016

For the class of 2016 at the United Nations International School in Manhattan, graduation on June 2 was a special event, held in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. The speaker was Secretary of State John Kerry, who seized…

Categories: Education, US Foreign Relations

Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

Failing Public Schools Spur Global Boom in Private Education

Barbara Crossette
• May 16, 2016

While governments bask in data showing that the development goal of universal access to primary education has largely been achieved, attention is turning to what that really means in the classroom. Educators and human-rights advocates question whether acceptable standards…

Categories: Education, India, SDGs

Syria’s Academics, Caught ‘Between a Hammer and a Hard Place’

Barbara Crossette
• February 7, 2016

He can’t risk the lives of family members by identifying himself by name, but he is willing to tell his story, a reflection of what has happened to intellectual life in what was once a center of higher education…

Categories: Education, Middle East

In UN Refugee Camps, Sports Soothe Trauma for Children

Laura E. Kirkpatrick
• January 27, 2016

“Sport is the only area of human existence that has achieved universal law,” said Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee when he announced that elite athletes who were refugees could compete in the 2016 Olympics under…

Categories: Education, Gender Violence, Health and Population, Refugees

A New UN Nutrition Program Financed by Africans for Africans

Tendai Musakwa
• November 10, 2015

The first United Nations development aid program financed solely by African countries for their own benefit was announced recently at the UN headquarters in New York. Unitlife, which was presented as world leaders convened at the 70th session of…

Categories: Africa, Development, Education, Health and Population, Women

Finding True Power for Women and Girls: The UN Goals’ Toughest Task

Barbara Crossette
• October 27, 2015

Challenged by the staggering agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to abolish most of the world’s ills within 15 years, research organizations, advocacy groups and objective demographers had begun to do the math well before the goals were…

Categories: Africa, Asia, Education, SDGs, Women

Rights of Girls, a Politically Loaded Issue, May Sink in the New UN Development Goals

Barbara Crossette
• September 8, 2015

When member countries of the United Nations agreed to the Millennium Development Goals 15 years ago, advocates for stronger rights for women and girls were disappointed as governments (and the Vatican) balked at reasserting the bold promises of the…

Categories: Development, Education, SDGs

Saving Scholars Who Become Victimized in the Middle East

Chris Chaky
• August 20, 2015

Khalid al-Asaad, an internationally recognized Syrian scholar of antiquities, was beheaded by ISIS on Aug. 18 for refusing to disclose the location of archeological treasures apparently removed for safekeeping from Palmyra, one of the Middle East’s most important archeological landmarks…

Categories: Education, Middle East

Rising Attacks and Cultural Obstacles Denying Education for Girls

Barbara Crossette
• February 13, 2015

In the few months remaining before a new set of development goals are set to be adopted in the United Nations to replace the Millennium Development Goals, specialists in many fields will be drilling down into why some of…

Categories: Education, Gender Violence, Human Rights, SDGs

Favela Girls Pirouette Out of Poverty in Brazil

Kamayani Bali-Mahabal
• January 27, 2015

FORTALEZA, Brazil — Bom Jardim, home to some 200,000 people, is one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in this city. Located at the southwestern tip of the metropolis, with long streets laid in a grid, the signs…

Categories: Education, Poverty

Millions of Children Remain Out of School, Many of Them Girls

Danielle M. Bennett
• August 13, 2014

Positive trends in education have been achieved in 17 countries, where out-of-school populations, one-quarter of the global total, have been reduced by nearly 90 percent since 2000, says a new report from Unesco. But with progress comes a sobering…

Categories: Education, Women

Spreading the Word About the UN in Classrooms

Danielle M. Bennett
• June 26, 2014

Bill Yotive’s job is to educate young students all over the world on how the United Nations functions and to teach them about its current agenda on global affairs. His work requires capturing youngsters’ attention, which can naturally drift,…

Categories: Education

Girls’ Education Progresses in Afghanistan, but Will It Last?

Shiwani Neupane
• March 30, 2014

Since the United States-led coalition toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, education for girls has become more accessible in some parts of the country, but many factors continue to stymie its progress. Panelists discussed girls’ education in Afghanistan…