Category: Education

This study aims to provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of mixed migration movements from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean across South, Central and North America — often referred to in the region as “extra-regional migration flows”. Through a combination of key informant interviews and desk research, this report offers information on: the profiles of extra-regional people on the move; the extent of their access to adequate information before and during their journey; the migration routes and means they use; the smuggling economies and dynamics connected to these movements; the impacts of COVID-19 on migration trends and on the experience of people on the move along this route; the risks and needs that extra-regional refugees and migrants face; the humanitarian response they can rely on; the national and regional migration policies and legal frameworks that apply to these migration flows; and the changes they are likely to undergo in the near future.

In recent years, the journey of extra-regional refugees and migrants across the Americas has started to attract more attention. While there is some literature on their profiles and routes, it does not allow for a comprehensive understanding of these mixed migration movements. The analysis included in this report aims to complement existing knowledge and understanding of extra-regional migration and to contribute to better responses by authorities and humanitarian actors.

Source: Mixed Migration Centre

Manama, Secretary-General of the Higher Education Council and Vice-Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Higher Education Dr. Shaikha Rana bint Isa bin Daij Al Khalifa received Assistant Vice Chairperson for International Cooperation at Sultan Qaboos University Her Highness Dr. Mona bint Fahad Al Said.

Her Highness’s visit is to participate in the “Education Promotes Peaceful Coexistence” conference that will be held under the Royal patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa under the slogan “Ignorance is the enemy of peace,” on December 7-8.

The conference will have a wide international participation from major higher education institutions in the region and the world.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON — Cameroonian officials say a suspected separatist attack on a school this week, which left four students and a teacher dead, has scared hundreds of teachers and students from going to school. Cameroon’s military said it launched a search Thursday for the suspected rebels, who it says were disguised as government troops when they opened fire on the school.

Cameroon’s ministry of secondary education said in a statement Friday several hundred students and teachers have not been to school in Ekondo Titi, an English-speaking western town, since the attack.

Thirty-nine-year-old driver Humphrey Ngum is among the parents who have withdrawn their children from schools in Ekondo Titi. Ngum says he is relocating his son to a school in Douala, a French-speaking commercial town due to insecurity in schools in the English-speaking western regions.

“In the university of Buea, there was a bomb that exploded where there were students and also in Bamenda a stray bullet killed at least a student that was coming back from school, so people should be very careful,” said Ngum. “As a matter of fact, schooling in the North West and South West {regions} is dangerous, that is why you see people from these insecure regions in the schools that are in neighboring towns like Bafoussam and Douala.”

Speaking by telephone from Douala, Ngum said in 2018, he escaped fighting between separatists and government troops in his home town Ekondo Titi and fled to Douala. He said he returned to Ekondo Titi in September when the government assured civilians of their safety and reopened some schools that were closed by separatist fighters in the English-speaking western regions.

The government reported this week that armed attacks on schools scare teachers and students. In Ekondo Titi three students and a 58-year-old French language teacher were shot dead. Another student died a day after he was rushed to a hospital in Buea, a nearby English-speaking town, to be treated for gunshot wounds. All the dead students were between 12 and 17 years of age. Seven students who were wounded are receiving treatment in hospitals in Buea.

The military said explosives were planted by fighters in the school.

Aboloa Timothe is the top government official in Ekondo Titi. He says enough security measures have been taken to protect schools, teachers and students from any further attack. Speaking via WhatsApp, Aboloa pleaded with parents to send their children to school and to the fleeing teachers to return.

“We have deployed our security forces to see if they can get {arrest} the authors of this barbaric act,” said Aboloa. “I have had a crisis meeting with my defence and security staff. I have reassured the education stakeholders on the measures provided so that teaching activities should not be interrupted.”

In a release on Thursday, the military accused separatists for the attack on the school at EkondoTiti . The military said more than 10 fighters led by Ten Kobo, a self-proclaimed separatist general, masterminded the attack.

Ten Kobo has on social media platforms, including WhatsApp and Facebook, denied involvement in the attack. He said the military committed the atrocity and is blaming fighters to give separatists a bad name to the international community.

The military maintains that the attack was carried out by fighters.

The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, CHRDA, says it is imperative for both separatist fighters and government troops to spare teachers and school children. Eyong Tarh is a CHRDA official. He says CHRDA is asking the government to investigate the incident impartially and effectively.

“Schools are a sacred area and schools should not be attacked for whatever reasons,” said Tarh. “If they {military or separatists} are even pursuing somebody for having committed an offense or a crime and the person enters a school, for the fact that shooting that person will affect pupils or students, that action {hiding in a school}, should keep that person safe. Schools are sacred areas and they should be protected.”

Cameroon says at least 11 attacks have been reported on schools in the English-speaking western regions within the past month. At least 10 children have died in the attacks.

The United Nations and International Rights groups have strongly condemned what they call merciless attacks on schools in Cameroon.

Source: Voice of America

Yaoundé, The Humanitarian Coordinator in Cameroon, Mr. Matthias Z. Naab is deeply saddened and shocked by another attack against a school, leading the death of four children and a teacher in the South-West region.

On 24 November, unidentified gunmen attacked a Government Bilingual High School in Ekondo Titi, South-West region. Four students aged 12 to 17 and a teacher were killed, and an unconfirmed number of students and teachers were injured and are receiving treatment.

“I strongly condemn attacks on schools, teachers, and children. They are a serious violation of international human rights law and of the right to education. The perpetrators of such heinous acts and those supporting them must be held accountable. I urge all parties to respect and promote the right to education,” said Mr. Naab.

The opposition against Government administered education by non-State armed groups and subsequent attacks on education continue to mark the crisis in the North-West and South-West of Cameroon. As a result, over 700,000 students remain out of school. Five years into the crisis, attacks against education continue. Violence against education facilities and personnel as well as kidnapping for ransom of children and teachers by non-State armed groups are reported on a regular basis.

 

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

The class of U.S. Rhodes scholars for 2022 includes the largest number of women ever selected for the scholarship in one year, the Rhodes Trust announced Sunday.

Of the 32 students chosen to study at the University of Oxford in England, 22 are women, the office of the American secretary of the trust said in a statement.

One of the women selected is Louise Franke, a 21-year-old senior studying biochemistry at South Carolina’s Clemson University. Franke said she hopes to merge her interests in science and public policy through a career in health care policy. She intends to study politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford.

Franke, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, is also the first Clemson student elected to a Rhodes class. She cited her mentors and various academic programs at the school as integral to her success.

“It feels amazing to be part of this historic moment, as a woman and as a woman from the South,” Franke said. “I don’t really have the words for it.”

Also among the winners is Devashish Basnet, a senior studying political science at New York City’s Hunter College. Basnet arrived in the United States as a 7-year-old asylum seeker from Nepal and spent much of his childhood in immigration courts, an experience he says helped turn his interests toward immigration policy.

Basnet, now 22, of Hicksville, New York, said he was proud to represent the communities he came from, especially as a product of New York City public schools.

“I definitely blacked out. It didn’t feel real,” Basnet said of the moment he learned he had won the prestigious honor over Zoom.

The selection process was completed virtually for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In an otherwise empty classroom at Princeton University, Josh Babu began crying when he heard his name read aloud. The 21-year-old from Scottsdale, Arizona, had planned to go to medical school next year to become a doctor serving LGBTQ populations, a calling he found in college after growing up gay in what he described as a conservative environment.

But a Rhodes scholarship will help Babu embark on a policy career that will touch the lives of many more queer and transgender people, he said. His senior thesis explores the health benefits of gender-affirming medical care for transgender children. That kind of research is necessary, Babu said, because some state lawmakers have sought to limit such care.

“I was hoping to just be a doctor for queer, trans patients,” Babu said. “This now gives me an opportunity to be in health policy and actually affect change at that level” that is “far more widespread and far-reaching.”

Three schools — Claremont McKenna College in California, Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and Union College in New York — have a recipient for the first time in at least 25 years.

All 32 scholars were expected to start at Oxford in October. The scholarship covers financial expenses to attend the school.

Applicants must be endorsed by their college or university. Selection committees from 16 U.S. districts then choose and interview finalists before electing two students from each district.

 

Source: Voice of America

RIO DE JANEIRO — Turnout for Brazil’s standardized university admission exam on Sunday appeared to be the lowest in 15 years, in large part reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s education, according to experts.

Just over 3 million students signed up to take the annual exam, down 44% from last year’s registration and the lowest since 2006. The grueling 5 1/2-hour test, held over two weekends, is the main admission standard for Brazilian universities.

Experts said they expected many of those who registered early this year to be absent Sunday. About half of the 5.7 million who signed up for last year’s tests also failed to show up when they were finally held amid the pandemic.

Extensive school closures and frustration with online teaching affected millions of students across the country.

“It is possible that, due to the interruption of the in-person learning, there is the feeling that there was not enough time to prepare for the exams,” said Claudia Costin, director of the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Education Policies, a research group in Rio de Janeiro.

She also noted that the pandemic caused economic hardships that pushed many to work rather than study.

Low attendance was evident at some points in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. Crowds of parents usually cluster outside as their children take tests. But only a few street vendors selling pens and face masks were on hand a few moments before the start of the exam at Catholic University.

Conservative President Jair Bolsonaro, meanwhile, has made the exam itself part of his culture war battle against the left. He has accused test designers of inserting a left-wing bias. And he’s questioned how useful it is for judging university candidates — a stance often associated with left-leaning critics of tests in the United States.

“Look at the pattern of ENEM,” he said this week during a visit to Qatar using the acronym for the National High School Exam. “For God’s sake, does that measure any knowledge? Or is it political activism and behavioral issues?”

Critics say Bolsonaro’s administration has intervened to adjust test questions it did not like — in one case recasting a reference to the 1964 military coup to call it a “revolution,” as its backers did.

The Education Ministry did not respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment on the low enrollment numbers or on the accusations of interference.

Thirty-seven members of the agency that prepares the exam — the National Institute for Educational Studies and Research — resigned this week, complaining of government attempts to interfere in the tests by inserting ideology.

The main union representing institute workers called Friday for an investigation of alleged attempts at censorship.

“Since Bolsonaro was elected, INEP officials have been treated as communists, motivated by political motives. And the institute’s management does not want to respect technical opinions when preparing exams,” the union’s president, Alexandre Retamal, told The Associated Press.

Costin, a former education secretary in Rio de Janeiro, warned that the growing mistrust of the exam could lead even more to avoid taking it in coming years.

She told the AP that officials have a conspiratorial vision “that leads the government to believe that universities are political centers, and not places of research and knowledge production.”

Source: Voice of America

Ryan Wang was among hundreds of thousands of Chinese students at U.S. colleges or universities who struggled over whether to return home to China or remain in the United States when the COVID-19 pandemic surged in the spring of 2020.

“When the pandemic started in China [months earlier], I felt lucky I was already back to the U.S. for the new semester,” Wang, a Chinese undergraduate studying economics at Columbia University in New York City, told VOA.

Unlike Wang, many international students had not returned to the United States from winter break in January 2020 and fretted that they would lose credits and tuition fees if they could not get back to school.

For Wang, the concerns centered around whether he could return home to China.

“I had to live through the fear of infection, paying over $10,000 dollars for a one-way ticket, and being scammed by fake ticket dealers before I could go home again,” he said.

Fake dealers were selling bogus tickets to international students desperate to go home after Beijing limited international carriers to one flight a week into China in April 2020. To the delight of his parents, he said, three months after U.S. colleges and universities shut down their campuses and moved all learning online, he finally made it home to Jiangsu.

“It was such a relief. Not only because I [could stop worrying] about securing tickets home, but also that I didn’t have to sanitize everything and worry about COVID-19,” he said. In Jiangsu, a province of over 80 million people in East China that includes Shanghai, there was less reported community spread from March 2020 to June 2021.

Just how many Chinese students sat out the 2020-2021 academic year in the U.S. was revealed this week by the Institute of International Education in its yearly report about international student mobility. The report said almost 3,000 U.S. colleges and universities showed a 15% decrease in overall international student attendance, and a 45.6% decrease in new student enrollment.

Among Chinese students — the largest percentage of total 914,095 international students in the U.S. — there was a 14.8% decline from the previous year to 317,299, or 34.7% of all international students. The second largest group from India, comprising 18.3% of all international students, showed a decline of 13.2%.

Engaging students far away

U.S. universities struggled to keep students on track. Like many schools, Columbia University extended its pass-fail policies, which reduced the academic stress of online learning. Wang said the university also provided office and study space in China where lockdowns were lifting, so students could stay engaged.

Others took classes at local universities through exchange programs arranged by their U.S. universities. Xinle Hou took two classes at Beijing Normal University (BNU) through a program called “go-local” through Barnard College, which is the women’s undergraduate institution affiliated with Columbia. Other universities, including New York University (NYU) and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, arranged for their students to attend classes in China as the pandemic abated there, while infections rose in the U.S.

Online learning fail

But not everyone was so lucky. Many students were required to take classes online remotely. [[ https://www.voanews.com/a/student-union_if-its-330-am-it-must-be-time-online-class/6199331.html ]]

Hou, who had attended Barnard in New York City, described feeling burned out, and then “dystopian” from sleep deprivation, trying to attend classes at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., and then at 8:30 in the morning.

“As I had an online class at night, I did not have much energy to actually go out during the day, which made me feel very detached from the place I was physically living in,” she said.

Florence Chen, an undergraduate student at Columbia University, told VOA that most of her classes were synchronous, meaning students worldwide attended class at the same time, regardless of their time zone. [[ https://www.voanews.com/a/student-union_why-students-go-dark-zoom-classes/6202872.html ]]

“It was truly a suffering to take classes late at night,” she lamented, adding that 3 a.m. was just too late for her.[[ https://www.voanews.com/a/student-union_students-give-online-learning-low-marks/6186962.html ]]

Irene Zhang, who attended Colby College in the northeastern U.S. state of Maine, returned to China during COVID-19. She ended up taking a semester off.

“My college experience was definitely disrupted,” Irene wrote in a text. “I think COVID disconnected a lot of international students to their U.S. institutions.”

While American campuses remained in lockdown, China was opening up, students said. Some studied online and interned in person.

Chen worked a full-time internship while taking online classes in the evenings. Wang interned on weekdays and watched lecture videos intensively on weekends. Most of his online classes, he said, were offered asynchronously, or at his convenience.

“It was arguably the most productive period in my college years,” he said.

Mass return

After more than a year of closures, most American universities have called all their students back to campus. But not everyone feels secure about the pandemic.

“I still don’t feel entirely safe, but I really needed to come back and graduate, as my college does not offer remote options anymore starting this semester,” said Zhang.

“Although many COVID restrictions have been lifted and people wander around, I personally still follow the protocols, which include masking all the time indoors and outdoors, distancing wherever appropriate, eating in my own room, and sanitizing everything,” said Chen. “It’s been kind of sad that I cannot hang out with friends or explore the city since COVID-19 hit. However, I do believe that safety and well-being is my top concern and priority studying in a foreign country.”

US, or else?

After graduating from University of Maryland, Rhine Liu has started law school in Hong Kong. Although she said she thinks U.S. law schools are unparalleled in excellence, her parents want her closer to home.

“Overall, I am very glad for the opportunity to be able to spend my college life in such a culturally diverse environment,” May Ding wrote VOA. “The experience shaped me to become a global citizen with a global vision.”

For her part, Hou said she plans to stay in the U.S. and pursue a master’s of fine arts in creative writing. The U.S. has the best resources and opportunities for creative writers, she noted.

Zhang, who is looking at graduate programs in education, also plans to stay in the country as there are “some great programs” that fit her passion.

“If money is not a problem, I believe that all parents may aspire to send their kids for the best education,” Chen noted. “Studying in the U.S. indeed brings a world of opportunities.”

Source: Voice of America

Schools have reopened in 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Most are applying a blended approach combining in-person and remote teaching and learning for children and teachers.

“The reopening of schools is so critical, not only for children’s education but also for their wellbeing. The impact of school closures on children’s mental health has been huge,” says Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Schools across the region were closed for four to six weeks longer than the global average. In total, most schools were closed for two-thirds of an academic year, affecting the learning and wellbeing of millions of children in every age group.

While all countries across the region made at least one online platform available to enable home-based learning during school closures, at least 39 million children (or nearly 40 percent) have not had access to remote learning. This was primarily due to digital poverty – the lack of or the sporadic access to the internet and/or not having enough digital devices in the households. In some countries, including Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, access to the internet is lower than 35 per cent.

Governments across the region spend only 14 per cent of their budgets on education, below the world average, and the international target.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the crisis of education for millions of children in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to the pandemic, nearly 15 million children were out of school and close to two-thirds of children in the region could not read and understand a simple age-appropriate text at the age of 10.

“It is not enough to simply reopen classroom doors. It is high time to prioritize back to learning across the region, not only through budgets and financing, but also through a focus on life skills and the reduction of digital poverty, including through expanding internet bandwidth and making digital devices and equipment more available and affordable to bridge the digital gap,” adds Chaiban.

UNICEF is working with governments and other partners in the region to support teachers and schools to resume teaching and learning and bring all children and youth into school where they can catch up on lost learning as well as meet their health and wellbeing needs.

To help children recover and accelerate their learning through a return to full, in-person education, UNICEF is working with partners across the region to design and implement a range of inclusive, accelerated and remedial programmes.

UNICEF is calling for the following actions:

• Support all children in the region to resume in-person learning as soon as possible with remedial learning programmes to catch up on what they missed, while teachers get the support, they need for the new norm including on blended learning.

• Prioritize the vaccination of teachers in national vaccination campaigns. Vaccination, however, should not be a prerequisite for school reopening. Additional safety measures are therefore needed in schools.

• Equip teachers with the skills they need, including digital skills. A competent, skilled and motivated teacher is a fundamental element of an education system.

• Education systems to become more flexible and focused on helping children acquire relevant skills including those for personal empowerment and wellbeing, lifelong learning and adaptability, employability and transition into work, participation and active citizenship.

• Increase government budgets to reform education systems.

• Foster partnerships with the private sector, including telecommunications and internet companies, to expand bandwidth and network infrastructure and provide affordable options for families, teachers and schools to reduce the digital gap including in poor, rural and remote areas.

Notes to editors:

• Countries that reopened schools are: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, The State of Palestine, Qatar, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.

Countries that had not yet opened their schools are: Lebanon (some public schools partially opened the morning shift but not yet the afternoon shift for Syrian refugees) and Libya (announced the reopening of schools for 11 November).

• In support of the Education 2030 Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda encourages countries to set nationally appropriate spending targets for education. National contexts are diverse, but the following international and regional benchmarks are crucial reference points: (i) allocating at least four to six per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to education; and/or (ii) allocating at least 15 to 20 per cent of public expenditure to education.

Source: UN Children’s Fund

Paris, Education Minister Dr. Majid bin Ali Al Nuaimi received the Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Shaikh Salem Khalid Abdulla Al Qassimi.

 

The two sides discussed educational ties between the two countries, stressing aspects of cooperation between the cultural attaches of Bahrain and the UAE to the Unesco.

 

Source: Bahrain News Agency