· September, 2012

Stories about Education from September, 2012

India: Build Your Own Map to Improve Your City

  29 September 2012

Transparent Chennai is a platform for citizen engagement to help the citizens of Chennai counter inaccurate or incomplete government data with crowdsourced maps, and make better claims on the government for their rights and entitlements.

Puerto Rico: Plagiarism Revealed Through the Net

  27 September 2012

Janet Marilyn Hernández, a Venezuelan blogger and public relations professional, discovered that her thesis was plagiarized in a newspaper article and blog post written by professor Ivan Ríos of the University of Puerto Rico. Using email, posts, Twitter and Facebook she brought the situation to the attention of the University and the mainstream press. The professor has since resigned.

Burundi: A Political Will to Provide Universal Education

  25 September 2012

The proportion of children in school increased from 59 per cent in 2005 to 96 per cent in 2011. The fact that Burundi is just emerging from war and that its schools were then often targeted makes the progress even more remarkable. Africa Renewal Online reports that government in Burundi...

Singapore: Charity Group Targets Poor Children in Laos and Vietnam

  24 September 2012

A group of seven professional Swedish women based in Singapore have formed the charity organization Together for Charity. Today, the group gathers donations to support an orphanage in Laos and an English school in Vietnam. The group's founders discussed with Global Voices how their charity work is helping poor children in the region

Mexico: A Photographic Glimpse into Midwifery Around the World

  19 September 2012

Intercultural Midwifery is the topic of this Offbeat Mama guest photo blog post by Brooklyn based photographer Alice Proujansky. While 5 months pregnant she traveled to photograph a cultural knowledge exchange in Quintana Roo where students from the only government- accredited program in midwifery went to study with Mayan traditional midwives from rural area.

Egypt: 1.5km Human Chain Protest Outside Nile University

  19 September 2012

@Kandily shares this photograph on Twitter, showing a human chain which he says [ar] measures 1.5km made up of students outside Nile University, which has been appropriated to the Zewail City for Science and Technology (ZCST), after the revolution. The students are protesting against the loss of their not-for-profit university.

Guinea: Are Guineans less Capable than their Neighbours?

  13 September 2012

“You can't say that our neighbours are more intelligent than us, but they have had forthright leaders who have maintained the basis of a modern administration system and laid the foundations of an educational system which gives their citizens the means to take on international competition.”

Peace Corps Volunteers are Leaving Turkmenistan

  12 September 2012

It has been announced that the Peace Corps - a U.S. government-run volunteer program - will close its programs in Turkmenistan and leave the country by the end of 2012. Many Turkmen internet users believe that the departure of the volunteers will further deepen the country's isolation and limit education opportunities for its young people.

China, Hong Kong: Controller of National Education

  11 September 2012

Hexie Farm's latest cartoon is about the “controller” of national education in Hong Kong. Tens of thousands local residents in Hong Kong protested against the curriculum, some of which is written by “researchers” in mainland China. (via China Digital Times)

Croatia: Promoting Solar Energy at Terraneo Music Festival

  10 September 2012

UNDP's Voices from Eurasia blog reports on the ecological education program of this year's Terraneo music festival in Šibenik, where guests, among other things, could “test-drive Croatia’s only solar-powered car and bicycle.” In charge of the festival's “solar booth” were Marko Capek and Robert Pašičko, who “also sang songs about...

Tajikistan: Bribes and Neckties in Universities

  8 September 2012

Now students pay bribes to be admitted to universities, study only to get their [diplomas], but happily wear neckties to classes… Temur Mengliev summarizes [ru] the changes that have taken place within Tajikistan's colleges and universities over the recent years.

Jordan: What Happened to Education?

  8 September 2012

Roba Al Assi shares a video of the opening of the University of Jordan in 1962 on her blog And Far Away. She writes: As a graduate of the the institution myself, it is funny looking back 50 years, at a time when education actually mattered in Jordan. How did...

Hong Kong: Why Is “National Education” Scary?

  7 September 2012

China Media Project translated a commentary by Chow Po Chung, a professor in the Department of Government and Public Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong reflecting on his 16 years of experience of “national education” in China's public school.