Quality Education

Photo: Vinka Barunga. Credit: University of Western Australia.

More Indigenous Doctors Aim To Close Australia’s Health Gap

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) - Vinka Barunga was born in the Worrara tribe of the Mowanjum Aboriginal community in the remote town of Derby in Western Australia. As a child, she witnessed disease and suicide amongst her people, which made her resolve to one day become a doctor and help break this cycle of suffering. She is one of six, the largest cohort of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students, to graduate in Medicine/Surgery from the University of Western Australia this year.

Australia has fewer than 300 Aboriginal doctors, but things are gradually changing. Vinka is determined to be the first full time doctor in the town of her birth, situated around 2,400 kilometres north of the state capital Perth in the Kimberley region. It is the gateway to the state’s resource rich north, surrounded by mudflats on three sides, with two distinct seasons.

: Neena Bhandari; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 27 December 2016

Photo: Participants at the 11th annual United Nations Internet Governance Forum in Jalisco, Mexico. Credit: IGF

UN Forum Calls for Closing ‘Digital Divide’ for 4 Billion

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - The United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has underlined the urgency to bridge socio-economic inequalities that impact access to or use of information and communication technologies and called for concerted actions to ensure that all people in all countries are able to reap the benefits of the Internet.

According to figures released at the 11th annual IGF in Jalisco, Mexico, the current "digital divide" is adversely affecting some four billion people or two out of three households in developing countries that simply do not have access to Internet.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 11 December 2016

Photo: Picture Venerable Saranankara (4th from left) with some of the donors and recipients at the ceremony on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne.

Malaysian Buddhist Monk Empowers Education of Muslim Children

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 12th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

KUALA LUMPUR (IDN | Lotus News Features) - A grand Chinese temple on the hills of central Kuala Lumpur overlooking the Malaysian capital was the site of a unique event on November 27 where a Sri Lankan born Buddhist monk’s vision to empower the education of poor Malaysian children, most of them Muslims, was taking place without the glare of any television cameras or the national media.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 27 November 2016

Photo: Youths of Rocket and Space group in Kathmandu brainstorm on how to make their presentations on Sexual and Reproductive Rights more effective. Credit: Stella Paul | IDN-INPS

Nepal Youths Make Sexual Health Services More Accessible

By Stella Paul

KATHMANDU (IDN) – 21-year old Pabitra Bhattarai is a shy young woman with a soft voice and a ready smile. But, ask her about sexual health services and the shyness vanishes in an instant as she speaks passionately of how youths of her country must have rights to such services.

“Our country runs on the shoulders of young people. So, we can’t risk having a country full of young people with HIV. We must have full access to sexual and reproductive health services (SRHR),” she says, suddenly sounding far more mature than her age.

: Stella Paul; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 24 November 2016

Disaster Relief ICTs SDG Enabler

Note: This article is moved in association with ITU’s media unit

BANGKOK (IDN-INPS) - Participants of an expert panel representing governments, private sector and NGOs at the ITU World Telecom 2016 event here argued that ‘disaster relief’ ICTs could be a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) enabler.

Disasters (earthquakes, floods, cyclones, hurricanes, epidemics etc.) continue to undermine economic development, social development, and environmental protection. Thus existing and emerging ICTs can mitigate the impact of these disasters increasing the chance for countries to attain the SDGs by 2030.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 21 November 2016

Photo: Nigerian pavilion with the Bangladesh one in the background. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

ICTs Between Money-Spinners and SDG Champions

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) - At the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) annual flagship event ITU Telecom World 2016 from November 14 to 17, there was much discussion about the profit-making motives of technology providers and the need to integrate social goals to help achieve the UN’s new catchcry Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In opening remarks to the event, ITU’s Secretary General Houlin Zhao from China reminded over 8,000 industry leaders and policy makers from across the globe that “the digital divide is very much still with us”, a division that includes geography, gender, education and resources. “It is imperative that we continue to work to close that digital divide,” he declared.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 17 November 2016

Photo: College of Engineering, KNUST auditorium. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Fellowships to Help Avert Brain Drain in Africa

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - A Fellowship Program will fund 69 new projects at African universities in the coming months, bringing 52 professors and scholars from universities in the U.S. and Canada to universities in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda as visiting Fellows.

Together, the teams will develop curricula, conduct research, teach graduate students, and train and mentor students and professors in priority areas that were proposed by the African universities. The program is also accepting new applications from host universities and diaspora scholars for projects to be conducted in 2017. Deadline is December 8.

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 October 2016

Photo: Children from the Central African Republic in the 2014 photo at Primary School 1 in UNHCR Mole Refugee Camp, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: UNHCR/Sebastian Rich

Millions of Refugee Children ‘Missing Out’ on Education

by Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) - Refugee education is in crisis, the UN refugee agency has warned, stressing that more than some six million school-age children under mandate of the United Nations refugee agency have no school to go, and refugees are five times more likely to be out of school than the world average.

“This represents a crisis for millions of refugee children,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a news release issued by his Office (UNHCR).

“Refugee education is sorely neglected, when it is one of the few opportunities we have to transform and build the next generation so they can change the fortunes of the tens of millions of forcibly displaced people globally,” he added.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 17 September 2016

Photo: Eliane 16-year-old mother holding Eric in her hands, her one-month-old baby. © Amnesty International

'Shamed' Sierra Leone Bars Pregnant Girls from School

NEW YORK | FREETOWN (IDN | GIN) – At their next meeting in Geneva, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will review reports detailing the obstacles, risks and challenges imposed by governments that limit the prospects for children to succeed.

Among the countries to be reviewed is Sierra Leone whose ban on admitting pregnant girls to mainstream schools was the subject of a briefing paper called “Shamed and Blamed”. Submitted by Amnesty International, it faults the policy expressed by Minister Minkailu Bah that “visibly pregnant girls would be a negative influence to other innocent girls”.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 August 2016

Photo: Streets demonstrations in Santiago for quality education. Credit: José Gabriel Feres | Pressenza.

Thursday's Date with Calls for a Fairer Chile

Viewpoint by Pía Figueroa*

SANTIAGO (IDN) – Every year, as they have been doing since 2011, students in Chile take to the streets each Thursday, demanding a free and good quality education system.

They are increasingly being joined by their parents – tired of paying for expensive schooling which is certainly the most expensive in the whole of Latin America – and teachers who leave work to join the students with a call for proper definition of the teaching career.