Paris, 4/03/03 

Whatever happened to the new family law approved by the French parliament a year ago? The deputy, Ségolène Royal, who at the time was the Minister for the Family and Childhood, has been asking this question. This law, according to AFP, the French news agency, gave authority over the children to both parents. But until now the necessary decrees to put the law into effect have not been issued.

Nairobi, 1/03/03 

Using the theater as a means of helping the children who live in the most terrible housing conditions in Africa. This is the formula being applied in Kenya by an Italian actor, Marco Baliani. With the suppport of a local foundation, he is going to create a real theater company which will involve the youngsters who, according to the agency  MISNA, are living in an open rubbish dump.

London, 27/02/03 

Since holidays are cheaper during the school year, then why not make use of this fact? Many English families are saying the same thing according to a study of absent students made by a education department committee. Four parents out of ten, reports the BBC,  are convinced that these vacations which cause their children to miss out on school have no negative influence on their learning.

Abidjan, 27/02/03 

Amnesty International has denounced a cold-blooded massacre in which 50 children were among those killed. The blame has been put on the Patriotic Movement of the Ivory Coast. The massacre occurred last October when 60 state police, along with their children, were forced to leave their barracks and then killed in a military camp near Bouaké, the stronghold of the secessionists.

Rome, 27/02/03 

The European Court of Justice is going to give a judgement on the sentence passed by the Italian courts which validated the sacking of a teacher of religion in a Florence school because she was pregnant but not married. The newspaper, La Repubblica, reported the incident and said the recent controversial Italian law reform gave the Catholic church the power of employment over teachers of religion.

Manchester, 25/02/03 

The city authorities of Manchester are proposing to install telecameras in classrooms in order to stem incidents of violence, bullying and indiscipline. They have asked for government finance. The BBC  reports that there is a second reason for this measure: to show parents via recorded videotapes how badly their children behave, because very often the parents cannot believe what the teachers say.

Los Angeles, 19/02/03 

It is not enough merely to study botany; children must get their hands dirty, plant the seeds, follow the growth of plants and then eat the fruit or vegentables they grow. CNN reports on how the California department of education has been encouraging schools in the state to try this type of hands-on education. The formula has been successful and the natural curiosity of youngsters stimulates them during these practical lessons. 

New Delhi, 19/02/03 

The primary cause of the backwardness of the Indian state is the fact that during education was neglected in the first years after independence. The vice-prime minister, I.K. Advani,  says that the two main problems facing this immense Asian nation are health and education, and that they are the causes of economic underdevelopment. This was reported in the The Times of India.

Edinburgh, 16/02/03 

The average weight of Scottish children is higher than the norm and for this reason authorities have decided to help solve the problem by means of school meals. The BBC reports that the new menu is rich in fruit and vegetables, chips are only served in limited portions and chocolate and soft drinks are banned. The Minister of Education, Catie Jamieson, argues that a good diet will help produce better school results.

Paris, 15/02/03

Fortunately it happened at night and therefore there were no victims. In any other circumstances the collapse of a school courtyard in Paris, a school attended by 900 kindergarten and primary age children, would have caused a tragedy. AFP described how the collapse was due to works below ground in the Metro and how what is normally a playground suddenly became a huge gaping hole.

Washington, 14/02/03 

The daily newspaper Washington Post reports that one of the ways to combat terrorism will be more surveillance around schools, limits on the number of parked cars near school buildings and the cancellation of outdoor activities. Head teachers have been asked to get in supplies of water, long-life food and duct tape to close off windows and doors as a precaution in the event of a chemical or biological attack.

Wuppertal, 13/02/03 

The debate continues in many German cities about the proposal to close a good number of schools as a consequence of a fall in population. The broadcasting service WDR reported that in Wuppertal a crowded citizens’ meeting requested that six institutes remain open. One of the results of closures will be that students have longer distances to travel to school.

New York, 12/02/03 

One year after the recruitment of children into the armed forces was officially banned, the results are totally negative. A UN communication relates how last December Kofi Anna, the UN Secretary General, reported to the Security Council that 5 countries (Afghanistan, Burundi, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia) still have child soldiers in their armies.

Rome, 9/02/03 

After the Bocconi University of Milan announced that they would no longer use the Italian school leaving results (the Maturità exam) as part of their selection process, there was a lot of controversy. Instead, the curriculum of the final school years will be taken into account. According to the daily La Repubblica,  the historian Lucio Villari thinks that this indicates not only a loss of regard for the Italian state exams but for the whole public school system.

New Delhi, 8/02/03 

The Indian government has mobilised more than one million volunteers with vaccine and syringes to go out and vaccinate more then 165 million children under the age of 5 against polio. MISNA reports that according to the World Health Organisation India, Nigeria and Bangladesh are the 3 nations worst hit by polio.

Prague, 7/02/03 

A Czech student, Barbara Holubkova, has told the BBC  about her school experiences in a country still undergoing profound changes. She remembers how in kindergarten they had to learn what to do if there was a nuclear attack from the West, whereas today her country is part of NATO. In primary school, things started to change when the students were instructed to stop calling their teachers “companion” and to start calling them “sir” or “miss”.

Arras, 7/02/03 

Either the nomads take away their caravans or the schools will remain closed. The Mayor of Anzin-Saint-Aubin, a small village of the north of France, has asked the police to get rid of the caravans and nomads that had been parked in a number of school car parks. He told  France Presse that the nomads represented a danger to children’s health and safety.

Sacramento, 6/02/03 

In a number of Californian counties the school bus system is unsatisfactory. Just one week ago, according to CNN, a school bus ended up in a lake near Sacramento because its brakes failed and 4 children were injured. As a result of this and other minor accidents, all the school buses have been stopped. They will only start up the service again after very careful checks have been made

Florence, 6/02/03 

Little Ambra, aged 11, was killed almost a year ago when she was hit by a rock in the park of Villa Demidoff in Florence, while on a school trip. Now the two teachers who were accompanying her, as well as the head of the school, are to stand trial. According to the daily newspaper La Repubblica , the charge against them will be inadequate supervision. The manager of the park, instead, has been cleared of blame.

Paris, 5/02/03 

Students must not bring the Middle East crisis into French schools. This is what Luc Ferry the French Minister for Education  said, alarmed by the growing and dangerous tensions between Jewish and Muslim students in many French schools. “It’s ridiculous,” he told the agency France Presse, “that French youngsters act as if they were arabs or Israelis.”

New York, 3/02/03 

Many American students saw not only the disaster but  also the destruction of their experiments when the Shuttle Columbia broke up and crashed. This is the case of a high school in Syracuse in New York state, as reported on CNN, which had given an astronaut some ants they were studying, or a Los Angeles institute who were doing similar experiments with silkworms.

Turin, 31/01/03 

Marco Calgaro, the deputy mayor of Turin, Italy, during the introduction of an educational program, criticised certain episodes of intolerance that had occurred in the city’s schools. According to the daily paper Corriere della Sera, one class refused to have a disabled person in their room and in another class no one wanted to have a Moroccan student at the same desk. In some schools, immigrant children feel isolated.

Philadelphia, 30/01/03 

Groups of parents patrolling through the city: this is the solution being tried in a school district of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in an attempt to beat the problem of absenteeism.  Associated Press reports that a similar solution has already been tried in Chicago with encouraging results. About 250 Philadelphian citizens have accepted to go around looking for these absent students.

London, 30/01/03 

Too many exams, too many tests: this is not the right way to teach history or literature. According to the BBC it was Prince Charles who complained about this situation. In an article written for the Royal Society for Literature, the prince said that teaching should not deal only with the superficial aspects and the more recent past, but should follow a direction that is coherent and chronological.

Colombo, 29/01/03 

300 or 10,000? There is dramatic uncertainty about the number  of minors either kidnapped or enrolled in the Tamil Tigers, the armed secessionist movement of Sri Lanka, during the year 2002. The lower figure, reports the agency MISNA, was issued by the international agency in charge of monitoring the peace process, whereas the higher figure is the official figure given by the Colombo government.

Paris, 28/01/03 

More than 40,000 people marched through the streets of the principal towns of France as part of a strike declared by the unions to protest against the educational policies of the government by which staffing cuts would be made. The agency AFP reports that the minister for education estimated that the number of strikers varied between 24 and 43%  of the staff, depending on which category was counted.

Addis Ababa, 28/01/03 

As usual it is the children who are worst hit by the terrible famine that is affecting Ethiopia. The news agency  Misna reports that, according to observers, this situation is even worse than the famine of the 1980s when a million people died. In addition to the lack of food and water, there is also the scourge of AIDS.

London, 24/01/03 

The pupils of around 200 primary British schools will have French lessons with language teachers imported from France. According to the BBC the Ministries of Education in both France and England have reached an agreement which includes widespread cooperation. There are other moves in the pipeline to have exchanges of language teachers between other EU states.

Epinal, 22/01/03 

When a high-school teacher in the town of Epinal, in eastern France, recently chastised a student, he was punched right on the face by the same student. The agency France Presse reports that the teachers suspended lessons for 2 hours. They had already gone on strike for some weeks a few months ago to protest against a similar incident of violence..

York, 21/01/03 

In York, Pennsylvania, school authorities have invented a kind of “non-diploma” in order to show students the consequences that will follow if they give up school. CNN explained that this document is to be presented to all students who run the risk of stopping school and that it will look like a real diploma. The difference is that it will list all the reassons for a lack of success in life for those who have insufficient schooling.

Paris, 20/01/03 

There ia open war between the teachers and teachers’ unions,. On the one hand, and the government after the proposal to make big cuts in the funds available for schools. According to AFP  , when faced with a general strike, the French Minister of Education, Luc Ferry, decided to redimension these cuts. But the unions are continuing to protest that too few teachers are planned for future years.

New York, 19/01/03 

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, has given advance notice of a radical change of the city’s school system. CNN reports that classes with fewer pupils and more homogeneous syllabuses are planned. Bloomberg thinks that education is a right that is too often denied to children from ethnic minorities. There are more than 1 million school-age students in New York and a high rate of truancy.

Cincinnati, 18/01/03 

It is not enough to feed the children; in addition, some cities in Ohio are getting organised to provide hot meals from kindergarten canteens for the families. Associated Press reports that many parents are too busy to prepare meals in the evenings and that now they will be able to pick up a dinner when they come to pick up their kids.

Solingen, 18/01/03 

What’s the solution when demand for school services increases? Build more schools? In the German city of Solingen located in the Ruhr, another solution was chosen. WDR explained that, after much debate, it was decided to make existing schools more flexible and where possible to enlarge existing space to accommodate the greater demand.

Bath, 18/01/03 

An institute head in Bath, Giles Mercer, has raised the alarm about the negative effects of quiz shows (and soap operas) on young people. The BBC reports that according to him today’s youth are capable of memorising random and unconnected facts but that they fail to develop any real understanding of the world.

Buenos Aires, 16/01/03 

What kind of educational strategies should be adopted to help young people overcome the crisis situation which has rocked Argentina? According to Juan Carlos Tedesco, Buenos Aires director of school planning, the answer lies in the concept of resiliance. Tedesco told the daily newspaper Clarìn that by this word he means that young people need to develop their ability to react to a situation and to use the troubled times and adversities as an opportunity to strengthen their characters.

Rome, 15/01/03 

Now that reforms are going to take place in the Italian school system, the daily newspaper La Repubblica has criticised the implied contradictions. The role of English is to be privileged without solving the problems of the national language, Italian, which only 10% of the population can speak correctly; schools are to be run on business lines but the overall aim is certainly not to make a profit; the use of computers is to be encouraged but this will detract from individual merit and a spirit of socialisation.

Paris, 14/01/03 

Students in France are bored at school and the result is a dislike for the system and juvenile violence. According to the daily newsapaper Le Monde, 85% of teachers report that their students have a complete lack of interest in their lessons. Even Luc Ferry himself, the minister of education, remembers how his high school was disciplined like an army barracks and how bored evrybody was.

Stockholm, 13/01/03 

Faced with growing student absenteeism, the managers of a Swedish school for tourist operators in Falkenberg, decided to tempt the students with money. The daily paper, Dagens Nyheter , reported that each student who attended classes regularly for 4 consecutive weeks was to receive 500 crowns (€54.50).

Guermantes, 11/01/03

A young girl named Estelle from this village in the French department of Seine-et-Marne was going home from school when she  disappeared without trace. A large search party was organised including police with dogs, mounted police, helicopters and underwater divers. The news agency France Presse reports that it is thought the girl was kidnapped by a sex maniac.

Lima, 11/01/03 

“Young workers, many rights”. This is the meaning of the slogan that heads a campaign to help the street children in Peru’s capital. The news agency Misna writes that the campaign’s aim is to promote disease prevention, to encourage school attendance and to provide training courses. There are large numbers of youngsters who run the risk of becoming petty criminals if they are left to fend for themselves.

Washington, 8/01/03 

One year after the start of reforms to the education system, the American president George W. Bush intends to speed up the program. According to CNN , the federal government will approve the programs proposed by the states of Massachusetts, New York, Indiana, Ohio and Colorado. Under this reform bill, schools which fail to meet certain stipulated standards will lose federal funding.

Rome, 8/01/03 

Giuseppina C., a primary school teacher known to be guilty of maltreating students, has continued to teach even though 8 years have passed since steps were taken to have her disciplined. The daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reports that this teacher after her last appeal has been heard will probably be sacked. When the case first came to light, she was simpply transferred to another school.

London, 8/01/03 

Four fifths of British adolescents feel insecure and worried about their appearance. One third suffer so badly from this that they do not take part in classroom discussions and many of them even give up going to lessons. The BBC conducted an investigation which showed that these students are particularly afraid that their appearance could lead to acts of intimidation.

Düsseldorf, 8/01/03 

In the heavily populated German region of Nordrhein-Westfalen there is a shortage of support teachers to help with children who have learning difficulties. The demand is so great and the supply so short, according to the broadcasting station WDR, that there will be only one teacher available to share between 4 schools, unless something is done very soon.

Ahmedabad, 7/01/03 

The 600 first-year students of a technical institute in this Indian city made a unilateral declaration to take a holiday. In doing so they took their families and the school authorities by surprise. The Times of India newspaper reports how this winter vacation will last 16 days and that many students have decided to take it so they can prepare for their exams..

Brasilia, 6/01/03 

The new Brazilian president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, in one of his first acts of government, declared war on infantile prostitution which has plagued the nation for years. The daily paper, O Estado de S. Paulo , reports how a vast campaign involving the whole country is being organised and that it will include both the ministry for the interior and the ministry for education. 8 million minors are thought to be involved in this social problem..

Buenos Aires, 19/12/02

Controversy broke out in Argentina after the owner of the Clarìn publishing group, Ernestina Herrera de Noble, was arrested on a charge of illegally adopting what at the time were 2 newly born babies, children of the “desaparecidos”, the political opponents of the past military regime. The news agency Misna  reports that the arrest came about when the two refused to undergo a DNA test.

Denver, 18/12/02

A school week of only 4 days: this is the remedy adopted for both primary and secondary schools by the Colorado schools district in an attempt to  balance the education budget. The idea of having Friday off appeals to many of the students, according to the newspapar Washington Post, but not to the teachers. They say that American youngsters need a longer and not a shorter timetable.

Udine, 17/12/02

When the carabinieri placed spying devices inside the school canteen, the truth finally came out. The manager of a nursery school in Felletto Umberto, near Udine, had been maltreating and hitting the babies in her charge, all of whom were under 3 years of age. Parents had suspected this state of affairs and some of the teachers reported it to the police, according to the daily paper La Repubblica. The woman was later arrested.

Ulverston, 16/12/02

The school district of Cumbria county has decided to close down the primary school in Ulverston, but the 19 pupils do not agree at all. The BBC  reports  how the youngsters have decided to go to court and have hired a lawyer specialising in school politics. The reason given for the proposed closure is that pupil numbers are too low.  

Rome, 14/12/02

In accordance with a directive from the minister of education, Letizia Moratti, a crucifix must now hang in every Italian classroom. La Stampa,  one of the dailies, reports that this measure has been greeted with controversy. One group who defend the idea appeal to Italy’s historical and cultural roots in Christianity; the opponents simpply see the influence of the church in education. The same directive also provides for special rooms in schools where prayers can be said. 

New York, 11/12/02

Decorations for all religious festivals, including Christmas and the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, have been banned in the state schools of Yonkers, a New York suburb. CNN explains that this decision was considered politically correct because the schools serve a multi-ethnic and multi-religious community.

Paris, 9/12/02

Tens of thousands of teachers, students and parents marched through the centre of Paris to protest against the government’s decision to cut the education budget. France Presse reports they carried banners emphasising the absolute priority of educational policies and threatening strong union action if the minister for education Luc Ferry, did not change tracks.

Warwick, 7/12/02

A research study carried out by the University of Warwick contradicts the common belief that expensive private schools make for the best university students. The BBC explained that the study looked at university results over a period of 8 years and came to the surprising conclusion that results at this level are inversely proportionate to the costs paid for students’ general school education.

Chicago, 6/12/02

There is growing interest among city kids in America for the countryside and agriculture. According to CNN, this seems to be confirmed by the fact that many city schools specialising in agricultural subjects, especially in Chicago, Houston and New York City, are having to refuse entry to an increasing number of students wanting to enrol. However, the majority of these students are not making their choice on the basis of future employment in this field..