Briefs

Asia’s grim record Of the 46 million children out-of-school in South and East Asia, 32 million of them live in the countries of South and West Asia, according to a recent report by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. More

Reversing the brain drain UNESCO and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have joined forces to help reduce the massive brain drain of young scientists from South East Europe. More

Partnerships under scrutiny A key reason for slow progress in achieving Education for All is a lack of meaningful partnerships between international agencies and countries. That is the conclusion of Local Solutions to Global Challenges: Towards Effective Partnership in Basic Education, the first comprehensive evaluation of aid to basic education, covering 1990 to 2002. More

Africa’s teacher shortage In 1987, there were 73 million children at African school desks; in 2001, the figure had increased to 106 million. If African countries are to meet the goal of universal primary education, their school systems will have to enrol nearly 180 million children in 2015. More

Mother languages neglected in education Experts are increasingly certain that children obtain better results in school when they are taught in both their mother language and the official national language. An ongoing survey by UNESCO, however, indicates that while use of mother languages for instruction is gaining ground, few countries have incorporated the idea into their education systems. More