Archive for category: Education

Information and stories on education.

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7 Things to Know About Education in the Paracel Islands

Education in the Paracel Islands
The Paracel Islands are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan. China currently controls the islands, with most civilian activity centered on Woody Island, known in Chinese as Yongxing Island. Given the islands’ very small resident population, education there is less a conventional national school system than a small, strategically located service for the children of fishers, government officials, military personnel and other island workers. Here are eight facts about education in the Paracel Islands.

8 Facts About Education in the Paracel Islands

  1. Since the other islands are mostly military outposts, reefs or small settlements, formal education is centered on Woody Island – the administrative hub of China’s Sansha City. Woody Island is the largest of about 30 islands in the Paracel chain and serves as Sansha’s administrative center.
  2. The key educational institution is Sansha Yongxing School, which opened in December 2015. It is described as China’s southernmost school. Since its opening, the school’s kindergarten and primary departments have reportedly operated steadily, allowing children of island fishers, military personnel and government workers to attend school locally.
  3. Yongxing School grew from six students at its founding to 32 students across kindergarten and primary grades, served by eight teachers. By late 2023, local reporting claimed the school had reached a new high of 50 students, including 37 in kindergarten and 13 in primary school.
  4. Before the school existed, many parents working on Woody Island had to live apart from their children. One father said the school allowed his child to finally live with him on the island, while another parent noted that, because “there is a school on the island,” his child could grow up there. The practical effect is significant: access to education has made it more feasible for civilian families to live on the islands over the long term.
  5. Teaching on Woody Island comes with unusual hardship, such as isolation, typhoons and limited services. Seventy-seven teachers worked at Yongxing School between 2015 and 2023. After 2018, the school was co-managed with Qiongtai Normal University, with eight formal teaching positions and three-year contracts. 
  6. A tiny island school cannot staff every specialty, so digital teaching is critical. Yongxing School uses synchronized online classes with schools in Haikou, including Chinese classics lessons twice a week. The school found that information technology helps compensate for its limited access to specialist teaching resources. 
  7. Yongxing School is not only for children. China’s Ministry of Education revealed that the school library and electronic reading room were opened to island residents. Additionally, the school offered more than 60 adult vocational courses, providing training to 763 people in areas such as deep-sea fishing and aquaculture.

Looking Ahead

Education in the Paracel Islands remains politically sensitive and shaped by geography. There is no large school system, university sector or published learning-outcome dataset. Still, the available evidence shows that Yongxing School has become a pivotal civilian institution. It keeps families together, offers early and primary education and supports adult training. 

– Jeff Zhou 

Photo: Flickr

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Education in Jordan

Education in Jordan“The primary resource of the country is its people, so people there believe in education,” Razan Brown, a former resident of Jordan, told The Borgen Project in an interview. As a small Arab nation without many natural resources, Jordan relies on its people and their skills to develop economically. Because of this, education in Jordan has remained at the forefront of poverty reduction.

As of 2025, more than 97% of children are enrolled in primary school, and the country’s literacy rate is around 95%. However, Jordan still struggles with funding for education, especially with a recent increase in refugees from Syria and Palestine. Jordan hosts around 200,000 Syrian refugee children alone, which has placed greater pressure on the system due to a lack of teachers and access to school buildings and supplies. Despite this, Jordan still ranks high in enrollment and literacy in its region.

A Glimpse at the System

In Jordan, primary school is funded by the Ministry of Education and is compulsory for children aged 6 to 16. Here, students learn basic mathematics, science, world history and Arabic, among other subjects. After around the third grade, schools are separated by gender, although boys and girls have had equal access to education since 1979. In the final year of high school, students take the Tawjihi exam, a comprehensive college placement exam that determines a student’s field of study and eventual career. Regarding the Tawjihi exam, Brown stated, “A lot rests on that grade. You get to pick what you want to study, however, the schools accept you based on what you score. For example, if you want to be in medical school, you have to score in the 96th percentile and above.” Beyond primary school, public universities are not free but remain affordable.

Additionally, there is a private sector of education in Jordan. Private school prices vary depending on the institution but can create inequalities in access and quality. At private schools, students learn more English and participate in more extracurricular activities. There are some scholarships from the royal palace, known as a “Royal Generosity” for students with high marks who cannot afford private school, but entry into a private institution mostly depends on family wealth.

Importance

Due to a lack of natural resources, Jordan relies heavily on its education system. Its people are the assets necessary for the sustainability of the country’s economy and also provide valuable labor abroad. Additionally, Jordanians rely on the country’s education system to improve their own lives, especially with regard to job opportunities. This necessity has instilled Jordanians with pride for their educational achievements. Regarding this, Brown said, “Families are proud of their children when they achieve what they do at school. It’s celebrated and seen. Perseverance is celebrated versus like ‘do it your way.'”

Jordan’s commitment to high-quality education has led to a demand for Jordanian people in skilled positions throughout the Arab world and beyond. In countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which have large oil reserves and industry but lack the necessary population, labor is sourced from places like Jordan. Because of this, the skills acquired through education are the basis for poverty reduction, especially for rural populations seeking job prospects. However, an essential skill for these positions is the ability to speak English, which is nearly guaranteed from a private institution but not from a public one. Because of this, wealth disparities within the population can be perpetuated through disparities in education. Parents may work a second job or pick up extra shifts if it means their children can attend a private school and learn English.

Overcoming Barriers

Despite many successes, Jordan still faces barriers in providing its population with quality education. Underfunding has limited the amount of extracurricular activities available at public schools and has impacted the quality of available teachers. Because teaching is not a well-paying job in Jordan, it attracts students who did not score as well on their Tawjihi. As a result, many teachers were forced into the trade by necessity, rather than by a desire to teach. Private schools can also pay good teachers more, which leads to a smaller pool for public institutions. Lack of funds also affects the quality of school buildings and other areas such as parks that would provide the space for extracurriculars.

A recent influx of refugees has further strained the system. To combat overcrowding, schools in Jordan operate on a two-shift system, meaning one wave of students attend in the mornings and another in the afternoons. This has led to increased issues in staffing. Additionally, it has made it difficult for students, particularly those in rural areas, to travel to school, as it would often be too cold or dark at the times when they arrived or left.

UNRWA

However, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has continued to assist in Jordan’s efforts for educational improvements. As of the 2019 to 2020 school year, UNRWA operated 169 schools that provided basic education for more than 121,000 students. UNRWA has also helped teachers through the implementation of its Teacher Policy and School Based Teacher Development program, which strengthened teachers’ professional development and had reached around 3,900 teachers in 2018. Furthermore, UNRWA offers vocational training at the Amman Training Center and the Wadi Seer Training Center, with emphasis placed on local and regional labor market needs.

Additionally, in terms of morale and motivation, Brown believes the addition of refugee children in Jordanian classrooms has been a positive. In Palestine, UNRWA has been responsible for building some of the best schools in the region since 1948, and the students coming from these schools raise the standard of their classrooms. Referring to refugee children from Gaza, Brown stated, “Those children have nothing but their school. That’s where they see their friends, that’s often times when they eat their meals. The pride in education in a place like Gaza is unprecedented. So once you meet those kids, you want your own child in that classroom because they are meeting an A student.”

Looking Ahead

Since more than 40% of the population is under 18, the continued advancement of education in Jordan is essential to the continued development of the nation. While the current system has yielded good results, there is still room for improvement, especially for children living in poverty or in rural areas. Through increased funding, schools could become less crowded and offer more resources to their students, as well as a better overall education. This would both enhance the system and bridge divides in access and quality based on socioeconomic conditions.

– Josh Megson

Josh is based in Albemarle, NC, USA and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Small Nation, Big Dreams: Higher Education in Cape Verde 

Higher Education in Cape VerdeFollowing Cape Verde’s historic performance in the 2026 World Cup, millions around the globe have seemingly turned their attention to the small island nation of 520,000. There are many ways to learn about the world and how to navigate it, but an examination of education in Cape Verde can reveal what shapes the country’s future long after the final whistle blows. Greater access to higher education in Cape Verde translates into stronger employment prospects and, in turn, a critical pathway out of poverty and toward economic mobility.

A Gap Between Islands and Minds

When Cape Verde gained independence from Portugal in 1975, the nation inherited a literacy rate of roughly 40%. Since then, the country has made substantial progress in expanding access to education and improving literacy. By 2021, illiteracy among those aged 15 and above had fallen from 61.3% in 1975 to 7%, while youth illiteracy stood at just 1.3%, giving Cape Verde the highest literacy rate in West Africa. While that is an achievement worth noting, that rise is largely a pre-college achievement, driven by gains in primary and secondary schooling rather than in higher education. There exists an entirely different problem when it comes to pursuing a college degree in Cape Verde.

As of the 2019-2020 school year, the higher education enrollment rate stood at just 23.5%, suggesting that significant barriers continue to prevent many young people from enrolling in higher education. A likely problem is that, because Cape Verde’s geographical landscape, like that of Indonesia or Fiji, is an archipelago, the equal distribution of services, including higher education, becomes relatively more difficult. Out of the nine inhabited islands of Cape Verde’s total of 10, only two islands, Santiago and São Vicente, have concentrated institutions for higher education such as the University of Cape Verde (Uni-CV) and Jean Piaget University of Cape Verde (UniPiaget). This condition forces secondary school graduates to relocate to the two islands if they want to enroll, a luxury not accessible to everyone. Therefore, considering the tuition on top of the geographical issue, many Cape Verdean youths face discouragement in pursuing higher education.

Aside from the geographical gap, economic inequality can make these barriers even harder to overcome. World Bank data show that students from the poorest fifth of Cape Verde’s population accounted for only 9% of higher-education enrollment, compared with 31% among students from the richest fifth. Therefore, while geographical challenges remain a pervasive issue, economic inequality is still an even greater hurdle to accessing higher education. These “gaps” generate enough reason for secondary school graduates to immediately find a job instead of pursuing higher education, which in itself can cause stagnation in employment qualifications and create disadvantages in the global job market.

On Closing the Gap

Thankfully, the government noticed this disparity and translated it into action. In recent years, Cape Verde’s Ministry of Education has expanded its approach to higher education by strengthening scholarship opportunities both within the country and abroad, with the 2026 state budget prioritizing students from low-income families and underserved regions specifically. This builds on the 2017–2021 Education Sector Plan, which sought to improve access, quality, and efficiency across the education system. The government has also moved to address the islands’ concentration problem directly: current budget priorities name Santo Antão, Fogo and Sal as target islands for expanding higher-education access beyond Santiago and São Vicente, alongside new student residences, free inter-island transport for students, and increased funding for the country’s national scholarship foundation. These measures are underway rather than fully realized, and they do not yet eliminate the country’s broader geographic disparity in access.

Looking Ahead

It is worth revisiting the fact that the problem with higher education in Cape Verde is one of concentration, where Santiago and São Vicente host all of the country’s main campuses. The issue is not the number of institutions. The issue requires Cape Verde to direct its money and attention toward the students who have less access to higher education. The scholarship pipelines to Portugal, for example, show a government willing to send its youth wherever opportunity exists rather than waiting for opportunity to arrive at home. If that same resolve extends to closing the distance between islands, Cape Verde’s next generation of graduates could prove as formidable as its national football team.

– Javier Maverick Tristan

Javier is based in Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia and focuses on Good News and Politics for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Charities Helping Women in Chad

Women in ChadWomen in Chad face numerous challenges regarding their human rights, often due to societal, cultural or religious norms, and the impact of poverty. Child marriage rates for girls in Chad are around 60%, and only 38% of girls complete primary school. This number drops to 14.1% for lower secondary school, and only 3% of Chadian women enroll in tertiary education. These factors limit opportunities for women, forcing them to rely on parents or husbands financially to avoid severe poverty.

Gender-Specific Challenges

Currently, only 34.4% of gender-specific Sustainable Development Goals are monitorable in Chad, and only 8.2% score a medium or high performance. The low performance is evident in statistics for gender-based violence. About 16.2% of women aged 15 to 49 have faced sexual violence by their partner in the last year, and 38.4% of women in this age group have undergone genital mutilation, most commonly between ages 5 to 9. This figure rises in regions such as Salamat, where 96.1% of women face female genital mutilation. Violent practices are also prevalent among Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad, where 71% report human rights violations, including sexual and gender-based violence.

The law to ban female genital mutilation has yet to be signed by the Chadian president, despite being proposed in 2002. Little governmental assistance has been provided to women facing violence and poverty. However, various organizations have stepped up to create safe spaces, education and basic needs for women in Chad, offering care that the government has failed to provide.

Charities Helping Women in Chad:

  • CARE International: CARE International has worked in Chad since 1974, providing crisis response, healthcare, and food and water to hundreds of thousands of people. Their efforts focus on women and girls, with main goals to strengthen economic independence, provide access to reproductive health services and reduce risks of gender-based violence. They have helped more than 104,000 women with these goals and engaged with nearly 123,000 men and women to promote gender equality.
  • ALIMA: ALIMA has operated in Chad since 2012, aiming to help refugees at the Sudanese border, improve healthcare and nutritional support, and provide mental healthcare for survivors of gender-based violence. ALIMA provided medical consultations to nearly 72,000 children under 5 in Chad in 2025.

Looking Ahead

These charities recognize that the human rights violations Chadian women face require external assistance. As more refugees from Sudan arrive, additional help will be necessary. Progress is being made, and laws to prevent gender-based violence are expected to be signed, offering a brighter future for the women of Chad.

– Ally Jones

Ally is based in Bethany, OK, USA and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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BelieveNBooks: Improving Girls’ Access to Education

BelieveNBooksFor most children, discovering role models through bedtime stories is a formative experience that shapes confidence, goal setting and personal development. Yet for many children in sub-Saharan Africa, this opportunity remains out of reach. Among African adolescents aged 15 to 19, 26% of girls are neither working nor in school, compared to just 9% of boys. Moreover, 27% are married or have children, compared with only 3% of boys. This gender opportunity gap becomes evident as girls move through their teenage years, underscoring a need for educational interventions early on. Recognizing these disparities, organizations such as the World Bank have made strides to increase girls’ secondary school enrollment in West and Central Africa from 42% to 57% by 2030, implementing new educational opportunities in African communities.

Educational Inequality

A 2023 study examining 18 sub-Saharan African countries found that birth characteristics, including parent education level and whether a child grows up in a remote community, account for over half of measured consumption inequality. For children raised in areas with fewer books, schooling opportunities and developmental resources, the playing field is unequal long before they enter the workforce.

BelieveNBooks Initiative

One organization, BelieveNBooks, works to combat this problem on the ground. BelieveNBooks is a youth-led nonprofit focused on closing early literacy gaps through book drives and culturally relevant reading materials. Founded on Earth Day 2021 by an eighth-grade student, the organization has distributed more than 250,000 books to 50,000 children in need. Among its initiatives is “Tales of African Women Trailblazers,” an original children’s book introducing readers to African-born women whose leadership, ingenuity, and perseverance have driven positive change. By highlighting artists, doctors, lawyers, athletes, entrepreneurs, scientists and public servants from across the continent, the book introduces young children to professional opportunities and role models.

Distribution and Impact

Since its publication, BelieveNBooks has distributed 10,000 copies of “Trailblazers” across Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia. Their first partnership was a distribution alongside featured trailblazer and Ghana Environmental Protection Authority Chief Executive Officer Nana Ama Browne Klutse. Today, BelieveNBooks’s African partner network of book recipients spans dozens of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) supporting literacy and girls’ empowerment for youth in low-income rural areas.

Each delivery requires extensive logistical planning, from gathering quotes from local printers to negotiating unit costs to completing deliveries. Depending on the destination, books may travel overnight across several countries or on nimble motorbikes to otherwise inaccessible villages in remote outskirts. Coordinating successful shipments and distributions depends on local experts who advise the BelieveNBooks team from start to finish.

For the organizations on the receiving end, the impact is invaluable and extends beyond English development. “Every girl deserves to see herself in a story worth becoming,” says Adama Borway, founder and CEO of She Empowerment League in Freetown, Sierra Leone. “A book is more than paper and ink; it is a possibility.”

Broader Barriers

While organizations like BelieveNBooks demonstrate the power of culturally relevant books, resource distribution alone cannot offset broader barriers hindering girls’ education and perpetuating inequality: poverty, early marriage, gender stigmas, poor sanitation and dangerous campus environments. Yet research indicates that book access itself can make a difference. A five-year randomized study across 60 elementary school students in poverty found that students with ongoing access to books learned as much as they would in six months of conventional classroom learning.

This perspective is echoed by Zamaradi S. Islahi, global director of Room to Read’s Gender Portfolio. Growing up in a low-income home where no girl was educated beyond age 13, Islahi witnessed firsthand how limited opportunity shapes a child’s future outcomes. “There are millions of girls with dreams just as bold, who only need the opportunity to learn and grow,” she shared.

While no single organization can eliminate the barriers facing African girls, expanding access to quality education, books and community support will help ensure that a child’s future is no longer dictated by their zip code, gender, or early circumstances.

– Natasha Agarwal

Natasha is based in Philadelphia, PA, USA and focuses on Good News, Politics for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr

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8 Things to Know About Education in New Caledonia

Education in New Caledonia
New Caledonia, a French overseas collectivity in the South Pacific, has a large education system by Pacific island standards. However, it is one shaped by geography, inequality, demographic decline and the unrest of 2024. The 2025 census reported 264,596 residents, down 6,811 people from 2019 – the first population decline between censuses since 1946. Here are eight facts about education in New Caledonia.

8 Facts About Education in New Caledonia

  1. For the 2026 school year, the Government of New Caledonia expected 59,782 students: 23,053 in public primary schools, 21,588 in public secondary schools, 6,880 in private primary schools and 8,261 in private secondary schools. The government claimed these totals continue a long-term decline, including 4,666 fewer primary pupils since 2012.
  2. The Vice-Rectorate’s 2025 education figures included 249 schools, 55 collèges, 21 lycées (high schools) and one university. In 2025, there were 58,188 pupils in school education and 5,317 students in higher education, showing that New Caledonia maintains a full education pathway despite its island geography.
  3. In 2025, the Vice-Rectorate counted 30,741 primary pupils, including 23,721 in public schools and 7,020 in private schools. The South Province accounted for 21,395 primary pupils, compared with 6,578 in the North Province and 2,768 in the Loyalty Islands. This distribution reflects broader demographic concentration: the South Province contains roughly three-quarters of the population.
  4. At the collège level, there were 16,253 students in 2025, including students in adapted pathways such as ULIS (Unité Localisée pour l’Inclusion Scolaire) and SEGPA (Section d’Enseignement Général et Adapté). At the lycée level, there were 11,194 students, split almost evenly between 5,849 in general/technological education and 5,345 in vocational education. This balance demonstrates how important job-oriented schooling is to New Caledonia’s education-to-work pipeline.
  5. About 7,923 diplomas were delivered in 2023. The Diplôme national du brevet pass rate was 87.5%, while the overall baccalauréat pass rate was 86.3%. However, outcomes varied sharply, as the general baccalauréat pass rate was 97.4%, compared with 87.8% for technological and 75.5% for vocational pathways. The BTS pass rate was 81%.
  6. The 2025 back-to-school period followed a “particularly disrupted” 2024. Around 1,000 secondary students left the territory in 2024, and many students changed schools after the May 2024 events. Damaged schools also required reconstruction, with the state covering 100% of rehabilitation for affected educational institutions. 
  7. For 2026, the government listed school dropout prevention as a major priority. In secondary education, its approach combines early prevention from sixth grade with the DAENC support system for 16- to 18-year-olds who left school without a minimum diploma. Vice-Rector Didier Vin-Datiche said the goal is to “trace these students, contact them again and make sure they return” to receive support and obtain diplomas.
  8. New Caledonia is focusing on French, mathematics, anti-bullying and school climate. Christelle Varney, director of education, called mathematics improvement “a major project,” noting a new DU Maths Expert with the University of New Caledonia to strengthen teacher performance. The government also committed 25 million Pacific francs to keep cafeteria prices stable, while continuing transportation support for boarding students in the North Province.

Looking Ahead

New Caledonia’s education system has strong infrastructure, broad access and respectable exam results. Its next challenge is outcomes: reducing dropout, improving foundational learning and ensuring that vocational and higher education pathways lead to real opportunity.

– Jeff Zhou 

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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8 Things to Know About Education in Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Education in Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French overseas collectivity off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, has one of the smallest education systems under the French national framework. Its 2025 legal population was 5,819 municipal residents and 5,987 total residents. Thus, education is a small-system challenge: the territory must provide full schooling, exam preparation, vocational training and pathways abroad for fewer than 1,000 students.

8 Facts About Education in Saint Pierre and Miquelon

  1. The Service de l’Éducation nationale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon reported 929 students for the 2025-2026 school year, supported by 213 staff and a budget of around €19 million. That means education spending is significant relative to the territory’s size, reflecting the cost of maintaining a complete public service in a remote island setting.
  2. In 2025-2026, the territory had six schools, two collèges and one polyvalent lycée with a vocational section. The network includes 431 students in primary education and 498 students in secondary education, split between public and private-under-contract institutions. This tight structure helps maintain access, but it also means that one school closure or staffing shortage can impact a large share of students.
  3. Of the 929 students enrolled in 2025, 553 were in public institutions and 376 in private-under-contract institutions. In the first degree, private-under-contract schools enrolled 229 students, slightly more than the 202 in public schools; in the second degree, public institutions enrolled 351, compared with 147 in private-under-contract schools.
  4. Saint Pierre and Miquelon’s exam outcomes are a bright spot. In 2025, the general-track Diplôme national du brevet pass rate was 91.2%, while the general baccalauréat pass rate was 100% for the third consecutive year. The vocational baccalauréat pass rate was also high at 95.8%, and both the CAP and Certificat de formation générale recorded 100% pass rates.
  5. Vocational education matters because many students need job-ready skills without leaving the territory immediately. The 2025 data show a 100% CAP pass rate and a 95.8% vocational baccalauréat pass rate. However, the professional-track brevet fell to 50% in 2025, down from 80% in 2024. This suggests that while upper vocational outcomes can be strong, earlier vocational preparation remains an area to watch.
  6. A major recent development is the opening of the boarding school (internat) at Lycée Émile Letournel on September 2, 2024. 11 boarding students attend the school – a small number, but a meaningful one in a territory where Miquelon-based students may require support to receive secondary education in Saint-Pierre.
  7. The 2024 national assessments reveal that Saint Pierre and Miquelon students performed close to or below national benchmarks in some primary grades. For example, in first-degree French assessments, local mastery rates ranged from 76.19% in CP to 54.14% in CM2, compared with national figures of 79.61% and 60.26% respectively. In mathematics, local rates ranged from 76.46% in CP to 53.62% in CM2, again below national levels in several grades.
  8. The 2024-2027 territorial education diagnostic emphasizes adapting pathways, inclusive schooling and career development. It specifically calls for “favoriser l’insertion professionnelle des élèves” through English learning, training options and workplace placements in Canada. This reflects Saint Pierre and Miquelon’s geography: students often need pathways to mainland France or nearby Canada.

Looking Ahead

Education in Saint Pierre and Miquelon is not mainly an access crisis; it is a quality, continuity and opportunity challenge. The system has strong exam results and high public investment, but must keep improving foundational learning, vocational transitions and pathways to higher education or work beyond the archipelago.

– Jeff Zhou 

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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8 Things to Know About Education in Wallis and Futuna

Education in Wallis and Futuna
Wallis and Futuna, a French overseas collectivity in the South Pacific, has a small but unique education system shaped by geography, language and its relationship with France. The 2023 census counted 11,151 residents, including 8,088 in Wallis and 3,063 in Futuna, while the island of Alofi remains uninhabited.

8 Facts About Education in Wallis and Futuna

  1. Despite its size, Wallis and Futuna offers schooling from early childhood through upper secondary education. As of the 2025-2026 period, the first phase includes 10 schools serving about 1,433 pupils, while the second degree includes six collèges and one polyvalent lycée serving about 1,337 students.
  2. As part of the French education system, Wallis and Futuna follows the broad structure of French schooling: nursery school, elementary school, collège and lycée. French national rules make education compulsory from ages 3 to 16, and the education ministry states that “school is compulsory for all children from age 3 until age 16.” This gives Wallis and Futuna a formal education framework similar to that of mainland France, though local implementation differs. 
  3. Wallis and Futuna has long had a special arrangement in which primary education was delegated to the Catholic mission. A 2025 French parliamentary report describes this as a “situation unique en France,” or a unique situation in France. The same report explains that a 2025 bill aimed to transfer primary teachers into the French state civil service, replacing the concession system that had existed since 1969.
  4. A social movement in 2023 led to an agreement to transform the status of primary teachers, including improved pay and alignment with the national teacher corps. The ministry said the reform’s goal was “l’amélioration de la qualité de l’éducation et des parcours des élèves,” meaning improved education quality and student pathways.
  5. The strongest warning sign is student performance. 40% of students in Wallis and Futuna possessed insufficient or fragile mastery, compared with 11% nationally. In mathematics, the gap was larger: 65% were in the insufficient or fragile category, compared with 28% nationally. These figures show that access alone is not enough; foundational learning remains the key challenge.
  6. French is the primary language of instruction, but many young children first speak Wallisian or Futunian. Teachers assigned to the territory must adapt to “different school populations,” notably children’s language difficulties and local customary practices. New recruitment approaches increasingly recognize that primary teachers should understand local vernacular languages.
  7. The territory is using digital resources to support teachers and reduce isolation. The Catholic Education Directorate developed EDUC@PASIFIKA, a digital teaching-resource platform for primary teachers, co-financed by the European Union, the Pacific Fund, the Pacific Community and the territory.
  8. Education planning is also shaped by shrinking enrollment. Total enrollment dropped from 3,390 students in 2016 to 2,935 in 2020 and 2,658 in 2024. Fewer students can ease class sizes, but they also raise questions about staffing, school organization and maintaining programs across two inhabited islands.

Looking Ahead

Education in Wallis and Futuna benefits from French public funding and a full pathway through secondary school. However, the territory’s next obstacle is outcomes: raising French and math proficiency, supporting bilingual learners, stabilizing teacher careers and ensuring that students in both Wallis and Futuna can move from school into higher education or employment.

– Jeff Zhou 

Photo: Flickr

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The Loss of Language in Pakistan

Language in PakistanThe loss of language in Pakistan is not a new issue. Although Urdu is the national language, Dawn reports that the government has delegated it to the middle and lower classes — effectively leaving a whole generation out of policymaking. This creates a social divide and fosters a sense of alienation among people of the same country. This alienation increases when locals cannot read English signs or names, with literacy rates at only 63%. This loss not only creates problems for the future but also erases years of knowledge within local languages. Balochi, spoken in the largest province of Pakistan, remains endangered despite government efforts such as hosting television shows like PTV Bolan. Balochi has a long history and has shaped the province’s culture immensely. According to Baloch commentators, the province’s neglect stems in part from this erasure, with the government largely overlooking infrastructure and education.

Underrepresentation of the Endangered Languages

This lack of representation separates the province from the rest of the country and leads to increased poverty for locals excluded from lawmaking — a process that remains mostly in English and Urdu at higher levels. Some Baloch commentators describe this as a deliberate erasure of Balochi identity that makes it difficult for people to embrace their Pakistani identity.

Global growth drives language loss in Pakistan for the same reasons languages go extinct worldwide, though the effect is more damaging in a developing country than in most wealthier ones. Roughly 51% of the population cannot speak English, and those who do often do not excel in Urdu, which the education system teaches “like a foreign language.” Balochistan has a multidimensional poverty rate of about 71%, higher than any other province, and has the fewest English speakers, alongside a literacy rate of only 49%. Infrastructure development lags as locals remain largely absent from the governmental system.

Missed Opportunities for the Underprivileged

According to a case study of English and career opportunities at Jazz Digital House Multan, employers consider English an important asset during hiring. However, English is primarily a language of high society, leaving 51% of the underprivileged population at a disadvantage. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has around 24 minority languages, and when they are ignored, students cannot receive proper education. Call centers have increased their exports by 19% year over year, according to State Bank of Pakistan data, and have become an important job source. Most call centers communicate in English, creating a barrier for those seeking jobs that do not require advanced degrees. Other workplaces also use English as the recognized professional language, limiting native speakers to minimal job options. The Diplomat argues that in a poorly governed country with high illiteracy, expecting people to communicate in “a dissimilar language” is an extreme burden.

Loss of Culture and Identity

Much as Persian gave way to English during the British colonial era, there has been a similar loss of culture and identity among young Pakistanis today. Dawn emphasizes the importance of diversity, arguing that even amid global efforts to build a unified culture and language, preserving local vernaculars remains essential. Such preservation could help counter the country’s stunted growth and the loss of community identity and richness.

Future Prospects

Some efforts have been made to conserve local languages. The previous prime minister directed officials to deliver their speeches in Urdu at national and international forums. Institutes such as Idara-e-Taaleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) have collaborated with the People’s Action for Learning (PAL) Network to preserve local languages and document cultural artifacts, balancing preservation with global growth. Together, they have established 60 libraries with 200 publications, often in seven different languages, and research on Wakhi, Khowar, Saraiki and Dhatki found that each has its own script. Although Pakistan is undergoing a language tragedy, the government and native people may be able to minimize this loss through collaboration. Many artisans and local businesses rely on their mother tongue; if policymakers safeguard the rights of these languages and integrate them into modern society, many people may move from marginal jobs into a more secure market, eventually helping reduce global poverty.

– Eshal Fatima

Eshal is based in Lahore, Pakistan and focuses on Global Health and Politics for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Unsplash

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Higher Education in Slovenia

Higher Education in SloveniaSlovenia has built one of Europe’s stronger higher education systems, and higher education in Slovenia plays a direct role in the country’s fight against poverty. Roughly half of all Slovenians between the ages of 19 and 24 are enrolled in tertiary education, and most never see a tuition bill. Undergraduate study at public universities is free for Slovenian and EU students who attend full-time, and about 74% of all students paid no tuition fees in the 2024/2025 academic year. That investment has paid off in rising attainment: 43.1% of Slovenians aged 25 to 34 now hold a tertiary degree, up from 31.3% in 2015 and just short of the European Union average of 44.2%. Last year, 16,629 students completed a tertiary degree in the country, 3.2% more than the year before, continuing a decade-long climb in the share of young adults with a university education.

The Costs of Higher Education in Slovenia

Free tuition, however, does not guarantee equal opportunity. Students from low-income families, rural areas and other underrepresented groups often struggle to cover the costs that surround the classroom rather than the classroom itself: housing, food, transportation and books. Monthly living costs for students in Slovenia typically run between €500 and €800, with dormitory rooms costing €120 to €200 a month and private shared apartments running €250 to €350 per person, expenses that weigh most heavily on students who cannot rely on family support and that can push young people from poorer or rural households to skip university altogether.

The gap shows up starkly in outcomes. Among Slovenians whose parents hold a tertiary degree, 74% go on to earn one themselves. Among those whose parents did not finish upper secondary school, only 16% do, one of the widest such gaps that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tracked. That 58-percentage-point divide illustrates how a family’s financial and educational background, not a student’s ability, can still decide who reaches a university classroom in Slovenia.

Scholarship Programs

To narrow that gap, the Slovenian government funds several scholarship programs aimed at the students who need help the most. Need-based state scholarships, reserved for students from financially disadvantaged families, reached 46.7% of full-time undergraduate students and 24.3% of master’s students in the 2021/2022 academic year, making them the most widely used form of student aid in the country. Merit-based Zois scholarships support high-achieving students regardless of income, and the Public Scholarship, Development, Disability and Maintenance Fund separately awards roughly 1,000 new scholarships each year to students training for occupations facing labor shortages, worth €118.48 a month, with total recipients numbering 2,890 as of the end of 2023. Together, these programs are designed so that a student’s financial background does not determine whether they can finish a degree.

The Erasmus+ Program

Slovenia is also working to modernize its higher education system through participation in the Erasmus+ program, which lets students study at universities across Europe, build professional skills and connect with international peers. Almost 5,000 Slovenian students took part in Erasmus+ exchanges in 2023 alone, a 50% increase over 2019, and more than 31,000 Slovenian students have studied abroad through the program over the past decade. These placements help prepare graduates for an increasingly international job market while bringing new teaching methods and fresh ideas back into Slovenian classrooms.

The Slovenian Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund

Nonprofit organizations reinforce this work. The Slovenian Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund, the country’s central scholarship body, runs multiple programs that fund undergraduate, graduate and doctoral study for both Slovenian citizens and international students, in some cases covering tuition and living costs for recipients who could not otherwise afford them. The fund also finances researcher mobility and support for lifelong learning, helping students and workers continue building skills well beyond a single degree.

Looking Ahead

A college degree remains one of the most reliable paths out of poverty and into long-term economic security. Slovenian tertiary graduates face an unemployment rate of just 3.5%, compared with 11.4% for those who did not complete upper secondary school, and graduates typically earn more and change jobs less often than their less-educated peers. By continuing to fund scholarships, expand exchange programs like Erasmus+ and invest in partners like the Slovenian Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund, Slovenia is working to make sure that a student’s family income says less about their future than their own effort does.

– Rachel Ma

Rachel is based in Florham Park, NJ, USA and focuses on Technology and Solutions for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr