Tag: Education

42 Chibok girls graduate from secondary school

July 28, 2017 Nigeria Abuja, Boko Haram, Borno, Chibok girls, Education, Katsina, Nigeria, Plateau

Jubilant scenes after 81 Chibok girls were reunited with their families in May. Some of the first escapees were able to recommence their secondary-school education and graduated this week. (Photo: Getty Images)

From the 57 Chibok girls who escaped Boko Haram captivity in Nigeria shortly after their kidnapping in 2014, 42 of them graduated from secondary school last Tuesday (26 July). The girls were sponsored to study at private schools by the Borno state government and the non-profit organisation Girl Child Concern, . . . Read More

US government warned of persistent ‘ideology of hatred’ in Saudi textbooks

July 28, 2017 Saudi Arabia Education, Middle East, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, USA

The Saudi government is failing to reform textbooks that direct violence and hatred to other religious groups including converts to Christianity and Jews. (Photo: Open Doors International)

An American expert has accused Saudi Arabia of “obfuscation” and of breaking its promises to reform textbooks that pump out an “ideology of hatred” that threatens Western security and Middle Eastern stability. Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, was addressing the US . . . Read More

Four Chibok girls to start university in US in August

July 21, 2017 Nigeria Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Education, Nigeria

It’s many thousands of miles from the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno, Nigeria, to university in the United States. But, following their kidnapping on 14 April 2014, it’s a journey that a handful of young girls from remote, rural north-eastern Nigeria have now made. (Their fellow escapees remain in Nigeria, . . . Read More

German ambassador makes rare criticism of China over religious freedom

June 28, 2017 China Beijing, Catholics, China, Churches, Crosses, Education, House churches, Peter Shao Zhumin, Religious freedom, Wenzhou, Zhejiang

The German ambassador to China has made an official request that the Beijing government release Peter Shao Zhumin, the bishop of Wenzhou, reports Asia News. It is thought to be the first request of this kind made to China in 10 years. In his official statement on his embassy’s website . . . Read More

Indian school textbook describes Jesus as ‘demon’

June 12, 2017 India Education, Gujarat

Christians in the western Indian state of Gujarat have demanded the removal from schools of a textbook that describes Jesus as a demon, reports Asia News The description in ‘Teacher-disciple relationships in Indian culture’, a book for ninth-grade pupils, was discovered by Subramaniam Iyer, a lawyer. Translated from Hindi, the contentious . . . Read More

Pakistani Christian schoolgirl told: ‘Do Islamic studies instead of Ethics, or leave this school’

May 23, 2017 Pakistan Education, Mardan, Punjab, Taliban

A Christian girl studying at a state school in Pakistan has been told by her teacher that, if she refuses to take a class in Islamic Studies, then she should not be in that school. Muqadas Sukhraj chose instead to study Ethics, a subject created as an alternative for children . . . Read More

New Erbil university offers fresh hope for young lives disrupted by IS

March 30, 2017 Iraq Bashar Warda, Catholics, Education, IDPs, Iraq, Kurds, Minorities

The new Catholic University of Erbil offers displaced young people an opportunity to continue their education.

Displaced young Iraqis whose education was halted by Islamic State’s violent seizure of territory are receiving a vital opportunity to catch up and train for professional life, thanks to the local Catholic archdiocese and charitable donations. The Catholic University of Erbil (CUE) opened in October 2016 and has around 250 . . . Read More

Cuba continues to restrict freedom of education

March 29, 2017 Cuba Censorship, Cuba, Education, Ramon Rigal, Raúl Castro

Cuba’s Center for Coexistence Studies (CEC) has once again been the target of harassment by state police, according to regional news agency Diario Las Americas. CEC was founded by Cuban Catholic intellectual Dagoberto Valdes, as a platform for citizen participation, freedom of expression, social justice and democracy for the good . . . Read More

Polygamy creates terrorists, says Nigerian Emir

February 22, 2017 Nigeria Borno, Chibok girls, Education, Kano, Katsina, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria, Rape, Terrorism, Women

One of Nigeria’s most prominent Muslim leaders has suggested that polygamy among the poor should be banned, saying that having masses of uneducated, poor children leads to terrorism. Muhammad Sanusi, the Emir of the northern state of Kano, who has four wives, said that polygamy itself is not wrong, but . . . Read More

Maldives removes church image from school textbook

January 20, 2017 Maldives Education, Islamic extremism, Maldives

The Maldives government has recalled a school textbook that contained illustrations of two churches, after protests from parents. The social studies textbook was for children in Grades 1-4 at the Gateway International School. The new management at the school has been accused by a local news website, Miadhu, of using . . . Read More

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