Tag: students

Thousands of Philippine schools suspend in-person classes due to heat

By Pam CASTRO MANILA, April 5, 2024 (AFP) – Thousands of schools in the Philippines suspended in-person classes Friday, the education department said, as parts of the tropical country endured dangerously high temperatures. The months of March, April and May are typically the hottest and driest in the archipelago nation, but conditions this year have been exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon. Many schools have no air-conditioning, leaving students to swelter in crowded, poorly […]

More than 130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren released

By Laurie CHURCHMAN ABUJA, March 24, 2024 (AFP) – More than 130 schoolchildren seized by gunmen in a mass kidnapping in northwestern Nigeria earlier this month were released unharmed on Sunday, officials and the army said. The kidnapping in Kuriga, Kaduna state on March 7 was one of the biggest such attacks in years and prompted a national outcry over insecurity. Teachers and residents previously said around 280 pupils were kidnapped, but the army said […]

Tanzania says student abducted by Hamas is dead

DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 18, 2023 (AFP) – Tanzania’s foreign ministry has confirmed the death of one of two citizens who have been missing since Hamas’s October 7 attacks across southern Israel. The Israeli government had named two students from Tanzania — 22-year-old Clemence Felix Mtenga and 21-year-old Joshua Loitu Mollel — among those missing since the militant attack six weeks ago. “It’s with great sadness we confirm the death of Clemence Felix Mtenga,” a […]

Three Myanmar students killed in military raid

BANGKOK, July 28, 2023 (AFP) – At least three Myanmar students were killed in an early morning military raid in the country’s northwest, a student union said Friday. The Southeast Asian nation’s junta has unleashed deadly violence on its opponents since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in a February 2021 coup. The junta is facing resistance from anti-coup “People’s Defence Force” militias and long-established ethnic rebel armies. The All-Burma Federation of […]

Millions of Chinese students sit grueling college entrance exams

BEIJING, China, June 7, 2023 (AFP) — Millions of Chinese students sit for notoriously tough college entrance exams on Wednesday, the first since the country lifted zero-Covid rules that forced classes online for months on end. China’s education ministry says nearly 13 million students, a record, are registered to take the “gaokao” exams — billed by state media as the “world’s toughest” — this year. “I’ve been waking up at 4 am every day, except […]

Mexico ex-attorney general to stand trial over missing students

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — A Mexican judge on Wednesday ordered a former attorney general to stand trial in the case of 43 students whose murky disappearance in 2014 traumatized the nation. Jesus Murillo Karam will be tried on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice, the Federal Judiciary Council said after a court hearing in Mexico City. He is considered the architect of the so-called “historical truth” version of events — presented […]

100 school children rescued while hiking in Austrian Alps

More than 100 German school children and teachers had to be rescued, most of them airlifted to safety, after getting stuck on an Alpine hiking trail, described online as a “classic after-work tour,” police said Wednesday. Dozens of rescuers using two helicopters had to extract the 99 students aged 12 to 14 and eight teachers Tuesday after the path they were on became increasingly difficult and it started to rain, they said. Two pupils within […]

China passes law to reduce pressure on children from homework

  BEIJING. China (AFP) — China passed a law Saturday to limit the pressure on children from homework and after-school tutoring, state media said, as the country reforms its ultra-competitive education system. The government has imposed several rules in recent months aimed at combating activities it considers harmful to the development of China’s youth. Beijing has already banned minors from playing online games for more than three hours a week in an effort to tackle […]

Spanish police wrong-footed as 25,000 party at Madrid uni

MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Around 25,000 people joined a massive outdoor drinking party marking the start of term at a Madrid university without observing safety precautions, police said Saturday, admitting they were caught off-guard. Spanish media said it was the biggest such gathering since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic when large public gatherings were halted to stop the spread of the virus. “There were thousands of people on the grounds of Complutense University, about […]

Pres. Duterte inaugurates LRT2 East Extension; travel time from Masinag, Antipolo to Manila down to 40 minutes

Project to benefit at least 80,000 passengers daily   (Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte inaugurated the P9.5-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 East Extension Project in Antipolo City that will reduce travel time of passengers coming from Rizal going to the so-called “University district” in Manila from three hours to just 40 to 30 minutes. Duterte hailed the project that will benefit mostly students who are studying in the various universities near and […]

Seven students plummet to death at Bolivia university

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AFP) — At least seven students died and five were seriously injured when they fell from the fourth floor of a university building in Bolivia after a metal railing gave way Tuesday, the government said. Footage of the incident shows students crammed into a narrow passageway trying to enter an assembly hall. A metal railing can be seen giving way under the weight of the pushing and shoving students, with several plummeting […]

DepEd officially declares start of SY 2020-2021

(Eagle News)–Education Secretary Leonor Briones officially declared the start of school year 2020-2021 on Monday, Oct. 5, as the country shifts to a blended learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today, October 5, 2020, we open our schools. Today, we claim victory over the destroyer, COVID-19,” Briones said, reading from a prepared statement. According to the Education secretary, “we will not allow COVID-19 to destroy our children’s education and their future.” “Araw-araw may bagong krisis, bagong […]