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PeopleImages/Shutterstock When an exam board for England, Wales and Northern Ireland recently clarified that students are now permitted to use gender-inclusive or gender-neutral forms in French, Spanish and German exams, it marked more…

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banhan chueatong/Shutterstock In Toy Story 5, Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the gang are up against a new challenge: Bonnie’s tablet. Even Rex the toy dinosaur is worried about going extinct again. The storyline reflects a broader shift in…

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Students’ textbooks, provided by USAID, at a school in Malawi, 2016. By Lawrence Jackson, Wikimedia Commons Over a year has passed since the Donald Trump administration dismantled USAID , cutting more than 5,000 programmes and slashing…

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Thx4Stock team/Shutterstock Most of my ecology and evolution undergraduates have never held a pair of binoculars or looked at a bug through a magnifying glass. They don’t know how to use a key to identify a plant or insect, let alone why…

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EF Stock/Shutterstock The UK government’s decision to introduce restrictions on children’s access to social media marks a significant moment in the evolution of online safety policy. For supporters, it represents a long-overdue response to…

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David Hockney, who died on June 11, was perhaps the most successful and well-known British artist of his lifetime. His exhibitions, from career-spanning shows like David Hockney 25 at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (2025) to his…

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Xavier Lorenzo/Shutterstock Is the time teenagers spend on social media really damaging their wellbeing and mental health? Around the globe, youth mental health problems are on the rise. This has coincided with an ever increasing amount of…

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Vukasin Ljustina/Shutterstock The UK government has announced plans to introduce a ban on social media use for children under the age of 16. This follows a consultation on the impact of social media on young people’s mental health,…

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Bricolage/Shutterstock As the UK prepares to introduce an “Australia plus” ban on social media for under 16s, many lessons can be learned from Australia’s experiment. Many people may think Australia’s ban is a success, with nearly 5…

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Deep in Book VII of Plato’s Republic, Socrates describes prisoners chained inside a cave, mistaking shadows cast on a wall by firelight for reality itself. They name the shadows, debate them and develop expertise about them. The prisoners…

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Hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans were shipped from the Gold Coast, today's Ghana. National Maritime Museum, London , CC BY The transatlantic slave trade was a multilayered, highly commercialised global enterprise that lasted from…

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BearFotos/Shutterstock In a recent BBC documentary, former England men’s football manager Gareth Southgate explored the challenges facing young men in Britain, including low school attainment, declining employment opportunities, low…

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It’s time South Africa faced up to an honest question: what if the formal economy can’t deliver the jobs that are needed? I am an economist who has been working closely with South Africa’s administrative tax data over the past five years –…

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Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Changes are on the horizon for the food that students can choose in English schools. The government is proposing updates to the school food standards, which set out what schools can serve. The changes…

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SolStock/ Getty Images Educators have long debated whether students should be “streamed” – or organised into different classes based on their academic performance. Is it better for students to be learning with students of a similar…

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Research shows that some 'distraction blocker' apps can deepen feelings of shame and inadequacy around productivity for neurodivergent people. (Unsplash/Nubelson Fernandes) In today’s attention economy , social media platforms,…

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fizkes/Shutterstock Spend ten minutes talking to a soon-to-be graduate about their job search and you might come away convinced that a university degree has become a confidence trick. The class of 2025 spent the better part of a year…

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Emmanuel Ikwuegbu/Unsplash , CC BY The West African Senior School Certificate Examination ( WASSCE ) is a high-stakes test. For decades, it has served as the gateway to post-secondary education across five countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra…

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Nicholas Ellinas/Shutterstock From comics aimed at very young children to university-level textbooks, comics are known to be an effective medium for helping people to learn new information. This is because they represent information in two…

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Picture this: you have spent decades building a career. You have a master’s degree. You have taught hundreds of students. You walk into work every morning with a sense of purpose. Then, almost overnight, the gates close. You are told you…

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Abstract Aerial Art/ Getty Images The latest data on Australian schooling shows about 81.5% of Year 10 students go on to Year 12. This is a modest rise of 1.6 percentage points on the previous year, but figures have been largely stable…

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PeopleImages/Shutterstock Over the last decade, UK universities have put increasing effort into supporting student mental health. This often means following frameworks: documents that outline good practice, typically developed by sector…

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A recent development in the credit rating space could signal important progress in one of the more intractable challenges in global development finance. The challenge is how countries can manage periods of acute debt stress without being…

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Tsuguliev/Shutterstock School trips are often remembered as a highlight of childhood education. Whether it’s exploring a castle, visiting a museum or spending the day at a farm or zoo, these experiences offer something the classroom often…

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Power struggles often play out in Senegal’s political arena, both within a party and between rival parties. To summarise British foreign minister Lord Palmerston’s argument in 1848: In politics, there are no permanent enemies, no permanent…

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By the second week of the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo it was already clear that containing the spread of the haemorrhagic disease was proving to be difficult. On 17 May 2026, the World Health Organization…

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Halfpoint/Shutterstock Around one in six adolescents worldwide report having self-harmed at some point in their lives. In England, an NHS mental health survey of 2,370 children and young people found that more than one in three young…

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Severe bleeding after birth (postpartum haemorrhage) is the leading cause of maternal mortality globally. It causes approximately 70,000 deaths annually . About 80% occur in Africa and South Asia. A recently published World Health…

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Children with special needs often experience a range of early developmental challenges that can affect their readiness for learning and their participation in school. This population includes children with a wide range of…

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Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Scientific discoveries rarely happen alone. Modern research often involves teams spanning institutions and even countries. Yet when research is published in academic journals, credit is reduced to a list of names –…

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airdone/Shutterstock Screens are everywhere in children’s lives. They use them at school and at home. They see screens used by their parents as they work on laptops, use phones to arrange playdates or look up outings or recipes on tablets.…

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The 2026 Africa-France summit in Nairobi on May 11-12 is the first to be held in an African country that is not a former French colony. It is also the first to be held since the dramatic collapse of relations between France and a number of…

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The message to students used to be simple: “Just say no.” But in today’s schools, that message is not only outdated, it may be part of the problem. Across Canada, student substance use is a growing concern. According to the most recent…

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Recently, a spate of news coverage has raised concerns about grade inflation in schools across Canada . These concerns stem in part from policies stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was widespread cancellation of large-scale…

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Zhuravlev Andrey/Shutterstock Ofsted, the schools inspectorate in England, was the subject of a UK parliamentary inquiry after the death by suicide of Ruth Perry, headteacher of Caversham Primary school in Berkshire, in 2023. The coroner’s…

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The small community of Arviat, Nvt., has reportedly been selected to host the main campus of Inuit Nunangat University , the first Inuit-led university in Canada. The institution is expected to open in 2030. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK),…

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Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock The upcoming Senedd elections may shift the balance of power in Wales. Any new government must immediately grapple with the significant ongoing challenges of embedding educational reforms across the additional…

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Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Across the UK, working‑class boys are navigating an unprecedented convergence of pressures. There are entrenched gaps between working-class boys and their peers in their levels of attainment at every…

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Students across Canada are exposed to artificial intelligence (AI) whether through search engines, writing assistants, automated recommendation systems or social media. That everyday exposure raises a first, fundamental question: What…

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Modern medicine prides itself on being a universal science, built on evidence from clinical trials. But there’s a bias in medical research. While Africa accounts for roughly 25% of the global disease burden and 19% of the global population…

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School students in a National Day parade, Asmara, Eritrea. Angela N Perryman/Shutterstock It’s often assumed that expanding access to education is progressive – that it’s a means of ensuring social, economic and political development.…

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Freepik , CC BY South Africa’s 50 public technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges are, in the main, struggling institutions. In many, throughput rates – how many students qualify in the expected time – are low . Some…

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Freepik , CC BY South Africa’s 50 public technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges are, in the main, struggling institutions. In many, throughput rates – how many students qualify in the expected time – are low . Some…

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Vach cameraman/Shutterstock What’s the point of play? Is it simply a way to keep children occupied, or something more? For some, it’s about learning literacy and numeracy. For others, it’s how friendships form and relationships deepen. But…

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Golubovy/Shutterstock It’s revision season. If you’re a student preparing for upcoming exams, you might be tempted to put aside sport or other physical activity for a while in order to dedicate more time to learning. But exercise is…

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Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock Sencos – special educational needs coordinators – play a vital role in maintained mainstream English schools, nursery schools and sixth forms. If you are a parent, you may encounter them if you have concerns…

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LightField Studios/Shutterstock The announcement by the government that a legal ban will be placed on mobile phones in English schools marks a continued shift in tone, if not necessarily in substance, around the control of devices in…

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New Africa/Shutterstock Incels, or involuntary celibates, are members of an online subculture, most often heterosexual men, who believe they have been unconditionally excluded from the dating scene. This has negative implications for their…

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Ghana’s parliament ratified the country’s first lithium mining agreement in March 2026. This came three years after lithium mining was confirmed as commercially viable in September 2023. The Ewoyaa Lithium Project, in the Central Region of…

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LightField Studios/Shutterstock Schools increasingly rely on testing, grading and performance accountability. In England, Ofsted inspections and school league tables sharpen the focus on measurable performance. Similar developments have…

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During Black History Month more than two years ago, in February 2024, the Ontario Conservative government announced it would introduce mandatory curriculum expectations focused on the history of Black Canadians for Grades 7, 8 and 10, with…

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By a dictionary definition, the word resilient means an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change . The key words here? “Recover” and “change.” The notion that psychological characteristics strongly influence…

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Hampshire College's campus entrance on April 16, 2026, a few days after the school announced it is closing. Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Hampshire College, a private college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, announced…

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should not be an arbiter of discussions about which other multilateral financial institutions should qualify for preferred creditor status. This is because the IMF is a direct beneficiary of the…

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DavideAngelini/Shutterstock Awkwardness and acne are the first things that spring to mind when thinking of adolescence, but they’re not always the full picture. We asked eight of our experts to tell us which book they feel best represents…

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The Canadian government launched the Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative in December 2025 designed to entice international researchers to come to Canada. The initiative, which the government says will “invest up to $1.7 billion over…

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The gutting of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2025 has had catastrophic consequences , including in South Sudan where amid ongoing war, an estimated 33 million people require humanitarian assistance. The…

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Peggy Fortnum and Harper Collins Children's Publishing For many children, Paddington is now primarily the star of three movies and a hit west end musical. However, that is not where the bear in a red hat whose adventures involve high-speed…

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Over the last several decades, the oceans have become more crowded. Aquaculture, wind and wave energy, and oil and gas exploration are taking up more space. This growth threatens the health of ocean ecosystems and coastal communities’…

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antoniodiaz/Shutterstock In adolescence, beliefs about fairness, equality and social roles are still taking shape. This includes teens’ views about gender – whether they support gender equality and their beliefs about gender roles in…

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Smallroombigdream/Shutterstock Around 1% of the global population has a PhD. It’s the highest academic qualification, the result of years spent on original research. But – and this is a question that many PhD students will have faced, at…

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Kristina Igumnova26/Shutterstock Two children sit in different schools. Both struggle to read. Both have similar low scores on national tests. But while one gets a diagnosis of specific learning difficulties and a package of support, the…

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Algonquin College in Ottawa recently announced that it’s suspended its Music Industry Arts (MIA) diploma program. Despite MIA having a robust graduate employment rate , the program was cut as of March 2026 amid broader institutional…

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VaLiza/Shutterstock Almost 1 million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training . These so-called Neets – aged 16 to 24 – face a significantly higher risk of long-term unemployment, poor health and involvement in…

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PeopleImages/Shutterstock As a researcher in autism and education and a former secondary school teacher, it took me a while to realise that autistic school staff were rarely included in conversations about inclusion and diversity in…

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Fotoluminate LLC/Shutterstock The UK Department for Education has just released guidance for parents on early years screen use, which I advised on as an expert. It includes recommended limits on the time children spend on screens. It also…

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PeopleImages/Shutterstock In business, nature often gets reduced to numbers: emissions targets, sustainability metrics, biodiversity data. But when professionals rely too heavily on what’s measurable, they can risk missing what’s…

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Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock Children have the least control over the planet’s future, but will also be the most affected as it changes. They may well feel the mental toll of the “futility gap”: when individual actions feel meaningless…

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vectorfusionart/Shutterstock Eating meat and other animal products can have negative effects on our health, the environment and animal welfare. Eating a more plant-based diet rich in wholefoods could prevent 27% of human deaths worldwide ,…

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ADDICTIVE STOCK/Shutterstock New UK government guidance recommends that screen time for children under two should be avoided, except for shared activities such as video calls. For children aged two to five, a maximum of an hour a day is…

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The mental health effects of climate change are receiving growing attention , including how children and young people are uniquely affected. Supporting young people to build and sustain good mental health and wellbeing, and to feel…

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Dmitrij Galacewicz/Shutterstock Countries around the world, including France, Spain and Malaysia, are planning to follow Australia in enacting a ban on young people using social media. And now the UK is considering moving in the same…

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The Irish government has signalled that it is exploring options to introduce age restrictions on social media use for under-16s. The proposal sits within the government’s new National Digital and AI Strategy 2030 , which frames online…

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Students play with toys in a basin of soapy water at a child care center in New Britain, Conn., in March 2025. Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public via Getty Images I live in the small city of Rolla, Missouri, where half the child care centers…

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Student refectory at the School of Pharmacy in the 1960s UCL School of Pharmacy Library , CC BY-NC-ND Student finance in England is up for debate once again, with extensive discussion on the perceived unfairness of the Plan 2 student loan…

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Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Student loans now sit at the centre of how higher education is funded in England, shaping how millions of graduates finance their studies. Many students leave university with debts of £50,000 or more and may spend…

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Art_Photo/Shutterstock There’s no nice way to put it: small children are snotty. A research study that tested children for multiple respiratory viruses every week for a year found that under-fives are carrying one or more viruses 50% of…

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Zoriana Zaitseva/Shutterstock The higher education sector is more aware of disability than it was a few years ago. Universities are more willing to provide support, and attitudes have improved. What students describe day to day, however,…

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Prostock-studio/Shutterstock If you are a student in the UK, news of an outbreak of meningitis affecting university students in Kent may be causing you alarm. The UK Health Security Agency has confirmed 13 cases of invasive meningococcal…

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Matryoha/Shutterstock Children today can encounter harmful material online with alarming ease, including violent, sexual and self-harm content. While this is often treated as a moderation failure, the deeper cause is economic. Much of the…

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If you aren't working at it, you're not learning it − something college students need to understand as AI makes producing work easier. Sam Edwards via Getty Images I was early to the generative AI wave in higher education: I was among the…

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Aguadeluna/Shutterstock At first glance, the House of Commons vote on March 9 seemed to send a clear political message. MPs have decided against an amendment from the House of Lords to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would…

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Columbia University, seen in June 2025, is one of the schools that made a deal with the Trump administration last year in order to avoid losing funding. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Several prominent universities, including Columbia…

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Salish Nlaka'pamux basket made of cedar or spruce root, cedar wood and hide. (McCord Museum) The Ontario government recently announced massive cuts to Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) funding , decreasing the maximum funding from…

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Nigeria’s basic education landscape consists of public (government) schools and a diverse private sector. Private schools in Nigeria refer to educational institutions that are run by private individuals, religious organisations,…

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For students outside cities, participation in distance learning can be a lonely struggle. Tobi Oshinnaike via Unsplash Across Africa, distance education has become one of the most powerful forces for expanding access to higher learning.…

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Graduates aren't guaranteed a job. Nqobile Vundla/Unsplash Study hard, get your degree, and then step confidently into a stable, well-paid job. That’s long been the assumption about how to secure a livelihood: in neat, predictable stages.…