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1.	Burkina Faso: Gold rush hits education
	Author: Correspondant	Date Written: 30 August 2012
	Primary Category: Youth & Children	Document Origin: IRIN
	Secondary Category: Human Rights	Source URL: http://www.irinnews.org/
	Key Words: child labour, gold mines, Burkina Faso, education
	Summary & Comment: A boom in Burkina Faso’s gold mining over the past three years has made the country one of Africa’s leading producers, but it is also luring children out of school. Gold has become the top export commodity. Between 2007 and 2011, it accounted for 64.7 percent of all exports and 8 percent of GDP. Primary school enrolment in the country is 57.8 perce . . . [expand]
2.	In the pursuit of education: Burkina Faso’s school for shepherds
	Author: Brahima Ouédraogo	Date Written: 26 July 2012
	Primary Category: Youth & Children	Document Origin: Inter Press Service News Agency
	Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/
	Key Words: Burkina Faso, Education, School of the Shepherds, Nomadic children,
	Summary & Comment: Salou Bandé is proud to stand at the front of the only classroom in the village of Bénnogo, 90 kilometres north of the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, sharing his knowledge with his students. He is part of an initiative to improve education for nomadic children in the West African country. “We start with a unit in Fulfulde (the local language) o . . . [expand]
3.	U.S. must enforce ban on child soldiers
	Author: Jo Becker	Date Written: 28 June 2012
	Primary Category: Youth & Children	Document Origin: Human Rights Watch
	Secondary Category: Human Rights	Source URL: http://www.hrw.org/
	Key Words: child soldiers, South Sudan, DRC, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Libya
	Summary & Comment: The U.S. State Department’s new list of governments using child soldiers names seven countries this year. The list includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma and South Sudan, which have deployed child soldiers for years. Five of the seven countries get U.S. military assistance. However, Congress had agreed in 2008 that U.S. tax money should n . . . [expand]
4.	Major effort to reduce child mortality not enough
	Author: Jonathan Migneault & Jamila Akweley Okertchiri	Date Written: 10 May 2012
	Primary Category: Youth & Children	Document Origin: Inter Press Service Africa
	Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.ips.org/
	Key Words: Ghana, vaccine, MDG, pneumonia
	Summary & Comment: Ghana is stepping up efforts to reduce child mortality by choosing to become the first African country to introduce two new vaccines against diseases causing the greatest amount of death amongst children. While UNICEF recognizes that this is an important step in reducing the under-five mortality rate in the country, addressing malnutrition would go . . . [expand]
5.	Nigeria: Show commitment on child lead poisoning
	Author: Human Rights Watch	Date Written: 6 May 2012
	Primary Category: Youth & Children	Document Origin: Human Rights Watch
	Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.hrw.org/
	Key Words: Zamfara state, artisanal gold mining, mortality, brain damage
	Summary & Comment: Lead poisoning is on the rise in some communities in northwestern Nigeria. This is the direct consequence of artisanal gold mining, a much more prosperous career than farming. Unfortunately, those children not dying from exposure to lead may face long-term disability due to brain damage. Nigeria must step up to ensure children are not exposed to th . . . [expand]
6.	Mali: Child soldiers used in conflict
	Author: William Lloyd-George	Date Written: 4 May 2012
	Primary Category: Youth & Children	Document Origin: Inter Press Service Africa
	Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.ips.org/
	Key Words: war crimes, youth, combatants, Azawad
	Summary & Comment: Witnesses have reported the presence of children among ranks for armed groups in northern Mali. The power vacuum in the region has allowed the recruitment and use of child soldiers among factions fighting for supremacy. CJW
7.	Sierra Leone still suffers legacy of child soldiers
	Author: Mustapha Dumbuya	Date Written: 25 April 2012
	Primary Category: Youth & Children	Document Origin: Inter Press Service Africa
	Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.ips.org/
	Key Words: Charles Taylor, UN, unemployment, reintegration
	Summary & Comment: Charles Taylor's legacy in Sierra Leone is one of shattered lives. An estimated 10,000 child soldiers were used in the brutal civil war. While the United Nations brokered a reintegration process for these victims, not all benefited from this work. Many young men remain idle on the streets and until more is done to engage them, they pose a thre . . . [expand]

News from Additional Sources

Pambazuka News :Education

1. Liberia: Breaking rocks to pay her school fees
   Mercy Womeh attends the J Chauncey Goodridge school in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. She pays her school fees by crushing rocks, earning 35 Liberian dollars ($0.47) for each bucket. Three years ago, her family moved from the countryside to the Monrovia suburb of Gbawe Town to find work. But in a country with 85% unemployment, crushing rocks was the only option.
2. South Africa: Last in maths education, says survey survey
   The quality of South Africa's maths and science education has been ranked last in a survey of 62 countries by the World Economic Forum. The report ranked South Africa 54th when it came to gross tertiary enrolment - behind India, but ahead of Morocco, Ghana, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Kenya, and Tanzania. The country placed 28th overall, and was the top-ranked sub-Saharan African country.
3. Uganda: 6,500 vacancies for science teachers remain unfilled
   Despite a government policy that made science subjects compulsory for all secondary school students, there is a reported shortage of 6,500 teachers to teach the subjects. According to the Ministry of Education, even the available 6,500 science teachers, a good number of them were ill-trained and cannot adequately pass on the skills to the learners.
4. DRC: Students torn between school and work
   Hanging from the door of a mini-bus taxi as it jerks and jinks through traffic, 16-year-old Gires Manoka calls out the van’s destination to potential passengers as it crosses Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. One pedestrian asks the fresh-faced teen if he shouldn’t be in school instead of working. 'I was in grade seven last year,' Manoka replies, 'but I had no one to pay my school fees. I got no choice but to hustle; this work keeps my family alive.'
5. Africa: Growth sparks controversial rise of private secondary schools
   According to an education for all global monitoring report published by Unesco in October, 71 million adolescents of lower secondary school age were out of school in 2010, with three out of four living in south and west Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The last of these regions has doubled the number of students enrolling over the period, yet has the world's lowest total secondary enrolment, at 40 per cent in 2010. Private schools have stepped in to plug the gap.