One million Northerners to acquire Basic Education by 2020

The French Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer reacts after the beheading of a teacher in the Yvelines, reportedly targeted for showing cartoons of Mohammed to his students. Blanquer says that "a teacher is perfectly entitled to show these cartoons".

Guards prevented the bomber from entering the building so he detonated his explosive outside, officials said. Afghanistan has seen an uptick in attacks during peace talks with the Taliban to end decades of conflict.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Saturday⁣. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Saturday.⁣⁣

The forced closure of schools across the world has caused a "global learning crisis," UNICEF Germany has told DW. For this reason, schools should remain open.

More than 10m children will suffer from acute malnutrition in DRC in 2021 - UNICEF

UNICEF, the UN's Children's Fund, says schools for more than 168 million children have been shuttered entirely by the coronavirus pandemic, with countries in the Caribbean and Latin America among the worst affected.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, discussed the country’s state of literature, religious practices, commercialization of arts and culture.

Consecutive lockdowns in the restive region for security and COVID reasons, coupled with a shutdown of high-speed internet and mobile connectivity, have hurt students' educational opportunities.

Despite a severe shortage of foreign exchange (forex), overseas education continues to drain the country’s resources, as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, admitted $80 million weekly disbursements for personal travel allowances or payment of overseas school fees. The amount, which translates to $960 million yearly, is disbursed to banks to enable Nigerians to meet their forex responsibilities. This is after a recent report indicated that Nigerians spend £30 million (about N20 billion) yearly paying tuition in the United Kingdom alone while the country’s education system grapples with challenges of underfunding, poor remuneration, and obsolete teaching facilities.

Unable to go to school due to the pandemic, Yoselin spends her days at her mother's work, playing with a cellphone or sleeping on the ground. Rafael looks bored following class behind a computer screen. And Carolina Castillon decided to take her children out of the system to homeschool them instead. This is the reality of education in Panama across social classes amid the pandemic, where children have not set foot in a classroom in 16 months, making the Central American country the one with the largest number of days without face-to-face education in the world, according to a UNICEF report.

The Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria has pledged his country's partnership with the Sokoto state government in the area of Education, Infrastructure and Agriculture.

The head of the UN agency urged rich countries to donate shots to the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme to bridge the gap in supplies caused by India's decision to curb vaccine exports.