Author: Nola Jones

Many people outside of Malaysia immediately asked, “What exactly is a Henry Gurney School?” after a Seremban magistrate sentenced an 18-year-old to three years at the Henry Gurney School in Melaka last week after his careless driving killed three teenagers at a Senawang intersection. A simple label cannot adequately capture the complexity and intrigue of the answer. For juvenile offenders aged 14 to 20, Henry Gurney Schools serve as correctional facilities. They were created in 1949 as a result of the Juvenile Courts Act of 1947. They were known as High Moral Schools prior to May 1950, which provides insight…

Between submitting your application and sitting down at the exam table, there’s a moment when the gravity of what you’re trying truly hits home. Every year, thousands of Filipinos who wish to join the Philippine National Police, wear the uniform, and carry the badge must go through this process. The first true test of whether that goal is supported by anything substantial is the NAPOLCOM exam. The government agency tasked with supervising the PNP under the 1987 Constitution and Republic Acts 6975 and 8551 is the National Police Commission, or NAPOLCOM. Police examinations are part of that mandate, and the…

A familiar kind of anxiety descends upon college campuses during exam season. Students search for any advantage they can find by stacking notes, visiting libraries, and refreshing course pages. That edge, an online archive of previous exam papers that goes back farther than most students would ever consider looking, has been sitting quietly in plain sight at Maynooth University for years. Through the university’s library portal, the Russell Library at Maynooth has long maintained access to historical papers. It’s not exactly buried, but it’s the type of resource that doesn’t make a big deal out of itself. You must be…

When a borrower looks at their loan balance and realizes it hasn’t changed much, it usually happens around the third or fourth year of repayment. Every payment has been subtly eaten by the interest. It’s not a serious emergency. It’s just a gradual realization that perhaps the original loan terms weren’t favorable to them. Refinancing frequently comes up at that point. Fundamentally, student loan refinancing involves replacing one or more existing loans with a new private loan, ideally with more manageable repayment terms or a lower interest rate. The idea is straightforward. More consideration is needed for the execution than…

Over two million students in India sit down in exam rooms at some point in early May each year, bearing the silent burden of a future they’re not yet certain they can claim, years of preparation, and family expectations. They are taking the National Eligibility and Entrance Test, or NEET. That name may not mean much to anyone who is not a part of the Indian educational system. Those four letters are the key to its meaning. India’s only national entrance exam for undergraduate medical admissions is NEET. It took the place of a disjointed system in which states administered…

When you first learn about Far Eastern Private School Halwan, something catches your attention: the waiting lists, not the size of the campus or the summary of the curriculum. Most parents are relieved to find a seat in a city full of educational options. They’re waiting in line for one here. Even before you take a close look at what the school actually offers, that says something. 2020 saw the opening of Far Eastern Private School Halwan, the second location of the first FEPS school in Al Shahba, Sharjah. One of the first Filipino schools to establish a significant, long-term…

A school in Changsha, Hunan Province, was founded by American missionaries and managed to withstand a Japanese invasion, a communist takeover, and the Cultural Revolution. Today, it sends teenagers to Cornell and Dartmouth. That institution is Yali High School, and its history reads more like a century of China condensed into one campus than an institutional record. It started in 1906. Brownell Gage, Warren Seabury, Edward Hume, and a few other Yale graduates traveled to Changsha as part of Yale-in-China, an educational and missionary outreach program. In November of that year, the Yali School, their preparatory school, opened. The name…

The way that Grade 12 students typically approach Life Orientation is subtly revealing. Walk into almost any South African classroom during a Life Orientation lesson, and you might notice a certain relaxed energy — students settling in, less tension in the air compared to Mathematics or Physical Science. It is frequently handled like a vacation. an unstructured time when a teacher is present. It turns out that this perception is both reasonable and somewhat expensive. Life Orientation Grade 12 sits at the intersection of self-awareness and practical preparation, covering territory that most formal subjects never touch. It covers a wide…

The so-called “HHS School Fights virus” has managed to confuse parents, frighten teenagers, and send thousands of iPhone users racing to Apple support forums in a matter of days. It is somewhere between a harmless practical joke and a full-scale digital panic. The link, which is quickly making the rounds on social media and iMessage threads, promises to show footage of fights at school. This type of content is nearly impossible to avoid clicking on, especially if you’re a teenager. In reality, it produces something much less dramatic and much more irritating. Disguised as a link to a video of…

The morning was Monday. By most accounts, San Jose National High School in Tacloban City was just another government school going about its week, with students settling into classrooms and teachers mid-lesson. Then there were gunshots. Two boys carrying handguns entered the school through the main gate. They were 14 and 15 years old, and the police described them as close friends. Three students were killed, twenty more were injured, and the entire nation sat in stunned disbelief as a result of what transpired. There are just no school shootings in this area. However, one did this time. It’s hard…