Author: Nola Jones

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…

Millions of high school students receive invitations from the National Society of High School Scholars every year when they check their mailboxes, or more likely, their email inboxes. The promise of recognition among the top students in more than 26,000 high schools across 170 countries is noteworthy, the letter is formal, and the language is flattering. The initial response is pride for a lot of students and their parents. Suspicion comes in second, not far behind. It’s worth taking a moment to sit with that tension. NSHSS was established in 2002, and the organization doesn’t back down from its co-founder’s…

An amber warning was the first. When the red one arrived, the decisions spread like dominoes throughout Buckinghamshire in a matter of hours. Parents throughout the county were quietly rearranging their workdays, checking school websites, and refreshing emails by Wednesday morning. In Buckinghamshire, more than 125 schools and colleges had either completely closed or shortened the day. This wasn’t due to snow or a gas leak, but rather to the heat in the classrooms. That fact makes me feel a little uneasy. For many years, Britain has constructed schools without air conditioning, believing that a truly hazardous summer day only…

Every school’s narrative has a point where purpose and reality collide. where the wall-mounted mission statement either has meaning or does not. That moment seems to arrive frequently at Waverley Park School, which is located in Invercargill’s eastern suburbs, and the school seems to be meeting it most of the time. Students in Years 1 through 6 are served by the school, which draws from Glengarry’s unique community. It’s not a private school with waiting lists and well-kept grounds. It is a coeducational, contributing state school without boarding facilities, and it operates with the kind of unambiguous purpose that frequently…

On the morning of October 17, 2018, Kerch Polytechnic College’s hallways were typical. Pupils made their way to class on foot. Workers became accustomed to their routines. Kerch, a port town on Crimea’s easternmost point, moved at its customary leisurely pace. Then, at approximately 10:02 a.m., Vladislav Roslyakov, an 18-year-old fourth-year student, entered the college and opened fire. Twenty people had died and seventy-three had been injured by the time it was over. Teenagers made up the majority of the victims. This was meticulously planned by Roslyakov. He was seen legally buying 150 rounds of ammunition for the 12-gauge shotgun…