Posts by Neena Bhandari

On the syllabus: Landlocked Down Under

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 17.10.2021 (Khaleej Times): Home has not been a flight away for international students in Australia. In mid-March 2020, the country took the unprecedented measure of slamming shut its international borders in response to the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus. Since then, these students haven’t been able to visit their loved ones.

“Australia will be ready for take-off, very soon” once the country reaches 80 percent full immunisation – possibly by early November – announced Prime Minister Scott Morrison on 1st October. But travel restrictions are set to ease only for Australian citizens and permanent residents.

Australia has been an attractive destination for international students, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its international education sector has been huge. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that for the year to June 2021, export revenue from international education was down by 28 per cent on the previous year.

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Students’ yearn return to school

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Altamash and his brother being taught by their elder brother at their home in Delhi, India.

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 13.10.2021 (SciDev.Net): A “generational catastrophe” looms as government’s prioritise opening of malls overs schools, resulting in huge learning losses. As many as 117 million children globally are still affected by full school closures due to COVID-19 lockdowns, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

“You can’t open shopping malls and keep the schools closed,” UNESCO’s director of division for policies and lifelong learning systems Borhene Chakroun, tells SciDev.Net. “Governments have to take policy measures now to prevent a generational catastrophe in the future. They should reopen schools as soon as the sanitary situation allows and use closing them as the last resort.”

As of mid-September 2021, nine countries — Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka — in the Asia Pacific region have fully closed their schools due to COVID-19, accounting for 105 million or 10 percent of total students. As many as 51 million are primary school students, according to UNESCO.

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How satellite technologies can aid Fiji & other Pacific Island countries to build climate resilience

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Sepesa Curuki with his daughter at their home in Cogea Village in Fiji. Photo Credit: Supplied by Sepesa Curuki

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 23.09.2021 (IPS) – Sepesa Curuki and his community are coming to terms with the prospect of relocation from Cogea village on Fiji’s second largest island of Vanua Levu. Their village, which lies between two rivers that flow into the Pacific Ocean only 2km away, has been battered by intense and frequent cyclones, flooding and erosion, threatening their very existence.

“We are heartbroken to be having to leave our ancestral land, but to survive we must relocate to a safe place”, the 36-year-old school teacher tells IPS on a scratchy phone line, reverberating with the background sound of pelting rain.

“Our close-knit community of 72 people has experienced three severe tropical cyclones in one year.  TC Harold in April 2020 and TC Ana in January 2021 caused extreme flooding, and TC Yasa in December 2020 completely consumed 23 of the 37 houses in the village. Not even a single post was left standing. The remaining homes, including ours, experienced widespread destruction”, says Curuki, who now lives with his wife, mother, two brothers and four children in a two-bedroom concrete home and a tent.

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