Data and survey results by
 Gabriel Txai Folly Zazuet, Renata Liu, Yiwen Xu, Melany Zhu

As we all know, education plays a unique and important role in the development of the world. However, there are many problems in education systems around the world. As a student in the Leadership for a Better World class, my teammates and I wanted to research educational issues around the world. We interviewed a number of summer school students from different countries, and here are their answers.

●      In Brazil, the government cannot fire underperforming public school teachers because these teachers are part of the teachers union.  As a result, students are out of luck if they get an irresponsible teacher.
 ●      In China, the average number of students in every public school is up to 4,000. Education in China focuses on the exams instead of giving students a balanced education. Students have no chance to spend time on their interests, like the arts.
 ●      In Greece, constant strikes by public school teachers keep students out of the classroom and limits their learning.
 ●      In Mexico, average class size is 50 students or more.  It is impossible for an underpaid teacher to give each student with personal attention.
 ●      In Turkey, schools are not prepared for the vast numbers of refugees entering the education system. Thousands of children don’t get a proper education because Turkish is not their first language.
 ●      In Venezuela, students are fainting in schools because of malnutrition. The schools offer no solution.
These are only a glimpse of all the issues around the world that need to be addressed.  They seem different, but they all point to the problem of financial hardship, the lack of experienced teachers, and defects in the educational system.

“What’s done to children, they will do to society,” said Karl Menninger, a famous psychologist. Education has lots of problems that are needed to be improved by our generation.

There is a video of the detailed interview about the educational issues, and it has been sent to your e-mail. Please check your e-mail for further information.