By Chris Niles

NEW YORK, USA, 12 December 2011—Mohammad Azizul Islam, 28, is a trader in Chinipara, in the remote Rangpur region of Bangladesh. As a landless man, he has very few opportunities to make a living.

He wants his pre-school aged daughter, Akhimoni, to be educated and have a profession. Among his chief concerns is how he will pay for it.

At the moment, however, she is receiving an education. Once a week, she and another friend meet for classes that involve learning rhymes, counting and the alphabet.

UNICEF education staff share their stories

NEW YORK, 4 January 2012 – We asked UNICEF education staff around the globe to tell us about their most inspiring moment they experienced in 2011. Something that they would not forget and reminded them why they chose this profession. Here are some of their stories.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0985/Noorani
A young girl studies at a new government primary school in Burshasoon Village in the central Bamyan Province. Students at the school previously attended classes in a tent.

By Rudina Vojvoda

NEW YORK, USA, 4 October 2011 – As school enrolment continues to climb throughout most of the developing world, the roles teachers play in our lives have become even more crucial. Tasked with providing a quality education to our current generation of students, teachers also have a significant hand in shaping the future by instilling in children essential cultural and social values such as tolerance, gender equality and open dialogue. Despite the heavy responsibility placed on their shoulders, in many parts of the world they are rewarded poorly and in some countries even subject to deadly attacks.

© UNICEF Côte d’Ivoire/2011/AsselinChildren raise their hands to answer their teacher in a mostly empty classroom at the Treichville Regional School in Côte d’Ivoire.

By Louis Vigneault

ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, 29 April 2011 – This week schools have slowly started to re-open in Côte d’Ivoire’s largest city, Abidjan, and across the country. But many challenges remain.

“Schools are slowly re-opening in the south, but many children and teachers are still absent where insecurity is persistent,” said UNICEF Education Specialist Jennifer Hofmann. “In the north, where schools were closed for more than four months, only half of the children have returned to school since re-opening at the end of March.”

Education: an enduring casualty of war from UNICEF: Back on Track on Vimeo.

In the Kailahun district of Sierra Leone, burned out buildings and bullet holes serve as a constant reminder of a turbulent and horrific past. This remote eastern border area was one of hardest hit by Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war.