Global Initiative Bi-Weekly Newsletter
April 1st to April 17th, 2026
Lebanon
In Lebanon, UNESCO allocates $650,000 to support the continuity of education for displaced populations
As of April 8, according to the MEHE, 339 schools are located in war zones and have been closed (of which 133 are now providing online teaching). Additionally, 431 educational institutions—including 358 public schools, 56 VET centers, and 17 facilities of the Lebanese University—have been repurposed as collective shelters, affecting the education access of more than 250,000 children.
These figures remain fluid: up to 100 additional schools in high-risk areas could become inaccessible if the security situation worsens further. The Teaching Hubs are aligned with the national framework and the educational content developed by the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD), thus ensuring consistency and harmonization with the Lebanese education system. They aim to maintain access to education while providing mental health and psychosocial support to affected children.
Many children are separated from their families and loved ones in Lebanon. Our teams are working around the clock to reunite them
Lebanon is facing an escalating crisis, with children newly unaccompanied and separated from their families following a brutal 24 hours of airstrikes.Save the Children is working to reunite children with their families and is urgently calling for the ceasefire agreement to extend to Lebanon to protect further harm to children.Yara Hamadeh, Advocacy, Media and Campaign Senior Manager, Save the Children Lebanon Said: “There is a lot of uncertainty, fear, and worry in people in Lebanon. Many are saying yesterday reminded them of the Beirut explosion in 2020. “The attacks happened with no warning and were close to many civilian structures. “Everyone in Lebanon will remember the specific timing and details of what happened yesterday. Within a minute, people can feel everything change. They can see and hear the airstrikes, one after another. The media reported there were over 100 air strikes in under 10 minutes. This happened at peak hour, when the roads were very busy, people were commuting and coming home, children were coming back from school. Many attacks were near schools and hospitals across Beirut all at the same time, in residential areas.
Rwanda
Where Rwanda’s education sector stands in 2026
As Rwanda advances its ambition to build a knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy, the state of its education system is increasingly coming into focus, highlighting both notable progress in expanding access and persistent challenges in ensuring quality and equity.
“We meet at a defining moment in Rwanda’s development journey, one in which education is not only a sector, but the engine of our national transformation,” he said. Currently, Rwanda’s education system serves over 4.8 million learners, representing approximately one-third of the population. This scale reflects both the growing demand for education and the country’s sustained commitment to expanding access.
South Africa
South Africa will implement wide-ranging reforms to its immigration, citizenship and refugee protection system in line with national security and economic priorities, the Department of Home Affairs said Wednesday.
The Cabinet last week approved a revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection, which the department said is the most fundamental policy reform in a generation. The department said it would initiate the process of drafting and tabling in the Parliament the necessary legislative amendments to implement the revised White Paper. Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber welcomed the Cabinet’s approval, saying “the policy direction outlined in the revised White Paper charts a new course for our country to build modern, efficient and secure
Kenya
Ruto Directs Education CS to Remit Ksh 23B School Capitation By Next WeekThe Head of State, while speaking during the National Drama Festival Concert at State House, Nairobi, on Friday, April 17, directed the Ministry to ensure that all the Ksh23 billion capitation meant for the second term’s capitation is remitted to all schools before next week, ahead of the school reopening.
According to Ruto, his administration has committed to ensuring that schools receive the capitation on time to enable smooth operations. “As we did last year, we made sure that money meant for capitation arrives before the opening of the schools. The Minister for Education is here, and he is to ensure that the Ksh23 billion meant for capitation arrives on time before opening,” Ruto announced. “We will be releasing the funds going forward in advance to make sure that our teachers have all the necessary resources before schools open,” he added. School heads have in the past been forced to bear the pain of running operations in schools due to delayed appropriations from the government despite similar assurances.
Vietnam
VinUniversity Launches Global Academic Recruitment Tour 2026 to Engage Leading Scholars Worldwide
VinUniversity (VinUni) has announced the launch of its Global Academic Recruitment Tour 2026, an initiative spanning 10 countries and designed to engage outstanding scholars across key academic centres worldwide. As part of this effort, the University introduces the VinUniversity Assistant Professorships (VAP), offering substantial research support of up to USD 1 million for early-career academics in selected fields.The tour, taking place from April to August, will include visits to major academic hubs in the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea and South East Asia. Through a series of academic exchanges, faculty dialogues, and participation in leading international conferences—including IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (IEEE); the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML); The 17th Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH); and The Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM). VinUni seeks to foster meaningful engagement with scholars working at the forefront of research, particularly in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
National foreign language proficiency framework issued
The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) on April 15 issued a circular promulgating the updated foreign language competency frameworks, a key step toward standardising language assessment nationwide and supporting the country’s comprehensive education reform agenda and meeting deeper international integration. Accordingly, Circular 33/2026/TT-BGDDT establishes a unified benchmark for foreign language proficiency across the national education system, providing a foundation for curriculum design, teaching, testing, assessment, and certification. It is expected to help learners better map out their language development pathways while enabling educational institutions to improve training quality and strengthen articulation between different levels of education. A notable highlight is the alignment of Vietnam’s framework with the latest version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) 2020-21). This update enhances compatibility with international standards and facilitates mutual recognition of diplomas and language certificates between Vietnam and other countries.
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Yara Hamadeh, Advocacy, Media and Campaign Senior Manager, Save the Children Lebanon Said: “There is a lot of uncertainty, fear, and worry in people in Lebanon. Many are saying yesterday reminded them of the Beirut explosion in 2020. “The attacks happened with no warning and were close to many civilian structures. “Everyone in Lebanon will remember the specific timing and details of what happened yesterday. Within a minute, people can feel everything change. They can see and hear the airstrikes, one after another. The media reported there were over 100 air strikes in under 10 minutes. This happened at peak hour, when the roads were very busy, people were commuting and coming home, children were coming back from school. Many attacks were near schools and hospitals across Beirut all at the same time, in residential areas.
Rwanda
The Cabinet last week approved a revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection, which the department said is the most fundamental policy reform in a generation. The department said it would initiate the process of drafting and tabling in the Parliament the necessary legislative amendments to implement the revised White Paper. Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber welcomed the Cabinet’s approval, saying “the policy direction outlined in the revised White Paper charts a new course for our country to build modern, efficient and secure
Kenya
The Head of State, while speaking during the National Drama Festival Concert at State House, Nairobi, on Friday, April 17, directed the Ministry to ensure that all the Ksh23 billion capitation meant for the second term’s capitation is remitted to all schools before next week, ahead of the school reopening. According to Ruto, his administration has committed to ensuring that schools receive the capitation on time to enable smooth operations. “As we did last year, we made sure that money meant for capitation arrives before the opening of the schools. The Minister for Education is here, and he is to ensure that the Ksh23 billion meant for capitation arrives on time before opening,” Ruto announced. “We will be releasing the funds going forward in advance to make sure that our teachers have all the necessary resources before schools open,” he added. School heads have in the past been forced to bear the pain of running operations in schools due to delayed appropriations from the government despite similar assurances.
The tour, taking place from April to August, will include visits to major academic hubs in the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea and South East Asia. Through a series of academic exchanges, faculty dialogues, and participation in leading international conferences—including IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (IEEE); the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML); The 17th Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH); and The Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM). VinUni seeks to foster meaningful engagement with scholars working at the forefront of research, particularly in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
Accordingly, Circular 33/2026/TT-BGDDT establishes a unified benchmark for foreign language proficiency across the national education system, providing a foundation for curriculum design, teaching, testing, assessment, and certification. It is expected to help learners better map out their language development pathways while enabling educational institutions to improve training quality and strengthen articulation between different levels of education. A notable highlight is the alignment of Vietnam’s framework with the latest version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) 2020-21). This update enhances compatibility with international standards and facilitates mutual recognition of diplomas and language certificates between Vietnam and other countries.
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