Category: Science

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that 100,000 Americans died of drug overdose between May 2020 and April 2021 — a nearly 30% increase over the previous year.

While not an official count, the CDC says it can confirm 98,000 deaths so far during the period and estimates the total number will likely be around 100,300 after causes of death are made official. It can take months to investigate and finalize drug fatalities.

Experts say the increased availability of the deadly opioids, particularly fentanyl, is a major driver, accounting for 64% of overdose deaths.

Another factor is the COVID-19 pandemic which made it hard for drug users to get treatment or support.

"What we're seeing are the effects of these patterns of crisis and the appearance of more dangerous drugs at much lower prices," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told CNN. "In a crisis of this magnitude, those already taking drugs may take higher amounts and those in recovery may relapse. It's a phenomenon we've seen and perhaps could have predicted."

In a statement, President Joe Biden called the number a “tragic milestone,” and said his administration “is committed to doing everything in our power to address addiction and end the overdose epidemic.”

Overdose deaths are now more common than deaths from car crashes, guns and the flu. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S., killing 660,000 in 2019.

Source: Voice of America

Girls in Afghanistan have started receiving their education at schools run by Turkey's Maarif Foundation, according to the group’s chair.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, President of the foundation Birol Akgun said that there are no problems in the primary school education of girls in Afghanistan, adding that significant progress was made in secondary and high schools, and that in most Maarif schools, students have returned to class.

"Restrictions continue in the secondary and high school sections of our girls' schools in the capital Kabul and Kandahar. We believe this will be overcome with time. Discussion of the issue continues through our embassy," he said.

On recent political developments in the country, Akgun said that they took over the schools in Afghanistan with an interstate agreement signed between Turkey and Afghanistan some three years ago, and continue to operate schools by boosting their capacity and quality.

He stressed that since then, the number of students has increased and the foundation has opened new schools in order to meet demands in various cities.

"The Turkish Maarif Foundation has around 6,500 students and schools in 19 campuses at different levels … in various cities, such as Kabul, Herat, Jalalabad, Mazar-i Sharif, Kandahar, Maidan Wardak, Aqcha and Sheberghan. Some of these schools are separate schools for girls," he said.

Acknowledging some uneasiness due to recent political developments in the country, after the Taliban swiftly took power this August, Akgun said with the support of Turkey's Embassy in Kabul and related institutions, the schools continued operating continued "without any great loss."

"As a result of negotiations, the new Afghan administration started to show a more flexible approach to continuing education for female students," he said, referring to the interim Taliban administration.

Importance of educating girls

Akgun stressed that 40% of the 6,500 students enrolled in Maarif schools are girls.

"Families place importance on the education of girls. We have 14 schools in Afghanistan that we have opened exclusively for female students. Only some of our girls’ schools are waiting for permission from education officials," he added.

He said female students in four schools have not started education yet, as restrictions on secondary and high school sections of Maarif girls' schools in the capital and Kandahar continue.

Akgun said that besides those cases, all of the other Maarif schools remain open.

Source of hope

The quality of the education provided by Maarif schools, as well as the public trust in the schools, are the most important factors keeping the work going, he said.

"The Turkish Maarif Foundation keeps continuing the quality education efforts we have made all over the world for all sectors of the Afghan people in Afghanistan,” he explained.

“This is our common cultural and humanitarian duty. The continuation of educational activities in Afghanistan, which the whole world has abandoned, is a source of hope for everyone and is very important in this respect."

Akgun asserted that education is among the "priority issues" in the country in the new era, and that efforts are being made in this context to solve any problems that come up.

"Schools have been opened throughout the country, but due to embargoes, economic difficulties disrupted education in some regions. We know that the UN and Turkey keep raising the issue in order to overcome these problems. In universities, education hasn’t started yet," he said.

In 2016, in the wake of a defeated coup by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), Turkey established the Maarif Foundation to assume the administration of schools overseas linked to FETO, which the terror group has used as a revenue stream.

Maarif has also established dozens of schools and education centers abroad.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Situated in the remote areas of the northeastern Punjab province, Rasool Pur, a small village in Pakistan, has created a model for a perfect civilization for the whole world.

A champion of 100% literacy rate and 0% crime rate, the village celebrated the International Literacy Day observed on Sept. 8 annually with people congratulating each other and appreciating school teachers for their firm commitment towards education.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency exclusively, Mehtaab Jahan, principal of Government Girls High School Rasool Pur, said: "I was transferred here two years ago and got amazed by the remarkable sense of responsibility of the people. No one litters on the road; the whole village is a non-smoking zone."

Rasool Pur has a population of 2,000-3,000 people, with most of its residents being ethnic Ahmadani Baloch. Their ancestors migrated from Pakistan's Balochistan province to the district of Southern Punjab in 1933-34.

At the time, they had no permanent source of income, hence, education became their tool to earn a source of living.

The village has two high schools and a primary school. After students complete high school, they go to a college in the nearest township of Jampur city, which is 8-10 kilometers (5-6 miles) away.

"I have 300 girls in my school and there is almost the same number of students in the boys’ school. We do not believe in how the United Nations defines literacy – as the ability to sign one's name – every person here has to finish high school, otherwise, the elders do not give them permission to participate in the society" said Jahaan.

According to the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey, the literacy rate of the population was stagnant at 60% in 2019-20 since 2014-15.

All women educated, no crimes recorded in past 100 years

While explaining the social behavior of the people, Mehtaab Jahan shed light on the most important factor which contributed to the achievement of a 100 % literacy rate.

"All the women of the village are educated here. This shows that they understand the importance of women's education. This is the main reason that all the children, as soon as they reach the age of 4-5, start their education," said Jahaan.

The village has its own league called Rasool Pur Development Society, which is responsible for collecting donations for the people who cannot afford education. Society also makes sure that no one drops out of school.

Jampur Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Farooq also spoke of the importance of this village about how Pakistan is viewed around the world.

"This village is representing Pakistan's actual image in the whole world. They contribute in making it possible for everyone to get education and maintain a clean and friendly environment to live in."

To encourage the children and their parents to continue this decade-old commitment towards education, a yearly function has been organized by the community in which they appreciate students who achieve positions in competitive and university-level exams.

Dilawar Saleem, a resident of Rasool Poor, said: "Encouraging the students and showing them the success stories of their elder siblings make them achieve even higher goals."

Meanwhile, a 100% literacy rate is not the only achievement of the village. The police station of this model village has not registered a single criminal case in the last 100 years, which shows how being responsible for other's rights is everyone's concern.

"We have a strong network of communication among us, which has been passed on by our ancestors. No one tries to cross the line when it comes to maintaining the law and order situation. This is the rule which has abled us to attain zero crime rate in our village," Saleem told Anadolu.

According to the Pakistan Economic Survey, the Punjab government has allocated 34.6 billion rupees ($203.5 million) for 110 ongoing and 29 new development projects of the education sector during 2020-21.

Punjab’s Education Minister Murad Raas told Anadolu Agency: "It is a commendable effort done by the community engagement where the importance of education is exercised with great vigilance and compassion. This is how we envision the expansion of modern civilization in which education is regarded as the fundamental right of every child and adequate steps are taken towards its expansion. We strive to implement the model in rural, remote rural and urban centers of Punjab."

Source: Anadolu Agency

Poverty and conflict have affected education in South Sudan, with many children staying at home because their parents are not able to afford their schooling.

Rebecca Aluel, a 16-year-old primary eight student, said she has been at home as her parents are unable to pay her school fees.

“My father is a soldier, and he is earning 2,000 South Sudanese pounds ($5) per month, and my school fee is 80,000 South Sudanese pounds ($200), so he is not able to pay it. That is why I am staying at home. And to make matters worse, he is deployed far away from us,” Aluel told Anadolu Agency.

She said the only option for her is to go to a government school, but sometimes there are no teachers in the school.

Aluel said the lack of money cut her studies short.

She called on the government to prioritize education by improving public schools, which charge very low fees.

Nyakuany Thon, who is in adult education, said South Sudan’s education system will not improve because they have not paid teachers for more than two months.

“As you have seen, we have been sitting here without any teacher coming. They have stopped teaching us because they have not been paid for more than two months. Now they don’t have the energy to teach us because somebody with a hungry stomach cannot teach.”

Late last month, President Salva Kiir said that civil servants, including teachers, did not get their two-month salaries because the pay sheet machine at the Labor Ministry broke down.

Thon said she has no money to go to a private school, where teachers are paid.

- 2.8M children out of school

South Sudan is a Sub-Saharan African country with one of the world’s lowest literacy rates and approximately 2.8 million out-of-school children.

More than 70% of the country’s population above the age of 15 is illiterate and the majority of them are women.

Kuyok Abol Kuyok, South Sudan’s undersecretary of the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, said the long civil war in the country has affected the literacy.

“I want to correct something. The literacy rate in South Sudan was 27%, but now I am pleased to report that the World Bank has issued a new report on world literacy rates and the rate for South Sudan is 35%,” Kuyok told Anadolu Agency in the capital Juba ahead of World Literacy Day, which will be marked on Wednesday.

“The literacy rate is not something you can just change in one day. Look at the conflict situation in South Sudan, the 21 years of struggle with Sudan closing down many schools.”

He said they are opening schools across the country, and at the moment, they have more than 6,000 schools across the country, but this is still not enough because they still have 2.8 million children out of school.

Kuyok said that his ministry has proposed an increase in salaries of teachers in the budget and hoped that it will be approved by the parliament.

“My message to teachers is that they are our priority. We really need to improve their pay. Even if we have nice schools, without teachers, you will not have a better education,” he said.

“If we don’t increase teachers’ salaries, we will continue struggling in South Sudan. We will not have teachers,” he added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Repeated lockdowns due to COVID-19 leading to continuous closure of schools is impacting education in a hard way in landlocked Zimbabwe.

On the eve of International Literacy Day, which is being observed on Wednesday, experts in the Southern African country say poor children without any digital access have been without any education over the past two years.

Six-year-old Melinda Gava had just begun schooling at a public school in the capital Harare in 2020. But just days after, the COVID-19 struck the country and a lockdown was announced, leading to the closure of the school. Since then, she has not seen the classroom.

Her father, Denford Gava, 28, who was working as a driver, also lost his job as the government suspended public transport from operating.

“I now have no income to fund my child’s education. Imagine she had just started her grade one and then came COVID-19, disrupting her classes,” Gava told Anadolu Agency.

Munyaradzi Masiyiwa, a teacher, said the country’s literacy rate is bound to go down, due to the closure of schools.

Gava and his 25-year-old unemployed wife, Millicent, say they cannot afford digital education or to arrange private online lessons for their child.

Like Melinda, the COVID-19 outbreak has prevented millions of children to pursue elementary education.

According to Harare-based Zimbabwean educationist Misheck Musengi, the local literacy levels are now under heavy attack from coronavirus.

“I tell you, the longer the coronavirus stays, the more illiteracy rates the country would suffer as school-going children’s education is disrupted by repeated lockdowns meant to fight the pandemic,” Musengi told Anadolu Agency.

Literacy rate under threat

In 2014, the adult literacy rate for Zimbabwe was 88.7%, but this is under threat from coronavirus, which threatens to unleash a new generation of illiterates.

Obert Masaraure, president of the Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, blames the government for the continued onslaught on education.

“Coronavirus has forced the government to focus more on examination classes at the expense of infant classes. Learners who were due for Early Child Development in 2020 completely missed out and again they failed to learn in 2021 when they were due for grade one,” he said.

Amid unending lockdowns, Masaraure said students are being automatically promoted to the next grades without grasping concepts from previous grades.

“If this persists, literacy will drastically drop. Learners are also dropping out of school, with almost a million since the first COVID-19 lockdown,” added Masaraure.

Takavafira Zhou, president of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, also blamed authorities for fueling illiteracy in the face of coronavirus.

“Sadly, the Ministry of Education preferred radio and television lessons, well aware that 85% of the areas where students reside in have no radio and television frequencies. Ultimately, the program failed to take off or even reach 8% of the students,” Zhou told Anadolu Agency.

As a result, that has left students in the cold. “We certainly have a generation of condemned students who have missed so much and may not function beyond the classroom. Several of the beginners have not been provided with a foundation for learning and will certainly have challenges in reading, arithmetic and mastering even local languages," he said.

Education turns preserve of elite

Robson Chere, secretary-general of the Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, said lockdowns turned education into a preserve of the country’s elite.

“COVID-19 brought alternative ways of learning like online lessons and private lessons. But due to economic hardships faced by many Zimbabweans, this has seen only the elite being able to access education whilst the poor and those from rural backgrounds remain disadvantaged without access to education,” Chere said.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, David Coltart, Zimbabwe’s former education minister, said it is a tragic situation that hundreds of thousands of children are being affected due to the non-availability of education.

“This government appears to have no capacity to admit the problem and so going forward this is going to have a huge impact on our country. We are only going to see the impact when the current crop of five, six, seven, eight-year-old children have to write O and A level exams in a decade,” he said.

COVID-19 affected 4.6 million students in Zimbabwe in May, according to UNICEF. The UN agency said it was stepping in with resources to accelerate digital-assisted learning.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Schools across Turkey will reopen for in-person education five days a week as of Monday with COVID-19 measures in place.

This came after the number of COVID-19 vaccine jabs given in Turkey has exceeded 96.9 million since the country launched an immunization campaign in January.

As part of the preparations for the start of the new academic year, pre-school and first-grade students participated in the face-to-face integration training on Sept. 1-3. Over 2.3 million students were given training by 165,450 teachers.

About 18 million students and more than 1 million teachers in all grades across the country will attend school five days a week as of Monday.

As part of COVID-19 measures, approximately 650 million liras ($ 78.1 million) were sent to around 58,000 schools for the mask, disinfectant, and cleaning needs, while 113,000 cleaning personnel were assigned.

With a new electronic tracking system established within the Education Ministry, all processes will be followed in order to ensure that education is not disrupted.

In case of possible virus infection, the contact or risk status of students and staff will be monitored through data integration between the Education Ministry and Health Ministry, and the necessary notification will be issued to the schools.

Vaccination, PCR test

According to a guide on measures to be taken in schools due to the coronavirus, teachers and school staff will be asked to take a PCR test twice a week if they are not vaccinated.

It will be ensured that the mask waste boxes in schools, public areas, classrooms, and teachers’ rooms are emptied daily. A sufficient number of masks will be provided by the Education Ministry in all schools.

In-person education will be held without reducing the class hours and taking into account the whole of the existing curriculum, just like before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A Turkish foundation has taken over all schools in the Ethiopian capital previously run by the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 failed coup in Turkey, the foundation announced on Friday.

“11 FETO schools in the capital, Addis Ababa, attended by 2,000 students, were transferred to the Turkish Maarif Foundation as of yesterday by a court decision,” said the foundation in a written statement, adding that this fulfilled a pledge made by Ethiopia’s president on a 2019 visit to Turkey.

Mentioning that Ethiopia strongly backed Turkey at the time of the defeated coup, the foundation said Ethiopia is the country attracting the most Turkish investment in East Africa, with a total trade volume of at least $2.5 million.

Although Ethiopia approached the transfer of those schools to Turkey positively, the process was delayed when the schools changed names, the statement said.

FETO “tried to turn the issue into a diplomatic crisis by transferring schools to German citizens … and tried to put political pressure on the government,” said the statement, but court rulings and the pro-Turkish stance of the students' parents defeated this tactic.

“The parent-teacher association (PTA) personally played an important role in ensuring the transfer, taking a clear position in court processes against the current school administration and in favor of Turkey,” the statement noted.

With the transfer of 11 schools in four different campuses in the country – added to another school taken over two years ago – Maarif has put an end to the presence of all FETO-owned schools in the country, it said.

In the transfer of administration, the success of schools in the country previously transferred and operated by the foundation played a significant role, the statement underlined. The schools are set to reopen next month.

“Along with Ethiopia, the Maarif Foundation currently has educational activities in 25 African countries,” it added.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 251 people were killed and 2,734 injured.

After the coup bid, Turkey established the Maarif Foundation to assume the administration of overseas schools linked to FETO, which the terrorist group has used as a revenue stream. Maarif also establishes schools and education centers abroad.

Maarif Foundation

The Maarif Foundation is a Turkish government agency established to replace FETO-linked schools abroad in the wake of the 2016 defeated coup attempt.

It has since opened representative offices in 52 countries and operates in 67 countries as a result of official contacts with 104 countries in consultation with the relevant ministries and other state institutions.

It has also exposed FETO's education network and locked out the group’s control of schools one by one through transfers, closures, nationalizations, or sales to third countries.

Prior to July 15, 2016, FETO had 63 educational institutions in Africa, 222 in Asia, 150 in Europe, 315 in South and North America, and ten in Oceania.

The Maarif Foundation has since taken over 216 schools in 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Chad, and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

Maarif has also opened 129 new schools in 26 countries, including the US, Afghanistan, and Albania.

It has also signed 79 protocols in 45 countries for the transfer of FETO schools and the opening of new schools, while some countries have voluntarily closed them instead of handing them over.

Source: Anadolu Agency