Pakistan army rushes to rescue children trapped in cable car over ravine

 Six children and two teachers are trapped in a gondola dangling 274 metres (900ft) above a ravine in Pakistan after a cable had snapped, and high winds are hampering an “extremely risky” helicopter rescue mission, officials say.

The children, who have been stranded since 7am (02:00 GMT), were using the gondola to get to school in a mountainous area in Battagram, about 200km (125 miles) north of Islamabad, officials said. The National Disaster Management Authority said in a statement that a cable had broken in the lift service and two army helicopters had been dispatched for a rescue operation after attempts at fixing the fault had been unsuccessful.

 

After a 14-hour ordeal, all eight people, including six children and two adults, who were stranded on a cable car dangling hundreds of feet over a valley in northwest Pakistan have been rescued, the country’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar said in a statement.

“Relieved to know that Alhamdolillah all the kids have been successfully and safely rescued. Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people,” he said in the statement posted on X, formerly called Twitter.

Schools reopening in the age of coronavirus

 

The return to school has been celebrated around the world. During the lockdown, many kids were sitting home alone. But too much screen time and too much loneliness can make a child ill. In Europe, the number of children with depression has risen sharply in the pandemic.

Delta and kids: What happens when they go back to school?

 

The Delta variant emerged in India's ferocious second wave. Leaving its marks on millions. It has since crossed the world, sending infection rates soaring, and threatening a return to normal.

Should schools remain open or be closed to stop the spread of the virus?

 Going to school every morning, spending your day together with other kids in classrooms. None of this can be taken for granted anymore. DW's COVID-19 Special examines education in times of the pandemic.

Should parents be holding their children back from school? | 60 Minutes Australia

 

How coronavirus lockdowns disrupted education systems worldwide

The coronavirus pandemic is the largest disruption of global education systems in history. When the pandemic first hit, around one-and-a-half billion students around the world were sent home as schools closed their doors. Some have since re-opened. But class isn't in session for half of the world's school children

 

Why Do American Schools Have Such Long Hours?

The structure of America’s school calendar may seem counterintuitive—and in many ways, it is. In this episode of School Myths by The Atlantic, we investigate some pressing questions, such as why American students have long summer breaks between school years and yet such short gaps between each class.
 

Schools open in India as coronavirus cases top 5 million

Despite recording around 90,000 COVID cases daily for the past week, India has decided to re-open its schools, but only for senior students and on a voluntary basis. Schools can reopen next week starting Monday.

 

Will free, weekly corona tests keep students and teachers safe?

Schools have been reopening with new measures to keep students and teachers safe -- some offering free, weekly corona tests. Experts warn against 'false negatives' in COVID-19. The World Health Organization has updated its guidance for mask-wearing, as millions of children return to school around the world.

'U can’t touch this' parody – Pandemic safety for school children

Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Keep your distance. Those are the rules. But when even adults struggle...how do you convince school kids? Critics say authorities haven't come up with consistent strategies to protect schoolchildren.

Japan's independent kids

By Western standards, Japanese culture emphasises independence and self-reliance from an extraordinarily young age.

Jakarta School Brawl

In Jakarta, Indonesia, hundreds of school students fight in street brawls, some to their death.

On the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, hundreds of middle and high school pupils arm themselves with deadly weapons to fight rival gangs from other schools. These brawls can last for hours, leaving blood and bodies in their aftermath.  

The violence is extreme, but the motivations are muddy.

This Is Not Good Governece

Punjab state IT board in Pakistan commissioned a video game to be produce about the school massacre which took place in Peshawar in December of 2014 at a public military school which left more than 150 people dead the majority of whom were students.  What sort of government would, not only consider producing such a game but then actually create it and sell online at Google Play? It's just sick that these people would try and profit from the deaths of these students.

A video game based on a Taliban school massacre in Pakistan's city of Peshawar in December 2014 has been withdrawn following a barrage of criticism.

The game - Pakistan Army Retribution - was released by a government digital agency in the central Punjab province.

Players could act as soldiers shooting the attackers in the school. The agency later admitted it was "in poor taste".

More than 150 people, mostly pupils, were killed in the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

The game was released on Google Play several weeks ago - around the second anniversary of the attack.

However, it became a focus of public attention after Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reviewed the game, declaring that it "failed on every front".

“Japan’s independent kids”

The short documentary begins by sharing the Japanese proverb “Kawaii ko ni wa tabi o saseyo,” or “Send the beloved child on a journey.” This saying, which holds that children should learn to take on challenges and difficulties from an early stage in life, alludes to the fact that Japanese children are typically socialized into becoming independent and taking care of themselves at a younger age than are many children in Western countries. One striking example of this young independence is in how Japanese elementary school students commute to school on a daily basis.

Viewers next meet the adorable seven-year old Noe Ando during a typical day on her commute to elementary school, which she makes alone by train. She even has to transfer once at JR Shinjuku Station, which is the busiest station in the world by number of passengers. Just walking through the station can be a harrowing ordeal in itself for an adult, let alone for a tiny child during rush hour.