Across the windswept plains of Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-largest country by land area, opportunity often depends on location and geography. In Astana and Almaty, students at well-funded public schools enjoy the luxury of robotics labs and trilingual instruction. In the western steppe, however, children gather in aging buildings where electricity flickers and textbooks are passed from sibling to sibling. The nation’s vastness has quietly become its most stubborn barrier to

Education is often imagined as a ladder out of inherited circumstance. In Xinjiang, China, however, its rungs are unevenly placed, making upward movement far more uncertain for some students than for others. Xinjiang is vast, remote, and ethnically diverse. Many students, particularly those from Uyghur, Kazakh, and other minority communities, grow up in rural areas where schools are under-resourced and teachers are scarce. Long distances between villages and classrooms mean t

In Ukraine, education continues under extraordinary pressure, sustained by many who refuse to let learning disappear even as it is repeatedly interrupted. The most immediate challenge is physical safety. Thousands of schools have been damaged or destroyed since the full-scale invasion began. In many regions, in-person learning is possible only when shelters are available and air-raid procedures are rehearsed as carefully as lesson plans. A mathematics class can be paused mid-

In Sudan, the school year has no reliable start date. Calendars are printed, revised, then abandoned as political instability and armed conflict reshape daily life. Since fighting erupted between rival military forces in 2023, education has become one of the most fragile public systems in Sudan because the conditions required for schooling have steadily disappeared. One of the most immediate challenges is the collapse of governance around education. Many schools are left with

Each year, thousands of families follow the harvest across the United States, moving from state to state to pick fruits and vegetables that stock grocery shelves nationwide. Their children, often called “migrant students,” have to confront the challenges of a education system that rarely fits their mobile lives. Because farm work is seasonal, families relocate frequently, sometimes several times in a school year. A child might start kindergarten in Texas, move to Florida for