What school looks like in 20 countries around the world
Talia Lakritz
- In some parts of the world, students have to overcome challenging circumstances such as war, political unrest, and poverty to attend school.
- The power of learning can help kids worldwide reach their full potential.
- Ahead of World Teachers' Day on October 5, Insider looked at what classrooms are like around the world, pre-pandemic.
Nobel Prize winner and author Malala Yousafzai wrote, "One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world."
In some parts of the world, students have to overcome challenging circumstances to even get to class amid war, political unrest, and poverty, while others simply hop on a yellow school bus that stops on their suburban corner. In addition, worldwide, students and teachers alike are grappling with remote learning and socially distanced classroom setups due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the differences between cramped classrooms without electricity and private institutions with pressed uniforms, the power of learning can help kids all over the world reach their full potential.
Here's what school looked like in 20 different countries, pre-coronavirus.
The Iraqi education system is known as one of the best in the Middle East.
Pupils were dismissed from their classroom at an elementary school in eastern Mosul in 2017.
In China, classes are sometimes canceled due to pollution levels in the air.
A biology teacher broadcast her course in a classroom to students at home during a polluted day.
In India, students observe traditional rituals.
At this school assembly, students offered prayers to their parents during an event called Matru-Pitru Puja, or Parents Worship, in 2017.
Students in Tunisia cross their arms to show that they're paying attention.
Pictured is a class at Al Hakim El Kassar Primary School in Tunis, Tunisia.
This third-grade class in Vietnam's Dong Van district has no electricity or books.
In the primary school of Van Chai in Dong Van district, bordered with China, classes are taught in the local Hmong language.
Students sit in colorful chairs in Marseille, France.
Children listened to their teacher on the first day of school.
Teacher Reginald Sikhwari posed for a picture with his 11th-grade students in Soweto, South Africa.
Sikhwari teaches at Sekano-Ntoane school in Soweto, South Africa.
Tahfiz or Koranic students recite the Koran in Madrasah Nurul Iman boarding school outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital city.
In 2015, there were 36 male students at the madrasah, ranging from 11 to 18 years old.
In Eichenau, Germany, students eat breakfast before starting their day.
Children ate breakfast together at a nursery school near Munich in 2012.
First-grade students and their teacher, Teruko Takakusaki, posed for a photo during their homeroom period in Tokyo, Japan.
Takakusaki taught at Takinogawa Elementary School in Tokyo.
A group of chemistry students studied their equipment at Sydney Grammar School in Australia.
The students were making the compound of an anti-parasitic medicine used to treat malaria, called Daraprim.
Syrian refugee students in second grade waited for the start of their first lesson in Ankara, Turkey,
Pictured is a classroom at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Primary School.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, students used cigarette butts for an art project.
In this art class, children painted handmade sheets of paper made from recycled cigarette butts.
In the Basque fishing town of Bermeo, northern Spain, students learned in a colorful classroom with orange walls.
A class from the San Frantzisko public primary school posed for a picture with their teacher, Marisa Solaguren, in 2015.
The school uniform in Old Schools at Harrow School in Middlesex, UK, includes straw hats.
Notable alumni of Harrow School include Winston Churchill, King Hussein of Jordan, Lord Byron, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Teacher Moulay Ismael Lamrani posed for a picture with his class in Rabat, Morocco.
Lamrani taught at the Oudaya primary school.
Art teacher Hanna Snitko posed for a picture with final year students in Kiev, Ukraine.
Snitko taught 16- and 17-year-old students at the Ukrainian Humanities Lyceum.
Teacher Ekaterine Tsipuria is pictured with schoolchildren at a public school in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Tsipuria taught fifth grade in Tblisi.
Students at Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) learn to perfect their dance skills.
ENB is located in Havana.
Teacher Elizabeth Moguel posed for a photograph with her seventh-grade Latin class at Boston Latin School in Massachusetts.
Boston Latin School is the first and oldest public school in the US, founded in 1635.
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