

A Muslim girl in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, reads a new textbook after carrying it from a temporary school to this new one, built two years after the 2004 tsunami. Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor/File
Students in Ruyigi, Burundi, central Africa, wait for class to resume after recess. The United Nations built most of this school, consisting of 21 classrooms with about 50 pupils per class. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File
Girls study in class at the Girls High School of Mondrawet in Laghman Province, Afghanistan. The school was burned by attackers in 2006. In the aftermath of the attack, the surrounding community has organized itself into security teams that patrol the school grounds on a nightly basis to prevent another attack. Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor/File
Schoolboys in Cap- Haïtien, Haiti, head home. School is not free here, and many families cannot afford school fees. Melanie Stetsson Freeman/Staff
Students in Okhla, India, seem rapt in a school bus that's been turned into a traveling classroom. The bus, sponsored by a nongovernmental organization called Butterflies, helps students prepare to take school entrance exams.. Mary Knox Merrill/The Christian Science Monitor/File
Schoolchildren walk across the US-Mexico border to waiting parents in the Mexican town of Palomas. Half of the 480 pupils at the Columbus, N.M., elementary school sleep in Palomas but catch a bus to school each morning from the US side of the border. Tony Avelar/The Christian Science Monitor/File
Primary school children in Ujarras, Costa Rica, learn about forest life. Many children in the area are members of indigenous groups. Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor/File
Uniformed schoolgirls in downtown Quito, Ecuador, head home after classes. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File
Schoolboys play soccer after school in a public park in Old Havana, Cuba. Alfredo Sosa/Staff
Young Muslim boys in school uniforms wait to go into class at their primary school in Pune, a bustling and sprawling city in west-central India. Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File
Students in Kagadi, Uganda, play volleyball during the school championship at Uganda Rural Development and Training, a women’s university founded in 1987 by Mwalimu Musheshe, who wanted to train students to help others become self-sufficient. Mary Knox Merrill/The Christian Science Monitor/File