“As heart wrenching as it is informative…. You’ll have a pit in your stomach by the end of the show.”
–Families.com

WIDE ANGLE’s unprecedented, award-winning 12-year documentary project, Time for School, returns in 2009 with visits to seven classrooms in seven countries to offer a glimpse into the lives of seven extraordinary children who are struggling to get what nearly all American kids take for granted: a basic education. We started filming in 2002, watching as kids first entered school in Afghanistan, Benin, Brazil, India, Japan, Kenya and Romania, many despite great odds. Several years later, in 2006, we returned to film an update — and now, three years later, we travel to check in on our young teenagers who are making the precarious transition to middle school. Among the highlights: in Afghanistan we reunite with 16-year-old Shugufa, who resolutely remains in school despite the Taliban’s recent acid attacks on young women her age. “If they continue attacking schools, our country won’t progress. Without an education you can’t get anywhere,” says Shufuga, whose own education was delayed when her family lived in a refugee camp in Pakistan during years when the Taliban ruled her country. We also visit the biggest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where 15-year-old Joab’s mother has died and his father has abandoned the family. We watch as, incredibly, Joab manages to stay at the top of his class while also raising and feeding his two younger siblings. And in the blazing desert of Rajasthan, India, we encounter Neeraj, 15, only to learn that she has been unable to realize her dream of making it to 10th grade: since our last visit her night school has closed, and she now helps support her family by grazing the livestock full-time while her brothers continue their education.

These children’s stories put a human face on the shocking fact that more than 75 million children are currently out of school; of these, two thirds are girls. One in four children in developing countries does not complete five years of basic education, and there are nearly one billion illiterate adults — one-sixth of the world’s people. WIDE ANGLE plans to continue revisiting all the children, and their peers and families, through 2015, the year they should graduate — and, not coincidentally, the U.N.’s target date for achieving universal education, a Millennium Development goal endorsed by all 191 members of the United Nations.

While each child in Time for School 3 has a unique story, taken together their lives tell an epic tale, shedding light on one of the most urgent and under-reported stories of our time.

Part 2

Afghan election officials begin preparations for a second round of voting to determine last month’s controversial presidential election marred by allegations of large-scale rigging in favor of Hamid Karzai. The second round will take place in five weeks only if Karzai’s share of the vote – which currently stands at 54% – falls to less than 50 percent. With 10 percent of ballots currently under scrutiny, this appears increasingly likely.

The World Bank says development efforts in poorer nations will be derailed without a huge increase in funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The bank warns that the increase in global average temperatures will still result in shrinking levels of G.D.P. for many African and Asian countries and lead to a global health catastrophe.

Kenyan authorities begin to move residents out of Africa’s largest slum – the Kibera settlement in Nairobi. Officials expect the clearance of about one million people to take up to five years. The first people to move will be housed in 300 new apartments. Prime Minister Raila Odinga says new ground is being prepared for a “modern, low income residential estate with modern schools, markets, playgrounds and other facilities.”

A senior United Nations official begins a visit to Sri Lanka for two days of talks about the slow pace of release of Tamil refugees. Many are still detained in government-run camps four months after the end of the war. The U.N. official may also press for a probe into human rights abuses during the final stages of the military’s victory over Tamil rebels.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown helps initiate a raid on Taliban fighters in Afghanistan that frees New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell. The journalist and his interpreter, who was killed in the raid, were kidnapped on Saturday. Britain offers to host an international conference on Afghanistan to set targets for transferring security responsibilities from foreign forces to Afghan authorities.

The only son of the late president Corazon Aquino announces he will run for president of the Philippines in next year’s election. Benigno Aquino III adapts his mother’s signature color of yellow when he reveals his candidacy.  Current president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is in her final term and cannot run again.

Three days after China’s government proclaims coal mine safety to be a priority, a gas explosion at an unlicensed mine in central China kills at least 35 workers and traps 44. Officials respond by arresting and suspending 13 officials and mine managers.

Japan’s new ruling Democratic Party finalizes a deal to form a coalition with two small parties whose help it needs to pass laws quickly. The Democratic Party of Japan needs the backing of the Social Democrats and the conservative People’s New Party to maintain control of the nation’s parliament. The coalition is set to launch next week.

Call (718) 506-1351 to join the conversation!

WIDE ANGLE’s unprecedented, award-winning 12-year documentary project, Time for School, follows seven kids in seven countries struggling to get what nearly all American kids take for granted: a basic education.

On Thursday, September 10th at 12:00 noon, EST, we’ll be hosting a live discussion with Oren Rudavsky and Frederick Rendina, two of the film’s producers, and two experts on global education: David Gartner of the Brookings Institute and Faryal Khan of UNESCO.

The discussion will be hosted by Pamela Hogan, Executive Producer of Time for School. You can read a Q & A with Hogan about the series on the Inside Thirteen blog.

Visit our site to listen live through Blog Talk Radio, and call (718) 506-1351 with any questions for our guests. You can also send us your questions in advance by leaving a comment below.

We’d especially like to hear from students and educators, and want to extend a special welcome to members of Classroom 2.0, a social network for people interested in using collaborative technologies in education.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Click on any image to begin.

As Typhoons Morakot and Etau continue to wreak havoc in Asia, nearly one million people are evacuated from China’s eastern coastal provinces, at least 13 are killed in western Japan, and hundreds are missing after landslides hit the village of Xialin in Taiwan.

President Barack Obama meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Guadalajara, Mexico, for the forth annual summit of North American leaders. Major issues to be discussed include the economic crisis, the swine flu pandemic, the drug trade, climate change and immigration.

At least two civilians and three police officers are killed in Taliban attacks on government buildings near Kabul, just 10 days before Afghanistan’s elections, which members of the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso calls to dissolve Parliament and hold general elections for its lower house after his Liberal Democratic Party’s defeat in Tokyo’s municipal elections on Sunday. Aso’s Liberal Democrats have been in power since 1965, but yesterday’s election result, in favor of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan in Tokyo, is considered a bellwether for the lower house elections of Japan’s parliament. The lower house legislators select the country’s prime minister.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il may have pancreatic cancer, according to unidentified South Korean and Chinese intelligence sources. Kim Jong-Il is known to have suffered a stroke in August 2008. Other unsubstantiated reports claim that Kim Jong-Il designates his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, for succession.

The Somali government regains control after a day of violence with anti-government militants in the capital, Mogadishu. African Union peacekeepers are drawn into the conflict while guarding the presidential palace after rebels approach the government building.

Former President of Liberia Charles Taylor, the first African leader on trial for war crimes, takes the stand at a special tribunal for Sierra Leone in the Hague. His indictment holds him accountable for commanding barbaric rebels during a decade-long period of violence that led to as many as 200,000 deaths in West Africa, including the diamond-mining areas in neighboring Sierra Leone.

Germany formally charges accused World War II Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk as an accessory to almost 28,000 murders. The Ukrainian, retired auto worker from Ohio is deemed fit to stand trial in Munich after his deportation from the United States in May.

Human rights investigators and journalists call attention to the conditions in a closed-off Tamil refugee camp in Sri Lanka and ask for a peaceful end to the decades-long ethnic conflict. The Sri Lankan government alleges that Tamil refugees are harboring remaining members of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), a terrorist organization whose 26-year insurgency against the government ended in late May after the killing of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and the rescue of civilians held hostage by the group.

U.S. forces launch a major offensive to drive the Taliban out their stronghold in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

The U.N. elects Yukiya, Amano, from Japan, to replace Mohamed El Baradei as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency when Baradei steps down in November.

North Korea fires four short-range missiles amidst increased tension ever since the U.N. imposed sanctions after the country’s May 25 nuclear test.

A Yemenia Airways plane en route to the island-nation of Comoros, located off the coast of Mozambique, crashes into the Indian Ocean. Rescue workers are searching for more survivors after a finding a young survivor among the Airbus A310-300 debris.

The annual inflation rate for the Eurozone, the area of the 16 European nations which use the Euro, turns negative for the first time since the introduction of the unified currency in 1999. Although the European Central Bank falls below its target annual rate, it does not plan to cut its borrowing amount.

Israeli senior ministers discuss temporarily halting construction of West Bank settlements hours before a planned meeting between Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell. In an interview with the New York Times, Barak states, “We should not isolate this issue of settlements and make it the most important one. It has to be discussed in the context of a larger peace discussion.”

Japan’s unemployment rate is the lowest in five years and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare states, “The severity of the (employment) situation is increasing further.” Japanese companies fearful of a slow national economic recovery are reluctant to hire workers despite fiscal improvements within the nation’s corporate and manufacturing sectors. In the Tokyo neighborhood of Koenji, Japanese youth denounce the lack of employment opportunities.

Sudan announces military preparedness for a possible incursion from Chad’s armed forces. Tensions escalate between the neighboring countries in recent weeks after each nation accuses the other of supporting rebel troops.

Four bombs explode in Baghdad, killing at least 20 in mostly Shia areas, and continuing a rise in violence throughout Iraq as U.S. troops prepare to pullout from urban areas there by the end of June.

Insurgents attack the convoy of Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the president of Ingushetia, a tiny quasi-autonomous republic on Chechnya’s western border. Yevkurov is said to be in stable condition, but his country is less so as separtists and Islamic fundamentalists gain momentum.

North Korea warns in an editorial published in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper that it will strike at the US if it is attacked, noting it is “proud nuclear power,” and the US should “take a correct look at whom it is dealing with.” The Japanese newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun reports the country’s heir apparent Kim Jong-un is working as acting chairman of the National Defense Commission to support his ailing father.

A conservative leads the ongoing and controversial race to replace the U.K.’s House of Commons speaker who was ousted for excessive expense claims. Many Labour party members support the young Tory MP, John Bercow, and his campaign for “reform, for renewal, for revitalisation and for the reassertion of the core values of this great institution in the context of the 21st century.”

The Burmese Army goes on the offensive against Karen rebels, forcing thousands of civilians to flee the fighting into Thailand.

Iranian protesters continue to gather in the streets of Tehran, coming together to mourn the seven killed in clashes with Iranian militia members after last Friday’s presidential election.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman rejects U.S. demands to halt the expansion of West Bank settlements.

A suicide bomber kills Somalia’s security minister in the town of Beledweyne, just north of the capital, Mogadishu. Ten others, including Somalia’s ambassador to South Africa, were also killed. The government blamed Al-Shabab, an Islamist insurgent group with purported ties to Al Qaeda, for the attack.

Police in Pakistan arrest a suspect in the March, 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Six policeman and a driver were killed in that attack.

Warned by the State Department that speaking to the press could complicate diplomatic efforts to free the two Current TV reporters, their families remained silent for months.

That changed this week. In a move spurred by fear that Ling and Lee are being caught up in the larger struggle over a nuclear-armed Korean Peninsula and the internal machinations over Kim Jong Il’s successor, the reporters’ families launched a carefully orchestrated media campaign to decouple the fate of their loved ones from the geopolitics of the region. Laura Ling’s sister Lisa Ling, an international correspondent and previous co-host on ABC’s The View, is using her considerable media experience to help.

“She has played it very smartly,” says Bob Dietz, Asia Program Director for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “She has a media plan, has advisers at the State Department and others outside who can say: How do we play this?” She has even organized a war room where the families can comb through information and determine how best to respond to events as they unfold.

The families’ strategy appears to entail speaking directly to the North Korean regime and humanizing the two reporters. A YouTube video shows images of the reporters’ loving families. Laura Ling’s husband read a letter that he received from her on the Today Show (”I’m lonely and scared, but thinking of you gives me strength, you know I can feel you here with me”). In appearances on NBC and CNN, Lisa Ling addressed the North Korean government directly, apologizing profusely on behalf of the two reporters. And the family has finally been able to join the efforts of Facebook activists who are organizing vigils throughout the nation today in advance of the trial.

Brendan McShane Creamer is the driving force behind the Facebook-driven vigils. “The first vigil was basically done shot from the hip,” Creamer says. “I was mad that there was virtually no coverage of the story, and since the media was covering Roxanna [Saberi], I thought [a vigil] would be a good way to piggyback on the story.” Aided by posts from the reporters’ families, the Facebook movement has grown. Today vigils are planned in DC, New York, Chicago, Birmingham, Portland (OR), San Francisco, LA, and Sacramento.

Yet much remains beyond the families’ control. Ling and Lee have the extreme misfortune of being detained while an ailing Kim Jong Il struggles to consolidate power in order to name his youngest son as successor, a fact experts say could be behind the recent nuclear test and flurry of missile launches. “These actions seem timed to Kim Jong Il’s recent re-appointment as Chairman of the National Defense Commission and are intended at least in part to impress the military with Kim’s toughness on security matters.” says Charles Armstrong, North Korean expert at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. “I suspect North Korea will release the journalists sooner rather than later,” he says, “but only after getting something in return from the U.S., whether in the form of direct talks or other concessions.”

Bob Dietz of the CPJ feels it could go either way. If an act of magnanimity is perceived as showing Kim Jong Il’s strength, the reporters could be home soon. If it could be interpreted as a sign of weakness, then they could be facing a long jail sentence, he says.

One thing is certain. Even if media pressure is not a major factor in North Korea’s calculations, being able to finally talk has been a relief to the family. “We are a family of doers and have felt so helpless,” Lisa Ling said Monday in an interview with Larry King.

Time will soon tell if their efforts have paid off.

In our July 1 season premiere, WIDE ANGLE presents “Crossing Heaven’s Border,” a film that follows three South Korean journalists as they go underground to document the harrowing flight of North Korean refugees through China, Laos and Thailand to safety in South Korea.