Giving Compass' Take:

• In honor of International Day of Education, Al Jazeera offers eight documentaries about education that demonstrate how poverty and access can be extreme barriers for students around the world.

• How can documentaries become powerful influencers for social change through storytelling? 

• Read about how major U.S. philanthropists are calling for better global investment in education initiatives. 


Education is a fundamental human right, a public good that should be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere, and a public responsibility, according to the United Nations.

Here are Al Jazeera's documentary picks for International Education Day, and every day:

  1. India's Child Geniuses: More than five million children in India are thought to have genius-level IQs. But most of them live in slums and are never discovered.
  2. Mohamad at Eton: In September 2010, 16-year-old Palestinian refugee Mohamad Fahed arrives at London's Heathrow airport and is taken to Britain's most prestigious private school, Eton College.
  3. Teaching Empowerment: Prison Education in Kenya: Nearly half of Kenya's population of 44 million live below the poverty line.
  4. Hashim's School of Hope: In the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, 44-year-old Myanmar refugee Hashim Kassim struggles to raise funds to keep his religious school open, while working hard to prepare two bright students for a Quran recitation competition.
  5. Afghanistan: School Scandal: Most Afghan girls are still out of school, despite hopes that more women would have a chance to get an education following the Taliban's fall from power in 2001, and the international community donating billions of dollars in aid.
  6. Educating Black Boys: Baltimore, a port city in the United States, has a long history of racial segregation, and its law enforcement has been accused of unfair policing in predominantly black neighbourhoods.
  7. Shattered Dreams: Between 2007 and 2008, the number of students from Bangladesh travelling to the UK for education more than quadrupled.
  8. Educating Igor:  Igor and his siblings grew up in a Roma settlement in eastern Slovakia. They have faced racism, discrimination and even violence that targets "gypsies".

Read the full article about documentaries about education at Al Jazeera