Brunei is a nation on the Island of Borneo surrounded by Malaysia and the South China Sea, known for its beaches and biodiverse rainforests. It is governed by an absolute Monarchy.

The CSA sat down with student leaders of Brunei Darussalam to discuss the state of education, the value of the student voice in Brunei as well as student safety and security.

"The Pan-Commonwealth Team Meeting held on August 5, 2023 brought together all Team Members from the Executive Committee, regional working groups and all supporting committees. Our Chairperson shared the vision of the CSA and a charge, inviting all CSA volunteers to think about their "why"

As of 2016, UNPFA reported that 43% of women 25-49 years had married by 18 years. According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) in 2018, almost 25% of Ugandan women had given birth by the age of 18. These figures spiked to 1025 teenage pregnancies per day in 2020 in Uganda due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, we discuss the causes,conséquences, and what needs to done to address these statistics.

In Preparation for the Year of Youth Tour in 2024, thé Commonwealth Students Association started the CSA Fireside Podcast. The CSA Fireside Season 1 has gathered first hand information for you from a number countries like Ghana, Namibia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea,Guyana, Jamaica,Malaysia,Belize, Pakistan and the Global students Forum. Join us as we start our season 2 and host more countries.

Africa is the 2nd largest continent. It boasts the mountain ranges of the Kilimanjaro, dessert Saharan plains and exotic islands of Seychelles and Mauritius, inhabited by 100,000 and 1.2 million people respectively.

We sat with the CSA Country Representatives from these islands to discuss issues in education in their respective countries.

The National Students' Union of Belize (NSUB) is a young and vibrant national student organization. Belize is a nation on the eastern coast of Central America and is part of the Caribbean. Offshore, the massive Belize Barrier Reef, dotted with hundreds of low-lying cayes, hosts rich marine life. We sat with the student leaders of the NSUB who represent student interests of a nation of 400,000 to discuss student safety and security, decolonisation and student activism.

The Global Student Forum (GSF) is the global umbrella organisation of the world’s major representative, independent and democratic student unions of school and university students, representing and advocating for the educational, cultural, economic, and social interests of over 300 million learners worldwide. We were joined by the Executive Director of the Global Students Forum to discuss how the high level advocacy it does impacts the average learner in the classroom. The GSF has done extensive advocacy on tax justice, decolonization of education finance and climate justice, among other areas

Kenya is facing a youth bulge: 75% of the Kenyan population is aged below 35 years old. Youth unemployment in Kenya is as high as 35% (4.5 million young men and women), compared to the overall national unemployment rate of 10%. We sat with the past and present CSA Kenya Country Representative to discuss unemployment, education and student safety and security in Kenya.

We were joined by the CSA Nigeria Country Representative as well as senior executive members of the National Union of Nigeria Students (NANS) to discuss the impact of the removal of the oil subsidy and the ASUU strikes.

Students in Nigerian universities, particularly federal institutions, spend more years than their counterparts studying the same course in private-owned schools. The reason is not far-fetched. It is because of the constant strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The Guyana National Students Organization (GNSO) was established in 2020 to represent the voices of students in Guyana. Shortly after it commenced working on organizing and recruiting members, the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to halt the progress of the young organization. Their determination is a testament to the quality of student leadership in Guyana and the truth that youth are interested in participating in education as stakeholders, despite challenges faced at the organizational level. Listen to current members of the GNSO executive share about their growing student movement, Education in the oil rich Caribbean nation and opportunities for the transformation of the only English speaking country in South America.