Dangerous routes to school

In some parts of Germany, children are back to school already, in others, class is about to start again. Traffic experts are warning parents not to drive their little ones, because instead of making the way to school safer, all the cars in front of the school gates are endangering the students. But mom and dad are often too worried to let their kids walk.

Children in the mountain village of Atuler in the south-western Chinese province of Sichuan would probably laugh about German parents' fears. They had to climb down rickety bamboo ladders to the bottom of a steep cliff on their way to school - and make their way up again to get home. A photographer drew attention to their plight in 2016.

Sichuan authorities reacted to the outcry following the publication of the photos and installed a steal ladder in November 2016. Before that, many children fell and some died on their 800-meter-long way down the mountain. Eventually, the province government plans to improve the village's connection to the outside world so that students won't have to make the trek anymore.

Elsewhere in China, the way to school is almost as risky as the Atuler children's ladder journey. Students from the Nongyong village in the Guangxi Zhuang region have to climb down this path at the beginning of the school year. Because their villages are so far away, they usually spend the year in school-adjacent accommodation and only go home for the summer.

To get to the Gulu Village Primary School in the Sichuan province, students have to walk along narrow mountain paths for hours. In some places, the path is only 50 centimeters wide, forcing the children to press against the mountain wall to not plummet to their death.

In Boyolali, Central Java, Indonesia, getting to school also requires courage. Children have to cross a 30-meter wide river on a bridge that's really more of a wooden slat. Some even make their way across on their bikes - a feat that resembles a circus number.

In the Philippines' Rizal province, east of Manila, children cross a river on makeshift rafts to get to class in the morning. Of the estimated 21 million students in the country, these boys and girls probably have one of the more adventurous routes to school.

These Filipino boys float home from school on an old inflated tire. The locals in this part of the Rizal province have to brave raging river currents not only to go to school, but also to reach the hospital. Poor access to education and healthcare is a big problem in rural areas in the Philippines.