Work is Worship

CUET- what’s the Future?

The higher education authority of India, the University Grants Commission on the recommendation of the Ministry of Education, recently announced the introduction of a common entrance university test as a gateway to entering universities for Undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The National Testing Agency, which was established in 2017 to manage entrance tests to higher education institutes will only conduct CUET across India. UGC’s purpose of establishment was to create One India, one exam and CUET is a step in the right direction. It will provide an equitable opportunity to all the potential candidates, even those living in the remotest corners of the country. For the session 2022-23, 53 central universities have given their consent to accept CUET scores for undergraduate courses but are yet to do it for postgraduate courses.

CUET is scheduled from 15th July to 10th August 2022. On the first day of the examination, it met with a few hiccups. Last-minute centre change, less time to prepare, and unplanned date sheets were some concerns raised by the students. Some students have to appear for 3 exams on a single day. But is CUET still a better option?

Yes, it is. India has several education boards such as CBSE, ICSE, and state boards to name a few and they all vary in terms of their difficulty levels. So all the boards with relatively easier examinations, their students score higher marks and that takes the cutoffs skyrocketing. CUET will not take into consideration class 12th percentage but only consider marks secured at the entrance.

CUET will also make the admission process hassle-free. Earlier when students had to appear for multiple exams, there was always a probability of clashing dates of 2 prestigious exams and this would create a dilemma for students, where they had to choose anyone. But now, by qualifying for just one exam, you can apply to numerous universities across India. Common entrance test also stands apart in terms of choice, as it gives students the option to choose the subjects they want to appear for.

Let’s say, Radhika has a stronghold in Mathematical and Accountancy concepts, but scores below average in Economics and Psychology. So she can choose Accountancy and mathematics as her subjects for the entrance tests and excel in them. This option didn’t exist earlier and students had to study all subjects even in which they didn’t want to specialize in college.

This is the first time the paper was introduced, so due to a lack of awareness some students had to bear the brunt, but from the next session onwards things might get better.

Also for PG degree and diploma courses universities soon will start accepting CUET scores. Switching streams after the 12th will now be easier as students’ have to choose subjects on their own. Every university’s exam had an entrance fee but now that burden has been reduced.

So in a nutshell, students and parents both will adapt to this change happily. It received flak because of its bad timing of implementation as students didn’t have ample time to prepare for the test. But CUET surely has a bright future and the move is and will be welcomed by students of the upcoming batches.

Most Popular Apps Among Students Today

Students have a lot of commitments in their daily lives ranging from school and extracurricular activities to socializing with friends and peers. For all these activities, students nowadays have come to depend on social media and other apps to help them. There is always something to help you manage your student years, whether you want help discovering the best note-taking applications for students, staying focused during study sessions, or even finding discounts to help you stay under budget each month. For this article though, our focus will remain on popular educational apps since we are talking about students.

RefME: Referencing might be a time-consuming procedure, but thankfully RefME has created a brilliant tool that greatly improves the effectiveness of discovering and citing resources. The app offers new students thousands of free educational resources that can serve as a wonderful starting point for academic reading and inspire further investigation. But its biggest selling point is how simple it makes it to automate bibliographies, reference lists, and citations. This eliminates the need to spend hours searching Google for academic publications that are pertinent to your studies.

Evernote: Evernote is one of the finest applications for students since it lets you make, assemble, and organise notes while also making sure you manage your time for all your other responsibilities. Text, illustrations, photos, online web content, and even audio clips can all be used to create notes. Your newly made notes will be kept in electronic notebooks that may be modified, searched, marked, labelled, exported for use on other devices, and have attachments connected to them.

Motion: Most of your study time as a college student is either spent on your laptop. With the help of the free browser extension Motion, you can prevent yourself from visiting distracting websites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This way, you won’t be tempted to click on them when you’d rather be doing something else with your time. You may completely customise it to restrict specific websites, such as social media platforms or online stores, during predetermined hours and days.

Buy US UNiDAYS Student Account 1 Year - Edu Email Shop

UniDays: One of the most well-known student discount applications is Unidays, which collaborates with some of the biggest firms in the world to provide free discounts to college and university students. You can verify yourself by creating an account using your student email address, after which you’ll have access to deals on things like food, clothing, electronics, and more. Although it was created in the UK, the app is currently available in more than 100 nations, including India.

Todoist: You must acquaint yourself with Todoist if you’re seeking one of the finest planner apps for students that works on all your devices, monitors your productivity, and enables you to organise every facet of your life. A task management programme called Todoist combines tasks, projects, notes, attachments, and more to help you work more productively and efficiently. Todoist is a cloud-based programme that syncs all of your tasks and notes to every device you use to access the app.

There is no doubting that there are some undeniable benefits to being a student in the twenty-first century, including having access to some cutting-edge tools and applications to aid with note-taking, task management, and other facets of student life. Get to browsing, downloading, and getting ready to utilise your smartphone to the fullest.

Teacher’s Perspective of Online Teaching

From & For the Other Side of Online Learning: Teachers’ Perspective

Disabled mics, shut cameras, new technology and network lags; online teaching has been a nightmare for educators. While most students have seemed to enjoy the phase of sleeping in through classes and writing exams straight from their beds, teachers have struggled immensely with speaking into a blackhole where students refuse to turn on mics or answer questions. Due to this, many teachers saw the digital medium as a hurdle in the way of comprehension and coherent delivery of lectures. Despite giving their best to adopt the technology by integrating engaging videos and quizzes, teachers remain confused and are left in the dark as the digital medium robs the space of two-way interaction. Contrary to a physical class, where it is easier to judge if the students are grasping the concept or not, the online method leaves the teachers sceptical and perplexed. However, here we have jotted down four methods to smoothen your digital teaching journey and maximise productivity and student results:

Utilise Data-Tracking Apps

Teachers can spend a plethora of time tracing weak areas of a student or looking for harmful study patterns and still, unfortunately, sometimes miss it. However, with all the data tracking apps and platforms, it is now easier for educators to understand the lags of a student by studying analytics. This awareness allows the teacher to tailor-make content for the student that can be easily slowed down and broken down into smaller segments to enable satisfactory comprehension.

Organisation and Accessibility

Gone are the days when misplacement of hard copies would lead to losing track of a student’s record. Now, using platforms such as Google Classrooms, you can organise handouts, lessons and homework. There is amplified transparency as the students can no longer claim to have lost their assignments/homework; neither can the same be blamed on the teacher. It also aids accessibility, as students can retrieve and upload data from any part of the world, 24×7, as long as they have an internet connection

Cut Down Workload Using Artificial Intelligence

AI can reduce human intervention and workload; automation minimises the chance of error and additionally saves educators from investing in non-teaching tasks. AI systems can aid in grading papers, tracking attendance and managing administrative tasks. This technology can conveniently replace human invigilators in online and offline exams while identifying instances of cheating more effectively. Using AI systems can facilitate the institutions to be responsive while making operations cost-effective and transparent.

Record & Upload your Lectures

This can save you tons of time as you won’t always have to begin with a recap of your previous session for students who missed it to follow through with the current class. Additionally, the lack of external pressures like commutation and being surrounded by peers can help learners absorb information effectively. The video content can be slowed down or rewind as per convenience. Each video can be hyperlinked to other videos that can be accessed in case the student feels a need to break down the concept into smaller segments to get a grip of the larger picture. Such methods can accentuate the strengths and skills of a student while bridging the gap for the lags.

Technology to Promote Literacy

The intervention of technology in the education sector cannot be overlooked, especially considering the current situation of a global pandemic. Not only has technology seamlessly made its way in our lives but also thoroughly changed its course. From getting groceries to attending meetings across the globe, it has perhaps reduced that distance between the ends of the world. Entering into our personal and professional spheres and leaving no stone unturned, the education industry is no longer isolated from its ramifications. Changing trends in technology facilitate newer teaching and learning techniques that encourage students to be lifelong learners.

The conventional method of teaching using chalk and a blackboard has proved to be effective, however, emerging technological trends open a new doorway to learning, through video lectures, graphical illustrations, and games among others. It is imperative to understand that understanding is not limited to a classroom. Instead, it finds its way outside of the school’s premises. A report published by National Literacy Trust in April 2019 claims that “Most respondents saw technology to have a positive impact on reluctant readers (68.5%) and boys (64.8%), followed by reluctant writers and less able readers and writers.” There is a wealth of technological devices in the market targeted towards young learners, to make the process enjoyable and resourceful. The potential that technology provides its learners with newer ways of learning like gamified learning, video lectures, and text-speech software remains unprecedented.

The idea of literacy extends beyond its conventional understanding, that is, one’s ability to read and write. In a world that is so skill oriented, Calkins and Ehrenworth suggest that in the past “most jobs required low literacy skills, but children who leave school today without strong literacy skills will not find a job”. The generation which is so competent in using these devices from such an early age, it becomes nearly impossible to detach their process from it. Technology motivates them to learn and engage with the subject matter creatively and critically and develops their reading and writing skills. With e-readers and various writing tools, learners today are motivated to read by the mere idea of doing so on a device. Features like built-in dictionaries, dictation, and video lectures help them polish their vocabulary, research, and retention abilities.

While technology has entered into the domain of education only to change its course, it is up to us to decide if its for better or worse. Considering the digital gap in countries like India, a stable internet connection or a mobile phone is a thing of privilege. So to say that technology has significantly increased the literacy rate would be appealing until we delve into its socio-political modalities.

Different ways of Homework

Teens think listening to music helps them concentrate. It doesn’t. It relieves them of the boredom that concentration on homework induces.- Marilyn Vos Savant

Homework is a word that everyone has heard of and has done in their school days or college days. It becomes very important for people to understand and realize the importance of homework in a child’s life as it helps in setting up careers. Homework is an integral part of learning and it is for the betterment of the students.

Homework is an out-of-class activity/assignment allotted to the students as an extension or revision of classwork. There are several benefits of homework for students.

It has always remained an important aspect of the development of a child’s career. Be it to make a better understanding of concepts or to make students learn how to manage their time. It is a method by which a teacher evaluates the interest of the students.

Hence the teacher needs to be creative to be able to change previous homework methods and introduce new methods of giving homework. So that it helps to establish an interest of students in doing and making understand the concept better, every teacher has a different way to teach and assign homework.

Various ways can help to make homework interesting to all types of students-

Make flexible assignments- make different assignments based on the capabilities on the capabilities of the child. So that the child doesn’t feel the pressure of the same. To make them understand better.
Clear communication is a must- mostly students find issues in doing homework just because of a lack of proper guidance, it has been observed that the number of teachers give attention to the students, the better outcome can be expected from the students.
Clear with basics skills- it is observed that students with clear basics are most likely to complete their assignments with more interest.

Homework as an instrument for effective learning could be beneficial if enhanced to meet the needs of the students. It is important to ensure that the individual needs of the students are factored in while assigning them homework assignments.

A Chores List for Older Kids and Teens

Children as young as two can be taught to pitch in around the house by having them put away their toys after they’re finished playing with them. There are few home activities that a teenager should not be expected to perform by the age of twelve. And, once they have their driver’s license, it is fair to delegate errands such as grocery shopping or dry cleaning.

Helping around the house teaches children the value of contributing to a team. It also makes individuals feel appreciated and capable, both of which boost their self-esteem.

Chores for teenagers teach them the value of responsibility, discipline, and hard work. Choosing duties for your teenager may be difficult, especially if you’ve been doing everything for them up until this point. You’ll want to consider what they’re strong at, their personality, the current season, and their schedule. Check out these useful lists and handouts to help you get your teen on a chore schedule.

Taking care of the pets

Your teen can certainly handle a couple of routine tasks, such as feeding the dog in the morning and cleaning the cat’s litter box. Even if your teen takes on this responsibility, a responsible adult must always ensure that pets are properly cared for. Because your teen’s brain is still maturing, mistakes and forgetfulness are unavoidable, and no one wants Fido to suffer as a result.

Clean their Room

Your teen is capable of performing a few normal duties, such as feeding the dog in the morning and cleaning the cat’s litter box. Even if your kid assumes this duty, a responsible adult must always guarantee that pets are properly cared for. Mistakes and forgetfulness are natural because your teen’s brain is still evolving, and no one wants Fido to suffer as a result.

Helping with Meals

Helping with meals is a great method to teach your teenagers responsibility and prepare them to live on their own one day! You can have them prepare their breakfast and lunches (at home and for school), as well as assist with dinner.

Cultivating Diversity & Inclusivity

Diversity is anything that distinguishes individuals from one another. This encompasses a wide range of variables, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, ability, age, religious conviction, or political ideology. Each of these elements influences how kids (and teachers, and everyone else) view the world. Diversity in the classroom can affect academic outcomes in addition to social skills improvement. It fosters intellectual confidence and strengthens critical thinking abilities. Students are more likely to see their identity represented in course materials or other students when schools adopt inclusive and responsive approaches to diversity. These pupils are more prone to avoid participation and feel inferior to their peers when diversity is not prioritised and they don’t feel included.

All children receive a superior education in inclusive systems, which also helps to challenge prejudice. The framework that schools give for a child’s initial interactions with the world outside of their families facilitates the growth of social connections and interactions. When students from various backgrounds and abilities interact, play, and study together, respect and understanding grow.

Discrimination against historically oppressed populations is perpetuated via education that excludes and segregates. Concepts of civic engagement, employment, and community life are more inclusive as education becomes more diverse. An inclusive curriculum contains regionally relevant themes as well as contributions from marginalised and minority groups. It avoids binary narratives of good and wrong and allows the curriculum to be tailored to the learning styles of children with special needs. By actively engaging in learning activities that instill respect for diversity, the classroom can become a place where respect is a cornerstone and intolerance becomes abhorrent.

Teaching with a multicultural perspective encourages tolerance of others with different beliefs and practices. It encourages cultural acceptance and tolerance of “the other,” and might even lessen bullying. Providing equitable access to education and supporting tolerance of those who look different or have special needs creates a positive effect on learning.

Outdated syllabus in indian education

Description: Indian Education System is Rigid Regimented and Outdated to Current Times -Tushar Kansal - BW Disrupt

In Indian education, a student’s marks, not their ability, determine the outcome. The Indian educational system places a greater emphasis on a student’s grades than on the ability or competency that he or she has developed. The curriculum of schools and higher educational institutions are also centred on passing an exam and gaining a job, rather than all-around student growth and skill development. Such is the state of the Indian education that almost 90% of the syllabus followed country-wide is outdated, instead of focusing on rote learning.

When we talk about how the Indian education curriculum is outdated, it not only refers to the syllabus but also to old-fashioned teaching methods, infrastructure, and ideology concerning education. Education has lost its value as a means of improving ability, comprehension, and knowledge. The Indian educational system not only lacks a framework or methods for identifying a child’s intrinsic abilities but is also designed to obfuscate and eliminate these abilities. The system compels kids to study disciplines in which they have no interest. Although much has changed in the Indian educational system over the years, there are still many flaws and problems that need to be addressed.

Description: Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Twitter: "Cabinet chaired by Hon'ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji approved new National Education Policy 2020. Sharing the New Policy Features of #NEP2020. https://t.co/h5qcZ8aDoP" / Twitter

Currently, our educational system emphasises rote learning, with students being encouraged to memorise book or documentation contents rather than developing their reasoning, thinking, and intuition. How this works, for example, students may know that the planets revolve around the sun but they don’t know why they do so. The curriculum is outdated in the sense that it hinders students’ development so they can’t think for themselves.

As much as 90% of education is theoretical, with very little opportunity for students to engage in hands-on learning and research. Students are always limited to a set syllabus and are not encouraged to get out and about their seems, so there is little opportunity for creative learning and thinking. More practicals are required to better comprehend the contents of the chapters. This will assist students in better understanding the underlying process than simply reading it from a book.

With the insistence on following age-old education practices and relying on books, we lag in the use of technology and new research. Without research, it is difficult to revise the school curriculum since we remain unaware of changes happening in society. And without relying on technology, we further hinder ourselves from exploring and learning new information. So much so that students keep learning similar content through their higher education years.

The last and main topic of focus is the outdated syllabus in Indian education. A lot of the fault lies with the government for the lack of investment in the education sector to develop. Lack of finances, infrastructure, resources, and a conservative ideology has blocked the growth of the education sector. Without finances and resources, the educational institutions will be unable to create a new syllabus and publish the adequate study material required.

Description: Brain drain from India: An Overview

The Indian education system is lauded by many since there are several Indians who hold important designations in notable companies. But that cannot cover up the fact that the education syllabus in India is outdated and lacking. Owing to this, Indians are rarely recognized as innovation pioneers, and those Indians who wish to achieve higher goals pursue them by going abroad for further education. India incurs a lot of brain drain which can severely affect future generations and this can only be resolved by improving our quality of education system.

Edtech reactions to union budget for education

What EdTech Founders, Ed Leaders & Investors Say About Union Budget for Education

Description: Budget expectations 2022: India Inc bosses want focus on mental health, ed-tech - The Economic Times

The Union Budget 2022 was recently delivered by the honourable Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman and several pledges were made for the country’s growth and development in her budget address. Many people are applauding the Finance Minister’s pronouncements, and here’s what some EdTech startups, education leaders, and investors have to say about the Union Budget’s education provisions. Before getting into the opinions of edtech leaders, let’s get an overall gist of what the union budget had in store for education this year.

According to the Finance Minister, a digital institution would be built to provide students around the country with access to world-class high-quality general education and a tailored learning experience right at their doorsteps. She claimed that the information will be available in a variety of Indian languages and that the country’s premier institutions would interact as a hub-and-spoke network.

Opinions can be formed and majorly influenced if people have certain expectations. The following are the expectations of Edtech firms and the educational industry from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman:

Description: Union Budget 2022-23: What We Expect from IT?

According to Deepak Mittal, CEO and Co-Founder of To The New, it would be good for the industry if the Budget directs some resources toward developing a strong e-learning environment, applying online innovation, and scouting relevant technology solutions to improve the online learning ecosystem.

Description: Budget 2022-23: EdTech & Education Sector Expectations – TechGraph

Vaibhav Singh, Co-Founder of Leap Scholar, anticipates a stronger focus on the edtech sector overall, with considerable expenditures to provide access to robust and upgraded digital infrastructure, as well as enhanced tax advantages.

Hearing the expectations of the leading Edtech platform founders, let’s see how well the union budget did this year according to the edtech leaders:

The launch of 5G was widely anticipated, according to Gerald Jaideep, CEO of Medvarsity (healthcare EdTech), and the IT sector is ecstatic to discover that 5G spectrum auctions will take place this year. The government’s position on three key verticals was reiterated in the budget: expanding digital infrastructure across the urban and rural environment, launching an open platform for the national digital health ecosystem, and putting a greater emphasis on online education, learning, and skilling. He anticipates the integration of these aspects with health education and medical training as a major health EdTech enterprise.

According to Amit Ratanpal, Founder & MD of BLinC Invest (a venture capital firm dedicated to funding EdTech), the government has certainly made a step in the right direction by encouraging the incorporation of technology in the education and finance services sectors. Increasing the penetration of EdTech goods to the public will be a significant area of attention in the future years, with efforts like the digital DESH e-portal, digital university, digital currency, and credit extension to MSMEs paired with ease of doing business.

Quality education, according to Chitra Ravi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chrysalis (an educational research and innovation organisation), can now be achieved with improved digital infrastructure and new government initiatives such as “One class, one TV,” which strengthens online education. Teachers can utilise technology for professional development and gain assessment insights from pupils. We can confidently assert that technology can address some of the classic concerns as well as pandemic-related issues.

The budget addressed systemic concerns in education and guaranteed that all children have equal access to school. The budget has also taken into account the aftermath of covid-19 and given special priority to the edtech sector. Based on the thoughts of industry leaders it seems that most the people are satisfied and even happy with the allotment of budget for education.

Top-10 exercises that can be done at home

It won’t be wrong to say that humans have become lazy and lethargic, especially over the course of the last two years. Working out is crucial to become active again and adopt a healthy lifestyle. The exercise involves physical movement of the body and enhances fitness.

Exercise benefits one in various ways, just like –

It helps to control weight – It helps maintain weight gain or weight loss. Getting engaged in household chores is also an exercise, It also helps in burning calories and taking stairs instead of escalators.
It gets rid of various illnesses- exercises is a physical activity that benefits the body by keeping it healthy; it involves physical activities which help in preventing various diseases like sugar, blood pressure, obesity, etc
It enhances mood- exercises often release happy chemicals, making you more comfortable. There are instances when people feel so glad after exercising.

After so many countless benefits of exercise, people realised how important exercise is.

The only thing that happened during this pandemic is people started exercising, even though most of them did not have access to equipment, so here are certain exercises that can be done at home without any equipment-

Bridge – Activate your core and posterior chain (a fancy term for the backside of your body) with a bridge. This is a great exercise to use as a warmup.
PUSH-UPS – It is a basic exercise, which involves basic movements of the triceps, one can perform three types of pushups- inclined pushups, knee pushups, and decline pushups. With this, you can strengthen your upper body.

Squats- The squat develops legs and butt muscles and, over time, may strengthen knee joints.it is an exercise in which you are supposed lower

your hips and bend your knees.

Lunges are an exercise for maintaining balance, stability, and flexibility. A lunge can refer to any human body position where one leg is positioned forward with knee bent and foot flat on the ground while the other leg is positioned behind.

Crunches – It is the basic exercise to strengthen abdomen muscles. It is a fundamental exercise in this we have to lie down in a supine position and then move our chest upward and follow this exercise at least 3 times.

Dips – it is the best bodyweight exercise, in this, all you require is a chair or bench. It helps in triceps muscles.

Wall sits – one of the most fascinating exercises and challenging as well, it is beneficial for bodyweight exercises.

Step-ups – Helps in the workout of the lower body. It is an excellent form of cardio if a higher number of reps are performed. Place your entire right foot onto the step, chair, box, or bench. Press through your right heel as you step onto the court, bringing your left foot to meet your left so you are

standing on the bench; this needs to be done at least 15 times.

Chair stands- The chair stand exercise helps to strengthen the muscles in your thighs and the muscles in the centre of your body that give you stability (core muscles).

Mountain Climber- – a full-body exercise that should be in every cardio circuit, the mountain climber is a challenge for the entire bodyEven if you can’t maintain a rapid pace with your mountain climbers, the motion alone will target core muscles.