Category: Education

Mental Health: Children, Young People, and Families

Mental health is a widely overlooked aspect of a person’s health. People don’t consider it as important as their physical health, mostly because the injuries are not visible. However, they often forget that the signs are always there. Mental health problems are often directly proportional to the day-to-day happenings in our lives. Most mental health problems start developing at a very young age, but parents often ignore the warning signs. At such an impressionable age, children need to be taught about their mental well being too. It is imperative that we address the issue of mental health among children, young people, and families.

Children and Young People

It is seen many-a-times that the physical needs of a child are obvious, but his or her mental needs may be neglected. Even when the red flags are identified, there is a stigma associated with mental illness.

Some problems that children suffer from are ADHD, autism, anxiety, anorexia (eating disorder), depression, and bipolar disorder. Warning signs include intense mood swings, self-harm, substance abuse, sudden appetite loss, fidgeting, and continuous nightmares.

health

A few suggestions to nurture a child or adolescent’s mental health could include talking to them about their day; asking them if they are facing any problems at school. This strengthens your bond with them and they start trusting you more. As a parent, make sure that your ward eats a healthy and balanced diet, is physically fit, and takes part in outdoor activities.

Provide children with a healthy environment at home; a child should feel secure in his surroundings. Help them build their self-esteem and confidence while talking to them. Encourage their first steps towards new interests. This would enable them to open up more and express their feelings and doubts. And most importantly, don’t condemn them when they do something wrong. Instead, let them know their mistake and work together to improve it.

Families

It is obvious that an individual’s mental health problems will have consequences for others within his social networks and most importantly his family. When it comes to mental illness, the emotional and behavioral consequences for family members go largely ignored along with having a huge impact on their financial component.

menheal

Family life often becomes unsettled and unpredictable as the needs of the ill become paramount day by day. The afflicted often feels that he’s isolating those close to him. Children may find it difficult to understand why their parent is not his/her usual self. Therefore, many tend to blame themselves and grow up feeling abandoned, lonely, and isolated.

In case a family member suffers from a mental health problem, you should not let him feel dismissed and disregarded. Instead, you could try to understand what he is going through, his inner turmoil, and try to help him cope with that. Children need special care at this time as they are perplexed by the happenings in their lives.

You should try to mend the broken relations, leave the toxic people in your lives behind, and create a positive impact on others’ lives.

Image Courtesy: Google

E-learning: A boon or bane?

E-learning, which literally means, ‘electronic’ learning has received a sudden market-boost since the coronavirus outbreak. Digitalisation has been ongoing for quite some time, but the pandemic seems to have heralded it.

The digital coaching institutes which were earlier restricted to a few brand names, have now grown into a vast network. Many regular educational institutions have switched to e-learning temporarily. But  is online learning reliable as a permanent source of knowledge? Are we ready to modernise our system, or is e-learning not a substitute for traditional classrooms? 

Let’s find out. 

Schools offer twin development commitment: Academic and Characteristic. While e-learning modifies the pedagogy and makes learning more visual and digitally enabled, the students somehow miss out on social interactions and collaborative activities. It doesn’t seem to be very convincing on the characteristic development front of a student. Yet, it has an edge over traditional classrooms. How?

Let’s break this down into boons and banes of online learning.

Boons

  • Anything you need to learn is a search away- 

The beauty of digital learning is that anyone can learn anything,  at any place. There are no boundaries or restrictions. Every curiosity of yours has an answer. 

  • Less resource input and economically feasible –

For online learning, a physical set up of a classroom is not required. This makes the platform open for any teacher or even an ordinary person who wishes to teach. With less input cost, the cost of education ultimately lowers. 

  • Certificate and skill courses for better employment opportunities- 

Digitally you can pursue any course of your interest at any time, regardless of your age. When qualifications become a barrier in your professional life, you can always have a chance to enhance them digitally, even when it’s not possible physically.

  • Flexible study timings-

Flexible timings make e-learning accessible for everyone according to their routine, which ensures seamless learning.

  • Real-time interactive classes-

Live classes assure a healthy interaction between the tutor and the learner. Any query or confusion could be put up by the student without any embarrassment or fear.

  • Reduced school crimes-

Crimes we often hear about like sexual harassment, physical harassment, bullying, body shaming by seniors, teachers or classmates would be reduced to their minimal. 

With no physical interaction, it would be almost impossible for these crimes to emerge if the student has the right cyber knowledge.

Banes

  • Social ineffectiveness – When classrooms enter a room and are confined to a mobile screen, the student doesn’t get to interact with anyone physically. Gradually when they move out, they’d realise how the world is more nerve racking than their bedrooms. Social infectiveness would be a major impediment in not only their professional life but also in regular living. 
  • Unskilled scholars- As weird as it sounds,  if we enforce a digital system permanently, we’d soon be producing dumb-scholars, with no team working skills, extra curricular abilities, patience and communication skills. That would be like hatching a scholar chick out of his/her house who is in fact a grown up chicken and needs to live like one.
  • Unpunctuality and lethargy-  With everything served in their rooms and no one to keep a surveillance on, the learners would be rather lethargic and slothful. Their work would be left incomplete and if they do it, it would be done at the eleventh hour. They’d lose the value of knowledge if everything is readily available.

The Millenial’s culture

Lingo is the new cool

Here,there,everywhere on the internet we find the new blood putting forward their ideas in an open manner, without being judged on the grounds of their maturity level or their age. The number of people using the social media handles is getting larger and larger every day and especially when it comes to the new age teens; they tend to post stories, posts and blogs on these platforms very blatantly. But that’s not enough- very one seeks out an easy mechanism to speak up their field of vision- the youngsters of our country or any country, do not lag behind in using “the lingos.” Yes, it sounds so awkward, instead of using a full fleshed word they go on to use abbreviations of these, but it is the only gospel truth. And why not? Living in an era as this, when pretending to be cool on social media platforms is the only way to survive the world, every individual strive to be the most influential one and is the root cause of rise of a problem which is huge, as huge as a mountain.

We all have gone to school, everybody have experienced that how preserving our teachers were, they made us grasp and master each and every spelling carefully. But, once the stories of their hard work is washed off from our minds, it’s gone then, never even unknowingly they struck in our minds. But unfortunately, this was not the day we digested so much of spellings and got beaten from our teachers when-

Perfect has been replaced with “perf”; though has become ” Tho”; through has been changed into “thru”; an enthusiastic yes has become ” Yaas”; they use words like “bruh” to signify a serious issue; “dead” is unapologetically used when someone is euphorically happy; family is replaced for “fam”, and so on and so forth.

All things considered it is a serious issue hanging out on the flanks of people’s eyesight, since at the end of the day, it is the Millenials who build up the social media and it is them on who’s shoulder the way to get a fresh breed of intellectuals is stationed.

Though the trend is going through all over the social media and these young buds are following it anyway, it has drastically changed the way they speak, they write and also the way they handle with their studies and stuff like that.

It sounds fun to use such lingos as these and that the planet has become flooded with such abbreviations but there are times when we go much out of our ways and start using them in our day to day routines, even with our parents who fails to understand what we want to convey and become “old, fogey and obstinate” Despite knowing the fact that “old never gets odd“

Post Graduation Opportunities In Australia

The world is your oyster! The world is yours to conquer after you complete your graduation in Australia. There are plenty of routes one can take to enhance their career or to settle down. Once graduation is complete, the students can apply for further studies to enhance their knowledge and creative pursuits. Like a candy shop for students, there are several post-graduate courses and diplomas available in various universities across Australia that a student can choose from.

There are various Visas that students can apply for. There is the attractive Temporary Graduate Visa (Subclass 485) that students can apply for to stay longer(18 months) in the country to work and hone their skills and get work experience and eventually get a permanent residency. The 402 Training and Research Visa for students allow them to enhance and improve their skills for two years under the guidance of the employer. The 487 Regional Sponsored Visa leads to permanent residency with work for 3 years. There are other Visas like the 885, 886 and 887 Visa which allows permanent residency too.

There are various top-class universities in Australia that students can choose to do their post-graduate studies. The top 5 Universities in Australia according to QS World University Rankings are -:
1) University of Melbourne
2) Australian National University
3) University of Sydney
4) University of Queensland
5) UNSW Sydney

There are varying Master’s degrees for those who wish to continue with their academic studies.
1) Traditional Masters- This is the traditional form of Masters which allows students to study the subject of their choice in more details. This generally paves the way to research. 

2) “Change of direction Masters” -This is for students who want to gain information and study a new field which is different from their field of study in graduation.

3) “Professional development Masters”- This allows students to have a more comprehensive understanding of their field through training. For example, a teacher can enhance his/her skills by opting for Education management.

The various postgraduate programmes in Australia can cost the student anywhere between AUD $22,000 and AUD $50,000 per year (USD $15,100-34,305) for overseas students. However, like Universities around the world, different courses have different fees. A MA in Arts and Humanities will cost less while a course in Science will cost more.

Barring academics, students can opt to work in a field of their choice where the employer may keep the employees via Employer Nomination Scheme Visa and then they can stay in Australia for as long as they keep working under the employer. Students can also decide to take a break from academics and work and travel the country. The students can apply for the Tourist visa which allows international students to stay in the country for either three, six or twelve months. Australia has a lot of scenic tourist spots such as the Sydney Opera House, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Blue Mountains National Park, Bondi Beach to name a few which is a pleasure for the senses.

Australia, the largest country in Oceania offers a lot of opportunities for students to pursue post their graduation. It is up to the students to decide the direction they want to take. They can also decide to return back to their own country as a graduate degree from Australia is invaluable in any country and commands respect.

human welfare

With the word welfare, means that prosperity, health or happiness of an individual or group of people. Basically welfare of human beings or society. It is generally regarded as a way of fulfilling and measuring the mini. level of social support who lack in achievement of a standard living set for society. For this, human welfare development is also initiated for the well being of the society. In this they let citizens to have all access to the basic needs like resources, knowledge and amenities. In order to have good lives people should have access to all above so that they would be able to participate in respective communities.

For instance, human welfare should focus on education, income maintenance, health and housing. One should have a good quality of life. That can be done if proper knowledge is being provided to them. Everyone in this world whether it be government or society, both of them have different standard of living which is their quality of life and that to this can be affected by environment, politics, economy, etc. Human welfare is generally an financial aid which is generated from government or any other organizations. This further helps to alleviate poverty from the society and stress from an individual. With this there is a huge responsibility of the government. The government has to keep a check on human welfare which is their most important responsibility. Not only for a particular country but this is for every country. A country is considered to be developed when society is fully developed which also includes the proper welfare of the citizens. A country’s economic progress and quality of life determines the development of that country. As every country has different way and similarities than how they execute human welfare development on their part is what development could be seen as.

The source of income of the government are many. But the most common source of their income is tax. For the funding in human welfare development schemes government use the taxes they had taken from the society only. The source of income also includes charities, developmental assistance funds in some countries, or etc. As the process of development is not so easy similarly human welfare process is not so easy. Government has to keep a full check on development process of human beings. It is necessary for a country to look over their citizens as they are the future of the country and by which a country is considered as developed or developing.

Quality of life is directly linked to human welfare. However, when a person is financial happy then they can give good input for the country. A proper education in this regards is also necessary as nothing can be done without having knowledge. Resources are too needed for a standard living. Hence for a good life one should come above the poverty line and have good standard of living.

KEEP BREATHING

“If you want, You can talk with me……from yesterday all are giving status and send messages to their friends family that if you want to share something, express yourself. I feel so good that my friends and family care for me. I think we should be express our feelings with ourselves and of course with near ones. We all have different lifestyles, different kinds of problems in our life. It’s really a blessing you have someone who really listens to you. But I notice sometimes when I need people to talk, they are not there for some of their issues. I am not complaining about that every person has his or her own Life. So I just want to tell you that when you are feeling alone just spending time with your self, you can do the things you like, cooking, drawing, listening to music, exercise, a little walk, reading books. I really prefer drawing colors really make me happy, don’t be sad, cheer up yourself, tell your self YOU CAN DO

Make yourself happy, Do the Things you like

There is some situation came when we avoid people as we don’t want to, on that we really need to cheer up ourselves and should spend time with our friends and families as sometimes things are getting better just spending time with some special people in our life, life is for express. So don’t miss the opportunity to spend time with your old friends, families .

Little chitchat, hanging out with friends and family really freshen up our mood

If you really feel depressed, you feel something wrong with yourself you feel uneasy, uncomfortable, wrong thoughts coming to your mind please get treatment contact with a psychiatrist, doesn’t avoid it, Mental health really an important thing.

Don’t take pressure too much, life is not only all about success and failure,

From the movie CHICHORE

“Earth,Mars and the Human Connection”

Man and technology have evolved as the industrial revolution started. Which not only served the base for new technology and methods in manufacturing but also motivated people to be a part of it by involving in it as scientists, workers and even the buyers by shifting to urban areas to work for their livelihood. This not only changed the world, but also introduced it to a new phase and living of lifestyle. Today we acknowledge different things in our surroundings, including technology in its manufacturing. This technology has helped humans since ages, and to bring up more comfort to his life. The thought every individual had initially was different difficulties, which made them believe it wasn’t possible, but with the essence of togetherness ,we all made it possible. But the biggest and the massive investment and technological advancement was brought up by the idea to go in the space. The dream which every one had in their childhood, became reality, and we humans have been able to do it. 

Advancement in this science and technology and various other gadgets is not limited, rather growing with new ideas pulling every day. But the next big idea which companies especially like Nasa and Spacex are working on, is to colonise Mars, by 2024. With Believes to make this planet a permanent home to live on. This idea was brought by CEO, founder of spacex Elon musk and has been working with Nasa and it’s team on this project. Humans have sent rovers and satellites to Mars to know various geographical and environmental aspects which have helped to know about it’s terrain and major gases in its atmosphere. 

But the main question which arises in the mind of each individual is “How would this be possible and What would these astronauts be doing at the red planet and would be their strategies”? So for this initially Spacex and Nasa would be sending it’s Big Falcon rockets on an unmanned missions which would be setting up the power sources ( the solar panel) and to mine so as to build their automated Propellent system and plant. The main work for this propellant plant would be to process the excess of carbon dioxide and water found in the surface of Mars to make oxygen and methane which would then be used as a propellant on the return back mission to earth. The sabatier process involved the usage of nickel catalyst to interact with hydrogen and carbon dioxide at high temperatures and pressure which results in the production of water and methane. This would be liquified and used fuel to come back .

But the most important thing to do is to set up their base on Mars which could be similar to the Internal Space station with expansions at each side. Talking about the essentials food and water, these astronauts would be carrying with them almost 2 years’ vault of food vacuumed with them like the one used in the International space Station. Nasa has also been working on the travel mode, which would be a rover-like thing being able to carry around 4-5 people on board even in the baddest and toughest areas if land.. 

“It would be a great adventure to see how humans are able to cross this barrier and prove the power of technologies of different aspects. This journey surely will be  filled with adventures, emotions, series of difficulties but with significant hope and the belief to overcome all of them and achieve success”.

India-Nepal Relation in Deep Maelstrom

Current Scenario 

The Lower House of Nepal’s Parliament passes amendment on a new map. Nepal’s Parliament on Saturday unanimously voted for the second Constitutional Amendment Bill, which guarantees legal status for new political map of the country that includes part of Indian territory in Uttarakhand. Their new map shows places such as Limipiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh, including strategically important Lipulekh pass, which are in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district as part of that country’s territory.

Historical Relation: Treaty of Sugauli

It is a treaty that established the relation about the boundary line of Nepal, was signed on 2 December 1815 and ratified by 4 March 1816 between the East India Company and Raj Guru Gajaraj Mishra with Chandra Shekhar Upadhaya for Nepal following the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16. The treaty represented a Nepali surrender to the British and contained the concession of Nepal’s western territory to the British East India Company. The result of this treaty was that Nepal lost almost one-third of its territories on the east, south and west.

Why are Nepalese not accepting this treaty ?

Nepal is not accepting this treaty because they thought that aim of any treaty is to provide both the sides more or less equal o equitable benefits even of one side get a little more benefits and the other a little less. But Nepal suffered only losses because of the treaty while British India gained a huge territorial advantage. The British got the facilities of the corridor in the concession was made for Nepal.

They also claim that this treaty was not signed by both parties. The draft was prepared by the only East India Company with the signature of Lieutenant Colonel Paris Bradshaw on December 2, 1815. Nepali Majesty signed over the treaty because he threatened by the East India Company.

At present Nepal renounced “all claims to or connection (as in original text with the countries lying to the west of river Kali.” (Art. V.) The land east of the Kali thus remained with Nepal. This claim is reinforced by some old revenue records and gazette notifications.

India’s Stand Over this Issue 

India accepts this position, but its claims arise from the ambiguity in the treaty on the identification of the Kali river and its origin. According to India, the river originates from Lipu Lekh and then merges into other streams and tributaries to become the Mahakali. Nepal contends that Kali originates from Limpyadhura and the stream originating from Lipu Lekh is called Lipu Khola. India commented that we can solve this issue by bilateral talks but Nepal does not seem taking interest in this matter. There may be some doubt, opacity or obscurity but it can be solved through the bilateral discussion. Nepal should come over the table and discuss this issue. 

The British Government

British government ruled over India for almost 200 years. They took many decisions but all the decisions are in controversy in today’s scenario. Either we talk about the decision over Indo-Pak border or Indo-Nepal border. Everywhere, we will get unsatisfied decision or disputed matter where the British government was involved. The main aim of the British government was to rule over the countries for a long time. And they follow the “divide and rule” principle. First Pakistan raised concern over the Kashmir and now Nepal is behaving in the same way. 

Epilogue

The maps issued by the British between 1816 and 1860 may favour the Nepali position. But, the maps issued afterwards endorse India’s position. It is possible that the British administration changes this position through proper surveys or subsequently decided to manipulate this position, to serve its larger strategic and commercial interests in using the Lipu Lekh pass for access to Tibet. Independent India was handed over access to Kalapani and Lipu Lekh by the British.

Blaming India for any encroachment is baseless. It must be borne in mind that much before the British came, not the Gurkha kings annexed Kumanon and Garhwal regions-then surrender under the Sugauli Treaty-Indians were using this route for the pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar. The route has deep spiritual and civilisational significance for India. China accepted Lipu Lekh as one of the cultural and commercial transit points with India under its 1954 Peaceful Co-Existence Agreement. This was reiterated in 2015 in a joint statement during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China.

The first step: Building blocks of life

An atmosphere of happiness gets created when a new life takes shape. When you entered the world, you had no sense about yourself. You may have cried several times to express when you wanted something. Slowly as you grew, you started saying chunks of words, gradually crawling and finally learn to walk. This succession couldn’t be determined and taught in advance. Everything takes time.

Some alphabet are written on the board.
The first letters of the alphabet.

Similarly, when you go to school first time and till graduation and further, that journey is a long way to go. This stage of life is where your proper education starts. Starting from learning alphabets but in different languages as the curriculum is diverse across the world. Every parent wishes that their child gets the best school to seek a good job and secure their future generation in a better way. Do anyone think about being a better human, unknowingly these are gained through what we learn and observe things around us.

The kids are drawing.
The kids are learning to draw objects.

The problem is that everyone in the world doesn’t have the same capabilities like in terms of money, maybe a person is willing to study but don’t have proper financial support, their dream comes to an end. Although there are scholarships, not everyone has adequate knowledge of how to gain, or else those money goes in the wrong hand and that’s where the corruption starts. There are numerous reasons like the person is not willing to study a particular subject. They have to learn it forcefully, leading to depression, bad academic results, lack confidence, low self-esteem, and much more. This situation happens because, in some countries, they follow an old education policy, rarely updated, and there is no freedom to choose subjects electively. Not everyone likes to become a doctor or an engineer in the future. One may wish for something that the person likes, but the society fears by conveying that the particular field has no scope in the future.

Bookshelves in a library.
A library

There are many more problems related to education, like in schools, there is not even a proper student to teacher ratio maintained, no adequate infrastructure due to improper funding. No digitalization due to which the students rely on the book knowledge and ends up there. There are public libraries that do offer books and also allow them to access the internet, but this model is not visible everywhere. In this patriarchal society, not only these but also problems are there with the mentality of their parents. Like where they think a girl shouldn’t pursue higher education as they will have to work one day at someone else’s houses or don’t allow their children to study as they are their sole supporters. No one else is there to look after them.

An open corridor.
A doorway in a school

Remote education and distant learning may solve these problems, but we need to find these group of people who actually require help and then voluntarily study in the future. There are children in rural areas who can’t access these facilities. We need to reach and also improvise our current education curriculum so that the employment rate decrease and one can stand on itself and employ others for their work.

“They Are Lucky Who Gets Their work”

The man is work oriented from origins from the roots of man evolution it is work which defines mankind makes him disparate from other species work is a sign of efficiency which shows humans endeavour and enthusiasm and a basic tool to survive in todays modern world makes him impeccable. work is a sign of pleasure, wisdom, happiness, and passion, for many it is a fun to have many hours in laborateries with instruements, chemicals, and tools .for many it is inner satisfaction to practice or to workout without being getting stop in nets or in playgrounds. someone enjoyed working hours on desktops online portals etc. but contrary to it, for someone working long hours is getting tedious, jejune, mundane, and dullsville or work might suit him or not hence the man who is trying to do work for which he is unfitted feels repressed gets totally bewilder or perplexed. working half heartedly without enthusiasm or keen interest produce drudgery outcomes which carried the man to stage where he hates his work its nonetheless melancholy ,gloom, despondency and it all brings unhapiness and sorrow creates a vicious circle of Misfit : inefficient : unhappy : more inefficient which might lead to some serious troubles like depression, anxiety, fear, phobia , crime and a kind of disease is generated which degrade person’s mental and physical health make him more worried and sick makes him hateful towards his work brings destructive ideas thoughts and feelings rather than constructive ideas therefore there is something wrong something abnormal happened. hence when question of choosing work arouse or invoked it is rare a man gets work what suits him the most more than 90 percent entered in a choice of work or profession which is totally unsuited for them that does not matches their domain, which is the primary reason for many sufferings choice one of the greatest handicaps of all classes today is that more than 80 percent of people had introduced to a work blindly irrespective of their interest liking or fitness or opportunities. this is mostly happened when a man wants ultimate leisure and it is well said “the almost universal cry for leisure is due to the almost universal unfitness of men and women for their task”. A wise man knows there is no actual pleasure feeling of inner satisfaction or happiness in leisure. happiness arouse when a man completely lost himself in the work without Repercussions of health time and other factors without caring for anything except his work completely lost in deep oceans swinging within it with complete enthusiasm energy and devotion without getting exhausted. so keeping conscious and cognitive abilities at par related to knowledge of self knowledge of others and knowledge of work and suitable combination of these factors brings out numerous possibilities of happiness. choice of work is an issue of utmost importance and great concern faulty choice consumes energy consumes times and leads to a situation of collapse where one feels Paralysed. people with right choice and right work are lucky and rare but they enjoyed various colours of work enjoying it with ease deeply entrenched within work.