Impact of Nationwide Lockdown on Students of Higher Education

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the Union Government of India announced nationwide lockdown. As the nationwide lockdown was implemented in India from 25th of March 2020, almost every sector of the Indian economy came to a halt. Along these circumstances, all kinds of educational institutions were also shut down. Evidently, and as anticipated, the students were among those groups that suffered the most during nationwide lockdown. Consequently, learning status of the students was hard-hit. The present study is an attempt to measure the impact of nationwide lockdown on the learning status of the students who were pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Jammu at the time of announcement of nationwide lockdown. In order to collect data for the present study, an online questionnaire was developed using the Google Forms platform and link of the questionnaire was provided to 300 students who were pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Jammu at that time. The responses from the students were received between 20th of August 2020 and 26th of August 2020. The data were then tabulated and analysed. It was observed that a large proportion of the respondents could only complete half of their syllabus (or even less) through online learning mode during nationwide lockdown, and that they had to face a variety of problems, such as anxiety, poor physical heath, poor internet connectivity, etc. It is suggested that the governments and the concerned authorities must aim to make policies to establish a resilient educational structure that is able to tackle situations like the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown, so that the young mind’ productivity is not compromised.

A Letter to Columbus: The Contemporary Piracy of the Americas

I walked into the Seville Cathedral, in 1998, and, unprepared, found myself face-to-face with Cristoforo Colombo’s tomb. History classes had taught me he had “discovered” the Americas. My young mind could not make sense of how an European explorer could “discover” lands already home to millions of fellow humans. Even a young mind could grasp the implications in the narrative of “discovery” of the Americas: Europeans were superior to Indigenous peoples. After decades of curiosity and formal education, I finally had a chance to say a few words to Colombo’s remains in person. Here is my letter to him.

A Bloodthirsty World

James Harrison may not be a household name, but his actions have saved over 2 million lives. (“Man With The Golden Arm” Donates Blood That Has Saved 2 Million Babies, 2015). How exactly did Harrison save over 2 million lives? He donated blood 1,173 times throughout his life (James Harrison, 2020). Learning about Harrison’s contribution inspired me to hold a blood drive when I was in 5th grade, but my young mind still had many questions about the blood journey from donor to recipient. When I was finally old enough to tour the San Diego Blood Bank, I got a glimpse of that process – and learned just how much of a need there is for increased blood donations and education.

Lockdown: A Focus on Emotions & Coping in Adolescents

Objective: The COVID lockdown has been the most significant life-changing experience this year. The sudden implementation of measures such as social distancing, closure of institutions, and restriction of movement may have affected the psychological well-being of adolescents. Keeping this in mind the present exploratory pilot study is an attempt to study and determine the psychological impact on adolescents during the lockdown. Material and Method: Data was collected from a sample of 461 adolescent respondents aged 14 to 20 years through an online survey Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation in SPSS version 24 Results: The majority of the study population (85.7%) reported happiness or a relaxed state of mind, and the next common emotion was boredom. Amongst the 69% of participants also conveyed that stressful/negative thoughts, lack of direct contact with friends were the predominant stressor. Coping behaviors highlighted were spending time with family (93.6%), communicating with friends (96.1%), engaging in hobbies (88.7%), talking to relatives (79.6%), studying (72.7%), and exercising (70.9%). In contrast, the majority (73.3%) indulged in excessive sleep or increased usage of social media platforms or apps. Conclusion: This study is the only survey to document adolescents’ mental health in India during the Covid-19 lockdown. The study highlights that happiness and boredom reflected the young mind of these adolescents, and significantly only one third reported any physical or mental health impact with the lockdown.

Melam Group: Bootstrapped Entrepreneurship

This is a story of Melam Group of Companies, a vivid example of Business Bootstrapping theory. A personal interview with the founder, Mr Kurian John Melamparambil (Padma Shri awardee) revealed how the Melam Group started a business with zero or limited resources. This case is to enlighten the young mind that it is not always huge capital/funding/venture capital/angel investing that builds a successful business. It is the determination and passion for the idea than the money that propels a business to success.

In Search of the Authorial Self

Branwell Bronte’s childhood is a remarkable story of imaginative excess and misdirected creativity. His early experiments with miniature magazines and miniscule script suggest the limited world of the child, yet the paracosmic world he and his sisters created is one of vast proportion, with grandiose ideas that both empower and hinder the development of the young writer. Only a year younger than his sister Charlotte, Branwell was both partner and often leader in the creation of events in the prolific writing project associated with their invented world of Glass Town and Angria. This creative enterprise facilitated Branwell’s experimentation as editor, journalist, historian, poet and novelist, but it also enabled him to mask in bravado and hyperbole (and to avoid addressing) his lack of confidence and helped to legitimise, to himself at least, a false view of his position in the world. This article finds an explanation for Branwell’s eccentric behaviour and increasing inability to distinguish himself from his creation, Northangerland, in a consideration of the paracosm and, in particular, of the developmental problems associated with the idea of “being in a world of one’s own” that can develop from long involvement in an imaginative world (Cohen and MacKeith 1). Evidence suggests that Branwell found it hard to cope with ordinary life and the expectations placed upon him as an only boy. Nevertheless, Branwell’s early magazines, poetry and histories also suggest a playful, agile young mind stimulated by stories he has read, by classical legends of discovery, by war and politics, by the reading of newspapers and magazines—a mind keen to engage with the world despite his youth. Thus Glass Town and Angria also allowed Branwell to exercise power and channel his creative agency.

The Scholarly Evaluation of Ahadi’th Prescribed for Secondary School Certificate Part-I

Islamic Studies is included as a compulsory subject in the Syllabi taught in Schools, Colleges and Universities of Pakistan. While preparing the prescribed courses intended for Islamic Studies (compulsory) special emphasis is placed on focusing the entire religion i.e Beliefs ,Worship, Ethics etc in the course. Translation and Tafsir of Qur’inic verses and Hadi’th is also made part of the curriculam. Along with the moderen education a student can also be informed about Islam , so that a young generation with a sound knowledge on all lines emerges from educational institutions to meet the future challenges. To achieve this goal great attention is paid to the preperation of the curricula by using experties in the field, but even then errors do ocure in the form of incorrect wording of the Ahadiths and inclusion of less authentic sayings of the holy prophet (SAW) which amounts to commiting a great sin by misguieding the youth regarding the factual position of the divine knowledge thus leaving the mind ill informed about their religion which might prove disastreous for the society in future as the young mind carries with him whatever he learns at school and his formative years. There is a great demand for judging the validity of the less authentic sayings of the holy prophet (SAW) and the need for passing them through research filters is being felt in the educational circles. The article under consideration here aims at probing into the details of the origin of the Ahadiths prescribed for the1st part of the Secondary School Certificate Course. Keywords: Ahadi’th, Text Book, Matric, Mustadrak, Ibn e Maja