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COVID-19 struck us all with little warning.

Most of our educational institutions remained shut down for prolonged period. It made our Educators turn to Zoom, Google Meet like video-conferencing applications to train students online.

But, none of those video-conferencing tools were originally designed for formal education. In other words, they are all for general virtual meetings, in their original forms. They do lack one or more of the marked features of Student-Teacher communication in the learning-teaching cycle.

Like?

• proper interactivity between teacher & students in a higher-sized class.
• peer-interaction among students that’s a core feature of education.
• engagement issues where a teacher may not even know that her/his students are distracted.
• reduced scope for group activities, participation & collaboration.
• evaluation of students.
• proper attendance-marking.

So, do we have better tools now?

Just like how necessity is the mother of invention, new requirements have always driven Technology. In simpler words, Yes!

Here’s a list of 4 new tools, conceived and implemented exclusively for online classes:

Class Technologies is a simple solution built on top of Zoom. It is ideal for school-level online classes.

Engageli platform is suitable for higher education, with advanced features for group discussions, collaboration and higher engagement.

Top Hat specializes in asynchronous content delivery, targeting international students across time zones.

InSpace, staying true to its name, allows movement in the virtual class room, along with a few other high-tech VR features like proximity-based audio.

That’s it?

Well, we all know that online classes are here to stay! There’s a lot of tech players in this domain, offering richer features and applications in the immediate feature. So, stay tuned because this field is certain to take revolutionary changes.

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“Dad, I’m bored! How long will I have to stay indoors?!”

“The pandemic days seem to have lowered my daughter’s interest in academics! How can I rekindle it?“

“When will my School reopen? When will they take us on the NASA trip that they promised last year?“

COVID-19 has had its toll on each one of us. Some way or the other.

• School Education is one of the most affected societal aspects because of the global pandemic. Our kids have missed their “second homes” for almost an year now!
• Kids of ages 7 to 13, especially, cannot be kept away from Schools or Educational Activities for longer durations because of their marked sensitivities. You have already introduced them to formal education (ages 7 & 8), taken them along the path of school education for a few years (ages 9 to 11), and prepared them for high-schooling (ages 12 & 13). A longer loss of “touch”, or “interest”, or “caring”, may seriously affect their ability to learn. The damage can vary kid to kid.

Introducing the Virtual Camp at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) @ NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), USA!

• What can be more invigorating and exciting than a program from NASA, one of the most prestigious organizations of the world, during these troubled times?
• “Study Tour to NASA” has always been one of the most valued educational programs for School Students all over the world. With COVID-19‘s break-out in the early months of 2020, the program got suspended for obvious reasons. As the pandemic continued to keep the world locked-down, NASA designed the Virtual Camp Program @ KSC, with its first batch attending the Camp in July 2020. With the Virtual Camp Program, NASA resumed its journey to empower every young mind with knowledge of Space, and more importantly, it demonstrated man’s unwillingness to bow down before disasters!
• The whole program is online. Your kids would never miss the comfort or safety of their own homes!

So, what’s this Virtual Camp at Kennedy Space Center?

It’s an online program, offered for three or five consecutive days. There would be three sessions of three hours each for the three-days program (option 1), or five sessions of 60-80 minutes each for the five-days program (option 2). Each session would be loaded with highly-engaging fun activities centered on NASA-based Science & Engineering, focusing STEM learning.
(STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics)

You can learn more about this program from KSC’s official website.

Miracle Learning has associated with KSC to arrange this Program for KSA Students!

If you are in Saudi Arabia, participating in this exciting program is very easy. Please go through the details, including our Program brochure (which has the day-wise program schedule) on our website. Register your kid(s) with us for the program, and we will do the best possible launch of this wonderful program!

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Firstly, let’s identify every Quality that a Student would normally seek in a foreign country before it can become his/her first choice for international higher education. Basics first, right?

Here they go, in the no-compromise to the slightly-negotiable order:

• World-class Education that awards Globally-recognized Qualifications / Certifications.
• Wide Choice of educational programs, institutions, with sufficient permutations & combinations.
• Language. The Student must find it not very difficult to converse with the local society and his/her classmates from other countries. Sign language can be tough, right?!
• Affordability. The whole program ought not cost the Student a fortune.
• Safety. The foreign country must make the Student feel safe. Physically safe. Emotionally safe.
• Respect & Equality. There must not be any discrimination based on the Student’s race, religion, color of skin, or his/her pot belly.
• Friendly Government & Society.
• Job Opportunities. Students must be able to take up part-time jobs during their academic years. They must find good placement opportunities once they finish their courses.
• Decent Scholarships. That can take some financial load off the Student’s parents or sponsors.
• Good Climate. Healthy ecosystem.
• Low or medium cost of living.
• Good Healthcare.
• Freedom. To do every legitimate activity with no fear whatsoever.
• Technologically advanced. Highly reliable communication facilities. Mom and Dad back home are not to be missed!
• Immigration Possibilities. If the country gives preference to international students who wish to emigrate there, better.
• Lively campus life. The more outgoing, happening, enthusiastic, vibrant and multicultural the campus, the better.
• Easy Student Visa process & formalities.
• Beautiful nature. Who doesn’t like to live in a place that has the best of nature!

Well, a few of the Qualities above would need further break-up and clarity.

Like?

Like the very first one – “World-class Education”. It means the best of infrastructure, research facilities, technology, faculty, practical applications or hands-on experience, cross-disciplinary studies, development of soft skills (High order Thinking Skills – HoTS), physical education etc.

Like the “friendly government & society” quality. The foreign student must feel welcome, wanted, regarded and cared for.

Like “Language”. English is everywhere in Canada.

You mentioned Canada. Are you suggesting that Canada satisfies all of the above requirements? Does it have all these qualities?

Yes!
From the mandatory qualities to the desirable qualities identified above, Canada shows consistent interest & commitment to satisfy each one of them. Recently, Canada’s International Education Strategy announced its decision to double the number of full-time international students to 450,000 by 2022. The Canadian Council of Ministers of Education plans to attract more international students through a number of strategies that includes enhanced employment & immigration programs.

It’s also worth mentioning that Canada is ranked 4th in the world for scientific research. Canadian universities offer more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. There are more than 100 universities, 200 colleges & renowned institutes in Canada.

To know more about Canada’s Study-Abroad programs, offers and facilities from their Govt’s official website, click here. You can go directly to their “Why Canada” page as well.

Good! But what about the climate over there? The winter season in Canada can be rather harsh, right?

It can be, if you refuse to take guard, or ignore the precautionary measures that’s recommended by the local healthcare authority.
On another note, the winter season opens up amazing adventure sports like Skiing, Ice-skating etc that can be so endearing to the young & vibrant Student community! International Students can have such wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience during the winter season!

Click here to know why Canada is the hottest destination for Winter Sports.

Summary

There may exist other countries that offer better options / facilities for a selected few of the qualities that we have identified here. But, as a country that satisfies all of them to a high degree of competence, Canada stands tall in the arena of international education.

Study Abroad in Canada

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One of the most important activities a student can do is drawing. Not only does it provide the framework for other artistic practices, such as painting, sculpture and printmaking, but it also provides a clear connection to reading, writing and mathematics in particular. Its the single most open form of art available. All you need (to begin with), is a pencil and a sheet of paper.

Talking of pencil and a sheet of paper, if you scroll down, your only view would be the colorful arts done by a small mind or to be more specific, a small mind with huge imaginations.

SHRUTHI JOE
Grade 5
St. Joseph High School, Pune

The lady of Music

The divine meet

The merry blue Environment

The symbol of imagination while sleeping

If this didn’t rejuvenate you, Your on the wrong planet… mundane!

Good work, young lady!
Keep drawing, keep improving, keep growing!

Home

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The duty of parents to “Know Your Child First” is critical in today’s Information Age like never before. The numerous options as well as challenges that this age presents in the fields of higher education, career opportunities, and professional & personal lives is its main reason.

Knowing your child closer enough to guide him/her through the labyrinth of today’s fierce & complex world, is the first & foremost responsibility of parents.

The book “Know Your Child First” by the enthusiastic Educator Dr. K.R. Jayachandran from Saudi Arabia is highly valued for the information, advices and guidelines that it is packed with. It not only addresses parents, but also teachers, counsellors, social workers and everyone who deals with children at their tender developmental ages. The book empowers its reader to identify kids’ common learning problems. It arms the reader with tricks and strategies to help their kids succeed in Education and their social lives.

The book was officially released on 20 Nov 2020 by H.E. Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, the Ambassador of India to KSA.

The 274-pages book covers all important aspects related to the education of children, especially of those children with special needs. The language used is lucid and unambiguous.

Miracle Learning Solutions strongly recommends Dr. K.R. Jayachandran‘s book “Know Your Child First” to all our friends, partners, clients, social media associates and well-wishers.

We wish Dr. K.R. Jayachandran all the best for his future endeavors!

You can buy the book online by visiting this link.

Miracle Learning Solutions’ special interest in the Book:

As a facilitator of quality educational services, Miracle Learning Solutions has always stressed the need for knowing our children first before choosing their higher education and career paths. Our Psychometric tests, which is the prelude to our Career Guidance and other educational services that includes our “study abroad” programs, is precisely intended for this purpose.

In order to achieve the best results from this “Know Your Child First” exercise, we must begin at a very early stage, like from grade 3. Miracle Learning has partnered with Singapore MathGym for their world-famous Flintelligence (Fluid Intelligence) program that’s intended for students between grades 3 and 8. This program begins with the assessment of your child’s FIQ first (Fluid Intelligence Quotient). It then takes the child through very systematic training on critical thinking, analytical thinking, lateral thinking, logical thinking, mathematical reasoning, visual reasoning, decision making, speed math etc.

Your child can take this FiQ assessment test for free.

You must use the access code FIQ201 while filling up the form, to avail this offer for free.

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Say Cheese!… cause here’s an ambitious photographer who loves to snap what he sees. In fact, He defines nature photography through his clicks and shares it to the world. He indeed lives and adores the nature and his mind works like the midnight elves in duty. Nevertheless every picture of his has a beauty of its own, I mean just look at the picture above, it’s one of the best from the stack.

SATHWIK SUNIL
Grade 10
Jnanodaya Bethany English High School, Nellyady, Mangalore

The Cock and it’s Little Explorer

The nature’s Sky

A Croton Plant in Sathwik’s Front yard

A small stream flowing down.

The continuation of the flow

A part of the Puthige River running across Sathwik’s farmhouse

Good work, Young Man!
Keep shooting, keep improving, keep growing!

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The foremost objective of NEP 2020‘s Higher Education (HE) policies is to fix the fragmentation in higher educational ecosystem. In order to achieve this objective, the policy makers propose to transform all HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) into large multidisciplinary universities, colleges and HEI clusters / Knowledge Hubs. Each of these multidisciplinary formations will grow to have 3,000 or more students over a period of time.

These Large Higher Education Institutes will:

• increase resource efficiency – both material and human
• build vibrant communities of scholars and peers
• break down harmful silos
• develop active research communities across disciplines including cross-disciplinary research
• enable students to become well-rounded across disciplines including artistic, creative, and analytic subjects as well as sports

The “Restructuring and Consolidation” policy-initiatives require every HEI to become one of the following three:

1. Research-intensive University
2. Teaching-intensive University
3. Autonomous degree-granting College (AC)

Autonomous degree-granting College (AC) will grant undergraduate degrees, and is primarily focused on undergraduate teaching.

HEIs will have the autonomy and freedom to move gradually from one category to another.

The new set of HE policies give enhanced focus and attention to Research and community engagement, along with high quality teaching and multidisciplinary learning. Every HEI will support other HEIs in their development, contribute to various fields of practice including faculty training for the higher education system, and also render support to school education.

Following are a few policy decisions towards Institutional Consolidation in Higher Education:

• Single-stream HEIs & ‘affiliated colleges’ will be phased out over time.
• The present complex nomenclature of HEIs such as ‘deemed to be university’, ‘affiliating university’, ‘affiliating technical university’, ‘unitary university’ will be replaced by ‘university’.
• Every existing college would develop into either an Autonomous degree-granting College (AC), or a constituent college of a multidisciplinary University.
• Institutions will have the option to run Open Distance Learning (ODL) and online programs in order to enhance their offerings, improve access, increase GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio), and provide opportunities for lifelong learning.

Conclusion:

Every Educational System tends to become fragmented over a period of time. In order to fix this issue, periodical intervention and correction is required. The System in question must also be given a revised sense of purpose, unity and direction during this intervention. NEP 2020’s policies on Higher Education will revamp India’s Higher Education System.

Note: We recommend that you check our previous blogs on NEP 2020. You may use the following links:

Introduction & Overview of School Education Policies
Student-centric Policies in School Education
Teacher-centric Policies in School Education
Policies on School Infrastructure
Policies on Learning Environment in Schools
NEP 2020: Introduction to Higher Education

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Abstract and Deep Sense arts…. big name huh! but the content’s even more bigger. Teens these days are so productive that I wonder am barren. To be honest, I don’t know how they manage to do such a good job every single time. Head down to these paintings and you will see it for yourself. These are some abstract and deep sense arts by Shreya.

SHREYA JOE
Grade 12
Loyola Junior College, Pashan, Pune

Friends forever

This painting here falls into sensational category, it says everything about Friendship, if I had to describe it; In this colorful world lies happiness and love, if there wasn’t a thing called a friend, then that would be straight boring life. The love between a friend is forever. The infinity symbol shows it all. If this doesn’t make you happy then I don’t know what will.

Geometric abstract art

This here is an abstract art, the painting itself says it’s name. I love this type of art, simply because its colorful, unexplainable and just abstract…

There are some more of em’ down the page. Describing them all would be a very tough job.

Colourful nature leaf art

The night forest and the blue sky.

The Zodiac Sign Libra holding the Balance.

Good work, young lady!
Keep drawing, keep improving, keep growing!

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Firstly, NEP 2020 establishes a holistic education philosophy at the root level of India’s Educational System through a 5+3+3+4 Schooling structure. Then, more importantly, it approaches the HE (Higher Education) System with a higher degree of farsightedness and thoroughness.

Ref: The 66-paged PDF document, titled “National Education Policy 2020 – Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India“, available on MHRD’s website.

Note: We recommend that you check our previous blogs on NEP 2020, which covers the 5+3+3+4 Schooling structure adequately. You may use the following links:

Introduction & Overview of School Education Policies
Student-centric Policies in School Education
Teacher-centric Policies in School Education
Policies on School Infrastructure
Policies on Learning Environment in Schools

Vision:

Develop India as envisioned in its Constitution – a democratic, just, socially-conscious, cultured and humane nation upholding liberty, equality, fraternity and justice for all.

Mission:

Create good, thoughtful, well-rounded and creative individuals through developing character, ethical and Constitutional values, intellectual curiosity, scientific temper, creativity, spirit of service and 21st century capabilities across a range of disciplines including sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, languages, as well as professional, technical and vocational subjects.

Core observations of NEP 2020 regarding Higher Education:

• The purpose of quality HE is much more than the creation of greater opportunities for individual employment (or simply, jobs).
• HE represents the key to more vibrant, socially engaged, cooperative communities and a happier, cohesive, cultured, productive, innovative, progressive and prosperous nation.
• HE must prepare students for more meaningful and satisfying lives. It must also enable economic independence.

Major issues faced by the existing Higher Education System:

• A severely fragmented ecosystem.
• Inadequate emphasis on the development of cognitive skills & learning outcomes.
• Rigid separation of disciplines, with early specialization and streaming of students into narrow areas of study.
• Limited access, particularly in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, with few HEIs that teach in local languages.
• Limited teacher and institutional autonomy.
• Inadequate mechanisms for merit-based career management and progression of faculty & institutional leaders.
• Lesser emphasis on research at most universities and colleges, and lack of competitive peer-reviewed research funding across disciplines.
• Suboptimal governance and leadership.
• An ineffective regulatory system.
• Large affiliating universities resulting in low standards of undergraduate education.

NEP 2020 proposes the following changes to handle the issues identified above:

• Move towards a HE system consisting of large, multidisciplinary universities and colleges.
• Shift to a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education.
• Bring in faculty and institutional autonomy.
• Revamp curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and student support for enhanced student experience.
• Reaffirm the integrity of faculty and institutional leadership positions through merit appointments and career progression based on teaching, research and service.
• Establish a National Research Foundation to fund outstanding peer-reviewed research, and to actively seed research in universities and colleges.
• Govern HEIs through highly-qualified independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy.
• Implement “light but tight” regulation by a single regulator for higher education.
• Effect increased access, equity, and inclusion through a range of measures, including greater opportunities for outstanding public education:
  – scholarships by private/philanthropic universities for disadvantaged and underprivileged students.
  – online education, and Open Distance Learning (ODL).
  – all infrastructure and learning materials to be accessible and available to learners with disabilities.

NEP 2020 elaborates its policies on HE under the following 11 heads:

1. Quality Universities and Colleges.
2. Institutional Restructuring and Consolidation.
3. Towards a More Holistic and Multidisciplinary Education.
4. Optimal Learning Environments and Support for Students.
5. Motivated, Energized and Capable Faculty.
6. Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education.
7. Teacher Education.
8. Reimagining Vocational Education.
9. Catalyzing Quality Academic Research in All Fields through a new National Research Foundation.
10. Transforming the Regulatory System of Higher Education.
11. Effective Governance and Leadership for HE Institutions (HEIs).

We’ll explore the above topics adequately in separate/dedicated blogs. Please follow us on Social Media so that you’ll be notified when we publish blogs.

Miracle Learning Solutions Facebook Page
Miracle Learning Solutions LinkedIn Page

Timelines for Higher Education:

By 2025:

• At least 50% of India’s Students to have exposure to vocational education, through the School and HE systems.

By 2030:

• All Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to become multidisciplinary, positioned well to gradually increase student strength to the desired levels of one-thousand and above.
• There must be at least one large multidisciplinary HEI in or near every district of the country.
• Only educationally-sound, multidisciplinary, and integrated teacher education programs shall be in force.
• All stand-alone TEIs (Teacher Education Institutions) will be required to convert to multidisciplinary institutions. If they are dysfunctional, they may be shut down.
• The 4-year integrated B.Ed. offered by multidisciplinary HEIs to become the basic qualification for school teachers.

By 2035:

• The system of ‘affiliated colleges’ to be gradually phased out through a system of graded autonomy.
• All HEIs in India to become independent self-governing institutions, pursuing innovation and excellence, through graded accreditation and autonomy.
• All HEIs to be incentivized, supported and mentored, and must become autonomous with an empowered BoG (Board of Governors).

By 2040:

• All Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that are already multidisciplinary institutions by 2030 to have larger student enrolments preferably in the thousands.

Summary:

NEP 2020 makes it very clear that the purpose of the country’s Higher Education system is not merely to prepare its youth for jobs. While enabling the youth with all necessary skills for their employment in various roles, the HE system must ensure that they become good & productive Citizens of the country, and are happy & satisfied with both their individual and collective lives.

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