Schools across the globe shut doors in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last year, students, teachers and parents have been forced to adapt to the “new normal”. What are the challenges of online learning? Is it all doom and gloom or can these challenges be turned into opportunities? Let's hear what students and faculty members from Mumbai's Mount Litera School International have to say.

Online Education: Challenges and Opportunities

A Malaysian teenager is facing major backlash for speaking out against the passivity shown towards rape culture in the country’s schools. Ain took to TikTok to point to excesses teachers take with words, especially while referring to traumatic crimes like rape.

Since then, the 17-year-old Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam has received support from many on social media, while also receiving a lot of backlash for speaking out against the same.

Insensitivity a 'joke'?

The teacher in question&nbsp;was referring to protections offered in the country against rape. While doing so, the teacher reportedly said the following to students - “So if you want to rape anyone, rape someone above 18”.&nbsp;

Ain raised the issue with another teacher, but was chided for being “emotional and sensitive”, she revealed to BBC. Even though she has received immense support on social media since speaking out, the general backlash and the attitude of others speaks&nbsp;of how such heinous crimes are infantilised as “jokes”.

The teenager’s ferocious words have struck a chord with a few. In fact, now Malaysians are asking for schools to become safer for boys and girls alike. Many have written songs about the same, asking the authorities to take necessary steps to spread awareness about the severity of a crime like rape.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/uk-woman-accuses-spy-of-rape-by-tricking-her-into-relationship-384233" hreflang="en">UK: Woman accuses spy of rape by tricking her into relationship</a>

Since in spoke out, Malaysian kids erupted on social media - sharing similar instances they faced in their educational institutions. Many also reported incidents of harassment and abuse at the hands of teachers who&nbsp;allegedly do nothing to break the cycle.&nbsp;

'We want to educate'

“We want to educate. We want to change”, Ain told BBC.&nbsp;

But soon after her post on social media, many began to criticise her for taking a joke too seriously. Some comments went as far as urging her to “cover” herself to avoid being raped.&nbsp;

Ain’s father spoke out in her support during a chat with BBC, saying that this incident serves as “proof that our culture, our society… we need to rectify this and come out from that kind of way of thinking”.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/break-their-lineage-break-their-roots-report-details-chinese-authorities-torture-rape-of-uighur-muslims-378793" hreflang="en">'Break their lineage, break their roots': Report details Chinese authorities’ torture, rape of Uighur Muslims</a>

This doesn’t end here. Turns out, the family took the matter to the police.

Local outlet MalaysiaKini reported that the deputy inspector-general of police dismissed the claims as “maybe a joke”.

According to Malaysia’s Ministry of Education, the teacher who made the “joke” has been transferred while the matter is being investigated.

&nbsp;

A Malaysian teenager is facing major backlash for speaking out against the passivity shown towards rape culture in the country’s schools. Ain took to TikTok to point to excesses teachers take with words, especially while referring to traumatic crimes like rape.

A Malaysian teenager is facing major backlash for speaking out against the passivity shown towards rape culture in the country’s schools. Ain took to TikTok to point to excesses teachers take with words, especially while referring to traumatic crimes like rape. Since then, the 17-year-old Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam has received support from many on social media, while also receiving a lot of backlash for speaking out against the same. Insensitivity a 'joke'? The teacher in question was referring to protections offered in the country against rape. While doing so, the teacher reportedly said the following to students - “So if you want to rape anyone, rape someone above 18”. Ain raised the issue with another teacher, but was chided for being “emotional and sensitive”, she revealed to BBC. Even though she has received immense support on social media since speaking out, the general backlash and the attitude of others speaks of how such heinous crimes are infantilised as “jokes”. The teenager’s ferocious words have struck a chord with a few. In fact, now Malaysians are asking for schools to become safer for boys and girls alike. Many have written songs about the same, asking the authorities to take necessary steps to spread awareness about the severity of a crime like rape. Also read: UK: Woman accuses spy of rape by tricking her into relationship Since in spoke out, Malaysian kids erupted on social media - sharing similar instances they faced in their educational institutions. Many also reported incidents of harassment and abuse at the hands of teachers who allegedly do nothing to break the cycle. 'We want to educate' “We want to educate. We want to change”, Ain told BBC. But soon after her post on social media, many began to criticise her for taking a joke too seriously. Some comments went as far as urging her to “cover” herself to avoid being raped. Ain’s father spoke out in her support during a chat with BBC, saying that this incident serves as “proof that our culture, our society… we need to rectify this and come out from that kind of way of thinking”. Also read: 'Break their lineage, break their roots': Report details Chinese authorities’ torture, rape of Uighur Muslims This doesn’t end here. Turns out, the family took the matter to the police. Local outlet MalaysiaKini reported that the deputy inspector-general of police dismissed the claims as “maybe a joke”. According to Malaysia’s Ministry of Education, the teacher who made the “joke” has been transferred while the matter is being investigated.

How a Malaysian teenager's fight against rape culture in schools caused national backlash

In a camp for Syrian refugees in east&nbsp;Lebanon, Mohammad and his three sisters fear they will be out of&nbsp;school&nbsp;for a third consecutive year because remote learning is out of reach.

"Look at my phone. How do you expect my son to&nbsp;study&nbsp;on it?" asked his father Abdel Nasser, sitting cross-legged inside the family's tent in the Bekaa Valley.

Also read-&nbsp;<a href="China bars foreign curriculum, ownership in some private schools">China bars foreign curriculum, ownership in some private schools</a>

"The screen is cracked... and I have no internet."

Eleven-year-old Mohammad and his siblings are among tens of thousands of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian children who have been left for months without schooling due to coronavirus restrictions.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="US schools fight to keep students amid fear of dropout surge due to Covid">US schools fight to keep students amid fear of dropout surge&nbsp;due to Covid</a>

An accelerating economic&nbsp;crisis&nbsp;means they may never return to&nbsp;school&nbsp;in what rights groups are calling an 'education catastrophe', especially affecting refugees who already struggled to access learning before the pandemic.

"We can't afford to buy a cellphone for everyone. We must first be able to feed our children," said their mother Shamaa.

Mohammad arrived in&nbsp;Lebanon&nbsp;from Syria in 2012 -- a year into an ongoing conflict that has killed 388,000 people and displaced millions.

But he wasn't enrolled in&nbsp;school&nbsp;until 2019 because&nbsp;Lebanon's public&nbsp;school&nbsp;system didn't open its doors to Syrian refugees until 2013, and even then only to a limited number.&nbsp;

Mohammad's first&nbsp;school&nbsp;year coincided with the Covid pandemic, which brought all classes to a halt by the second term.&nbsp;

"He doesn't even know how to multiply one by one," his father said.

Mohammad's older sisters Hind, Sarah and Amal, aged 12 to 14, had already been in&nbsp;school&nbsp;for four years when the education ministry in March 2020 said it was shifting to online learning.&nbsp;

"I was happy before," 14-year-old Amal said, sobbing. "I was studying Arabic, English, science and geography.

"But now my parents can't afford to give me an online education."

More than 1.2 million children in&nbsp;Lebanon&nbsp;have been out of&nbsp;school&nbsp;since the country's coronavirus outbreak began last year, the UK-based charity Save the Children says.

It warned last month that a large number of children may never get back into a classroom, either because they have already missed so much&nbsp;school&nbsp;or because their families can't afford to enrol them.

"Education for thousands of children in&nbsp;Lebanon&nbsp;is hanging by a thread," it said.

Lebanon's economic&nbsp;crisis&nbsp;is at its worst since the 1975-1990 civil war, with more than half the local population now living in poverty.

Poverty rates are even higher among Syrians, with 90 per cent of families barely able to survive.&nbsp;

Lisa Abou Khaled of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) says this is impacting education.

"Some Syrian children have had to give up their studies to work and help their families," she told AFP.

Citing data from&nbsp;Lebanon's education ministry, she said 25,000 Syrian students should have re-enrolled or entered grade one in 2020-2021 but did not.&nbsp;

"We think the real number is higher than that," she added, estimating that more than half of Syrian&nbsp;school-aged children were currently out of the classroom.&nbsp;

The education catastrophe is also real for the tens of thousands of Lebanese who have lost jobs or seen their income slashed since the economic&nbsp;crisis&nbsp;accelerated in 2019.&nbsp;

Inside a cramped apartment in the eastern Beirut suburb of Burj Hammoud, 11-year-old Pamela points to a keyboard -- the only thing that remains from a desktop computer destroyed during last summer's huge Beirut port explosion.

The August 4 blast, which killed more than 200 people and destroyed swaths of the capital, hit Pamela's home and piled new misery on a family already brought to its knees by the financial downturn.&nbsp;

The family couldn't afford to buy a replacement as it had become far too expensive due to the rapid devaluation of the Lebanese pound.&nbsp;

"So I started to follow lessons on my cellphone," Pamela said.&nbsp;

As she has impaired vision, a small screen was already a nuisance.

But then power outages lasting up to 18 hours a day also left her struggling to keep her phone alive and connected to the internet.

She decided to drop out.

"I was disgusted with online education, I couldn't take it anymore," she said.

Her father, an out-of-work taxi driver, said he had wanted Pamela to drop out months ago.

"I don't give a damn about education or this country," he said.&nbsp;

But Pamela hasn't entirely abandoned hopes of returning to&nbsp;school.

"I&nbsp;want&nbsp;to&nbsp;study&nbsp;so that I can get a decent job later and be able to help my parents."

In a camp for Syrian refugees in east Lebanon, Mohammad and his three sisters fear they will be out of school for a third consecutive year because remote learning is out of reach.

In a camp for Syrian refugees in east Lebanon, Mohammad and his three sisters fear they will be out of school for a third consecutive year because remote learning is out of reach. "Look at my phone. How do you expect my son to study on it?" asked his father Abdel Nasser, sitting cross-legged inside the family's tent in the Bekaa Valley. Also read- China bars foreign curriculum, ownership in some private schools "The screen is cracked... and I have no internet." Eleven-year-old Mohammad and his siblings are among tens of thousands of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian children who have been left for months without schooling due to coronavirus restrictions. Also read: US schools fight to keep students amid fear of dropout surge due to Covid An accelerating economic crisis means they may never return to school in what rights groups are calling an 'education catastrophe', especially affecting refugees who already struggled to access learning before the pandemic. "We can't afford to buy a cellphone for everyone. We must first be able to feed our children," said their mother Shamaa. Mohammad arrived in Lebanon from Syria in 2012 -- a year into an ongoing conflict that has killed 388,000 people and displaced millions. But he wasn't enrolled in school until 2019 because Lebanon's public school system didn't open its doors to Syrian refugees until 2013, and even then only to a limited number. Mohammad's first school year coincided with the Covid pandemic, which brought all classes to a halt by the second term. "He doesn't even know how to multiply one by one," his father said. Mohammad's older sisters Hind, Sarah and Amal, aged 12 to 14, had already been in school for four years when the education ministry in March 2020 said it was shifting to online learning. "I was happy before," 14-year-old Amal said, sobbing. "I was studying Arabic, English, science and geography. "But now my parents can't afford to give me an online education." More than 1.2 million children in Lebanon have been out of school since the country's coronavirus outbreak began last year, the UK-based charity Save the Children says. It warned last month that a large number of children may never get back into a classroom, either because they have already missed so much school or because their families can't afford to enrol them. "Education for thousands of children in Lebanon is hanging by a thread," it said. Lebanon's economic crisis is at its worst since the 1975-1990 civil war, with more than half the local population now living in poverty. Poverty rates are even higher among Syrians, with 90 per cent of families barely able to survive. Lisa Abou Khaled of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) says this is impacting education. "Some Syrian children have had to give up their studies to work and help their families," she told AFP. Citing data from Lebanon's education ministry, she said 25,000 Syrian students should have re-enrolled or entered grade one in 2020-2021 but did not. "We think the real number is higher than that," she added, estimating that more than half of Syrian school-aged children were currently out of the classroom. The education catastrophe is also real for the tens of thousands of Lebanese who have lost jobs or seen their income slashed since the economic crisis accelerated in 2019. Inside a cramped apartment in the eastern Beirut suburb of Burj Hammoud, 11-year-old Pamela points to a keyboard -- the only thing that remains from a desktop computer destroyed during last summer's huge Beirut port explosion. The August 4 blast, which killed more than 200 people and destroyed swaths of the capital, hit Pamela's home and piled new misery on a family already brought to its knees by the financial downturn. The family couldn't afford to buy a replacement as it had become far too expensive due to the rapid devaluation of the Lebanese pound. "So I started to follow lessons on my cellphone," Pamela said. As she has impaired vision, a small screen was already a nuisance. But then power outages lasting up to 18 hours a day also left her struggling to keep her phone alive and connected to the internet. She decided to drop out. "I was disgusted with online education, I couldn't take it anymore," she said. Her father, an out-of-work taxi driver, said he had wanted Pamela to drop out months ago. "I don't give a damn about education or this country," he said. But Pamela hasn't entirely abandoned hopes of returning to school. "I want to study so that I can get a decent job later and be able to help my parents."

'I want to study': Lebanon crisis cancels school for many

More than 11,000 academics and other university staff opposed to Myanmar's ruling junta have been suspended after going on strike in protest against military rule, a teachers' group said.&nbsp;

The suspensions come as the resumption of universities after a year closed due to the coronavirus epidemic prompts a new confrontation between the army and the staff and students, who are calling for boycotts over the February 1 coup.&nbsp;

"I feel upset to give up a job that I adored so much, but I feel proud to stand against injustice," said one 37-year-old university rector, who gave her name only as Thandar for fear of reprisals.&nbsp;

"My department summoned me today. I'm not going. We shouldn't follow the orders of the military council."&nbsp;

A professor on a fellowship in the United States said she was told she would have to declare opposition to the strikes or lose her job. Her university authorities had told her every scholar would be tracked down and forced to choose, she said.&nbsp;

As of Monday, more than 11,100 academic and other staff had been suspended from colleges and universities offering degrees, an official of the Myanmar Teachers` Federation said, declining to be identified for fear of reprisals.&nbsp;

According to the most recent World Bank data, Myanmar had more than 26,000 teachers in universities and other tertiary education institutions in 2018.&nbsp;

Students and teachers were at the forefront of opposition during nearly half a century of military rule and have been prominent in the protests since the army detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and halted a decade of tentative democratic reforms.&nbsp;

Many teachers, like medics and other government workers, have stopped work as part of a civil disobedience movement that has paralysed Myanmar. As protests flared after the coup, security forces occupied campuses in the biggest city, Yangon, and elsewhere.&nbsp;

A spokesman for the junta did not respond to phone calls seeking comment on the suspensions.&nbsp;

The junta-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said teachers and students should cooperate to get the education system started again.&nbsp;

"Political opportunists do not wish to see such development by committing sabotage acts," it said.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

More than 11,000 academics and other university staff opposed to Myanmar's ruling junta have been suspended after going on strike in protest against military rule, a teachers' group said.

More than 11,000 academics and other university staff opposed to Myanmar's ruling junta have been suspended after going on strike in protest against military rule, a teachers' group said. The suspensions come as the resumption of universities after a year closed due to the coronavirus epidemic prompts a new confrontation between the army and the staff and students, who are calling for boycotts over the February 1 coup. "I feel upset to give up a job that I adored so much, but I feel proud to stand against injustice," said one 37-year-old university rector, who gave her name only as Thandar for fear of reprisals. "My department summoned me today. I'm not going. We shouldn't follow the orders of the military council." A professor on a fellowship in the United States said she was told she would have to declare opposition to the strikes or lose her job. Her university authorities had told her every scholar would be tracked down and forced to choose, she said. As of Monday, more than 11,100 academic and other staff had been suspended from colleges and universities offering degrees, an official of the Myanmar Teachers` Federation said, declining to be identified for fear of reprisals. According to the most recent World Bank data, Myanmar had more than 26,000 teachers in universities and other tertiary education institutions in 2018. Students and teachers were at the forefront of opposition during nearly half a century of military rule and have been prominent in the protests since the army detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and halted a decade of tentative democratic reforms. Many teachers, like medics and other government workers, have stopped work as part of a civil disobedience movement that has paralysed Myanmar. As protests flared after the coup, security forces occupied campuses in the biggest city, Yangon, and elsewhere. A spokesman for the junta did not respond to phone calls seeking comment on the suspensions. The junta-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said teachers and students should cooperate to get the education system started again. "Political opportunists do not wish to see such development by committing sabotage acts," it said. (With inputs from agencies)

Thousands suspended at Myanmar universities as junta targets education 

Karmen Bastyur is one of thousands of people from Roma families in Hungary that have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. Many already marginalized Roma adults lost their jobs as Hungary's economy buckled under lockdowns, pushing their families into deeper impoverishment and food insecurity. Some have reported selling their belongings, like mobile phones, to make ends meet.

Hungary's poor Roma struggle with remote education

Does having school at the beach sound like a dream? After a year of remote learning and socially distanced classrooms, one school in the Spanish region of Murcia is doing just that, trying to combine clear air and a new way of teaching.

A day at the Spanish beachside classroom

Private tuitions is one of the most profitable businesses in India. With 1 out of 4 Indian students taking private coaching - Indian parents are forced to bear the cost of school fees and exorbitant coaching costs.

Gravitas: What Byju's acquisition of Aakash tells us

One of Bob Dylan’s most important early albums, “Bringing It All Back Home” from 1965, has the kind of cover that can strain eyes and fuel speculation. It is a photograph of Dylan, in a black jacket, sitting in a room full of bric-a-brac that may or may not mean something, staring into the camera as a woman in a red outfit lounges in the background.

“Fans became so fixated on deciphering it,” the music journalist Neil McCormick wrote in The Daily Telegraph of London last year, “that a rumor took hold that the woman was Dylan in drag, representing the feminine side of his psyche.”

She wasn’t. She was Sally Grossman, the wife of Dylan’s manager at the time, Albert Grossman.

“The photo was shot in Albert Grossman’s house,” the man who took it, Daniel Kramer, told The Guardian in 2016. “The room was the original kitchen of this house that’s a couple hundred years old.”

“Bob contributed to the picture the magazines he was reading and albums he was listening to,” Kramer added, a reference to the bric-a-brac. “Bob wanted Sally to be in the photo because, well, look at her! She chose the red outfit.”

Grossman died Thursday at her home in the Bearsville section of Woodstock, New York, not far from the house where the photograph was taken. She had long been a fixture in Woodstock, operating a recording studio, a theater and other businesses there after her husband died of a heart attack at 59 in 1986. She was 81.

Her niece, Anna Buehler, confirmed her death and said the cause had not been determined.

Sally Ann Buehler was born on Aug. 22, 1939, in Manhattan to Coleman and Ann (Kauth) Buehler. Her mother was executive director of the Boys Club (now the Variety Boys and Girls Club) of Queens; her father was an actuary.

Grossman studied at Adelphi University on Long Island and Hunter College in Manhattan, but she was more drawn to the arts scene percolating in Greenwich Village.

“I figured that what was happening on the street was a lot more interesting than studying 17th-century English literature,” she told Musician magazine in 1987, “so I dropped out of Hunter and began working as a waitress. I worked at the Cafe Wha?, and then the Bitter End, all over.”

Along the way she met Grossman, who was making his name managing folk music acts that played at those types of venues, including Peter, Paul and Mary, whom he helped bring together.

“The office was constantly packed with people,” Sally Grossman recalled in the 1987 interview. “Peter, Paul and Mary, of course, but also Ian and Sylvia, Richie Havens, Gordon Lightfoot, other musicians, artists, poets.”

The couple, who married in 1964, settled in Woodstock, where Albert Grossman had acquired properties and which Dylan had also discovered about the same time, settling there with his family as well.

In due course came the photo shoot for the album cover.

“I made 10 exposures,” Kramer told The Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2014. One image, with Dylan holding a cat, was a keeper. “That was the only time all three subjects were looking at the lens,” Kramer said.

The photo, staged by Kramer with Dylan’s input, was an early example of what became a mini-trend of loading covers up with imagery that seemed to invite scrutiny for insights into the music. The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967) might be the best-known example.

The album itself was a breakthrough for Dylan, marking his transition from acoustic to electric. Its tracks included “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Maggie’s Farm.”

Sally Grossman and her husband established recording studios and restaurants in Bearsville, and after his death Grossman renovated a barn to create the Bearsville Theater, bringing to life a vision of her husband’s. It hosted numerous concerts over the years. She sold the businesses in the mid-2000s.

Sally Grossman is survived by a brother, Barry Buehler.

Though she knew many American musicians, Grossman had a special place in her heart for an order of religious singers from Bengal known as the Bauls, whom she encountered in the 1960s. She created a digital archive of Baul music. Deborah Baker, author of “A Blue Hand: The Beats in India” (2008), wrote about Grossman and her connection to the Bauls in a 2011 essay in the magazine the Caravan.

“Despite all the famous musicians and bands who once passed through her life,” Baker wrote, “she found it was the Bauls she missed the most from those years.”

One of Bob Dylan’s most important early albums, “Bringing It All Back Home” from 1965, has the kind of cover that can strain eyes and fuel speculation. It is a photograph of Dylan, in a black jacket, sitting in a room full of bric-a-brac that may or may not mean something, staring into the camera as a woman in a red outfit lounges in the background.

One of Bob Dylan’s most important early albums, “Bringing It All Back Home” from 1965, has the kind of cover that can strain eyes and fuel speculation. It is a photograph of Dylan, in a black jacket, sitting in a room full of bric-a-brac that may or may not mean something, staring into the camera as a woman in a red outfit lounges in the background. “Fans became so fixated on deciphering it,” the music journalist Neil McCormick wrote in The Daily Telegraph of London last year, “that a rumor took hold that the woman was Dylan in drag, representing the feminine side of his psyche.” She wasn’t. She was Sally Grossman, the wife of Dylan’s manager at the time, Albert Grossman. “The photo was shot in Albert Grossman’s house,” the man who took it, Daniel Kramer, told The Guardian in 2016. “The room was the original kitchen of this house that’s a couple hundred years old.” “Bob contributed to the picture the magazines he was reading and albums he was listening to,” Kramer added, a reference to the bric-a-brac. “Bob wanted Sally to be in the photo because, well, look at her! She chose the red outfit.” Grossman died Thursday at her home in the Bearsville section of Woodstock, New York, not far from the house where the photograph was taken. She had long been a fixture in Woodstock, operating a recording studio, a theater and other businesses there after her husband died of a heart attack at 59 in 1986. She was 81. Her niece, Anna Buehler, confirmed her death and said the cause had not been determined. Sally Ann Buehler was born on Aug. 22, 1939, in Manhattan to Coleman and Ann (Kauth) Buehler. Her mother was executive director of the Boys Club (now the Variety Boys and Girls Club) of Queens; her father was an actuary. Grossman studied at Adelphi University on Long Island and Hunter College in Manhattan, but she was more drawn to the arts scene percolating in Greenwich Village. “I figured that what was happening on the street was a lot more interesting than studying 17th-century English literature,” she told Musician magazine in 1987, “so I dropped out of Hunter and began working as a waitress. I worked at the Cafe Wha?, and then the Bitter End, all over.” Along the way she met Grossman, who was making his name managing folk music acts that played at those types of venues, including Peter, Paul and Mary, whom he helped bring together. “The office was constantly packed with people,” Sally Grossman recalled in the 1987 interview. “Peter, Paul and Mary, of course, but also Ian and Sylvia, Richie Havens, Gordon Lightfoot, other musicians, artists, poets.” The couple, who married in 1964, settled in Woodstock, where Albert Grossman had acquired properties and which Dylan had also discovered about the same time, settling there with his family as well. In due course came the photo shoot for the album cover. “I made 10 exposures,” Kramer told The Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2014. One image, with Dylan holding a cat, was a keeper. “That was the only time all three subjects were looking at the lens,” Kramer said. The photo, staged by Kramer with Dylan’s input, was an early example of what became a mini-trend of loading covers up with imagery that seemed to invite scrutiny for insights into the music. The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967) might be the best-known example. The album itself was a breakthrough for Dylan, marking his transition from acoustic to electric. Its tracks included “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Maggie’s Farm.” Sally Grossman and her husband established recording studios and restaurants in Bearsville, and after his death Grossman renovated a barn to create the Bearsville Theater, bringing to life a vision of her husband’s. It hosted numerous concerts over the years. She sold the businesses in the mid-2000s. Sally Grossman is survived by a brother, Barry Buehler. Though she knew many American musicians, Grossman had a special place in her heart for an order of religious singers from Bengal known as the Bauls, whom she encountered in the 1960s. She created a digital archive of Baul music. Deborah Baker, author of “A Blue Hand: The Beats in India” (2008), wrote about Grossman and her connection to the Bauls in a 2011 essay in the magazine the Caravan. “Despite all the famous musicians and bands who once passed through her life,” Baker wrote, “she found it was the Bauls she missed the most from those years.”

Sally Grossman, immortalised on a Dylan album cover, dies at 81

The largest public school system in the United States has been accused of perpetuating racism. A group of students in New York City claim that the admission process for students is racist, and favours white students.

Brought to state court by multiple civil rights attorneys, the lawsuit claims that children are sorted academically using a “rigged system” as early as when they’re four-years-old. This process in turn benefits white students, while denying minority students the opportunity and access to programmes.

"Nearly every facet of the New York City public education system operates not only to prop up, but also to affirmatively reproduce, the artificial racial hierarchies that have subordinated people of color for centuries in the United States," the lawsuit reads.

The complaint urges the judge to get rid of the ongoing admissions process - especially in terms of programmes that recognise talent and that may open up access to better schools.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/school-in-new-york-asks-parents-to-rate-their-whiteness-364281" hreflang="en">School in New York asks parents to rate their 'whiteness'</a>

The lawsuit alleges that for many Black and Latino students, many high schools and programmes continue to remain out of reach. New York City’s school system - the country’s largest has approximately 1 million students, and is perceived as a deeply divided entity in terms of race and access.

According to data collected by the City Council, over three-quarters of Black and Latino students go to schools that have less than 10 per cent white students. Similarly, over a third White students go to schools that have majorly white populations.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/a-governor-in-isolation-how-andrew-cuomo-lost-his-grip-on-new-york-368705" hreflang="en">A governor in isolation: How Andrew Cuomo lost his grip on New York</a>

In 2019, city Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to abolish the admissions exam for specialised schools, but the proposal was rejected by state legislature.

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include IntegrateNYC, a nonprofit led by youth focused on the integration of school systems.

The largest public school system in the United States has been accused of perpetuating racism. A group of students in New York City claim that the admission process for students is racist, and favours white students.

The largest public school system in the United States has been accused of perpetuating racism. A group of students in New York City claim that the admission process for students is racist, and favours white students. Brought to state court by multiple civil rights attorneys, the lawsuit claims that children are sorted academically using a “rigged system” as early as when they’re four-years-old. This process in turn benefits white students, while denying minority students the opportunity and access to programmes. "Nearly every facet of the New York City public education system operates not only to prop up, but also to affirmatively reproduce, the artificial racial hierarchies that have subordinated people of color for centuries in the United States," the lawsuit reads. The complaint urges the judge to get rid of the ongoing admissions process - especially in terms of programmes that recognise talent and that may open up access to better schools. Also read: School in New York asks parents to rate their 'whiteness' The lawsuit alleges that for many Black and Latino students, many high schools and programmes continue to remain out of reach. New York City’s school system - the country’s largest has approximately 1 million students, and is perceived as a deeply divided entity in terms of race and access. According to data collected by the City Council, over three-quarters of Black and Latino students go to schools that have less than 10 per cent white students. Similarly, over a third White students go to schools that have majorly white populations. Also read: A governor in isolation: How Andrew Cuomo lost his grip on New York In 2019, city Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to abolish the admissions exam for specialised schools, but the proposal was rejected by state legislature. The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include IntegrateNYC, a nonprofit led by youth focused on the integration of school systems.

New York City's public school system perpetuates racism, a lawsuit claims

The Western education system and pedagogic approaches even though defined by some variations are undoubtedly better. Among other things, this explains the enduring appeal of Western universities to international students. But a caveat is in order here: by the term, Western is not meant to cover all the university systems of the West. Rather, the reference is to the Anglophone universities which are also tiered with American universities at the top, followed by Canadian, Australian and then the UK universities. In this classification, European universities may not be as good as the universities of the Anglophone West which, to repeat, are tiered.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
For the developing world and its students, the allure of Western universities is somewhat two-fold: one is that it diverts demand, against the backdrop of inadequate supply, to these universities. Those that can afford a Western education enrol in institutions of the West. Second, albeit in a very loose sense, it creates a pool of human capital that can potentially benefit the sending country.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
For the international student, the benefits are obvious: an international experience, a fancy degree and exposure to different worldviews and pedagogic methods. But there are obvious shortcomings too: &nbsp;the first is that, if Master’s level education is taken into the consideration, one-year programs which are now, more or less, the norm, do not offer an immersive experience to international students; these courses are too short. If an analogue is or can be drawn from the travel industry, these are akin to package tours- they show and demonstrate but only up to a point. &nbsp;Things might be different for the PhD’s and bachelor’s level programs but these courses are usually of a utilitarian nature which offers technical training and thus depriving a typical student of a fuller and enriching educational experience. 
 
What about the ‘ultimate’ yardstick of education- jobs? 
&nbsp; 
Here the record is mixed. Except for countries like Australia and Canada that offer a pathway to permanent residency thereby making the transition to a labour market seamless, in other countries finding a job becomes more a luck of the draw. While most universities do have some kind of a job or career department ostensibly meant to help even international students to get jobs, but this has obvious limitations and maybe more notional than anything else. The main problem, it would appear cut to the bone, is the ‘business model’ of the typical Western university. It is, in the main, transactional: give us the money and we give you the degree appears to the operating mantra of this model.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Against this backdrop, do international students, to employ a vulgar phrase, ‘get value for money? 
&nbsp; 
Yes and no is the answer. Yes, because education in the Anglophone West is undoubtedly many notches above than at home. And, to some extent, a Western education enriches the perspective of a student. No, because of the very crude focus on utilitarianism, a typical Western experience is not immersive. It is too short and last, even in terms of a utilitarian calculus, it flounders because there are no job guarantees. Is then an international education worth it? 
&nbsp; 
Yes, it is but developing countries must seriously look at expanding and developing in sophistication and outlook their own educational systems and institutions. One, because those clever and intelligent students that cannot afford an international education are left in the cold. This has connotations and dimensions of inequality and therefore morality in it. Second, students within a given country are deprived of a fuller educational experience. &nbsp;How can developing countries do this? By entering into twinning programs, joint ventures and cross-country collaborations is the answer among other things like curricular development, inculcation of critical thinking and so on. This might remove what may be called the ‘moral hazard ‘of higher education and level the playing field. It is then about time that policy makers in the developing world seriously think about this issue and take robust action.

The Western education system and pedagogic approaches even though defined by some variations are undoubtedly better. Among other things, this explains the enduring appeal of Western universities to international students.

The Western education system and pedagogic approaches even though defined by some variations are undoubtedly better. Among other things, this explains the enduring appeal of Western universities to international students. But a caveat is in order here: by the term, Western is not meant to cover all the university systems of the West. Rather, the reference is to the Anglophone universities which are also tiered with American universities at the top, followed by Canadian, Australian and then the UK universities. In this classification, European universities may not be as good as the universities of the Anglophone West which, to repeat, are tiered. For the developing world and its students, the allure of Western universities is somewhat two-fold: one is that it diverts demand, against the backdrop of inadequate supply, to these universities. Those that can afford a Western education enrol in institutions of the West. Second, albeit in a very loose sense, it creates a pool of human capital that can potentially benefit the sending country. For the international student, the benefits are obvious: an international experience, a fancy degree and exposure to different worldviews and pedagogic methods. But there are obvious shortcomings too: the first is that, if Master’s level education is taken into the consideration, one-year programs which are now, more or less, the norm, do not offer an immersive experience to international students; these courses are too short. If an analogue is or can be drawn from the travel industry, these are akin to package tours- they show and demonstrate but only up to a point. Things might be different for the PhD’s and bachelor’s level programs but these courses are usually of a utilitarian nature which offers technical training and thus depriving a typical student of a fuller and enriching educational experience. What about the ‘ultimate’ yardstick of education- jobs? Here the record is mixed. Except for countries like Australia and Canada that offer a pathway to permanent residency thereby making the transition to a labour market seamless, in other countries finding a job becomes more a luck of the draw. While most universities do have some kind of a job or career department ostensibly meant to help even international students to get jobs, but this has obvious limitations and maybe more notional than anything else. The main problem, it would appear cut to the bone, is the ‘business model’ of the typical Western university. It is, in the main, transactional: give us the money and we give you the degree appears to the operating mantra of this model. Against this backdrop, do international students, to employ a vulgar phrase, ‘get value for money? Yes and no is the answer. Yes, because education in the Anglophone West is undoubtedly many notches above than at home. And, to some extent, a Western education enriches the perspective of a student. No, because of the very crude focus on utilitarianism, a typical Western experience is not immersive. It is too short and last, even in terms of a utilitarian calculus, it flounders because there are no job guarantees. Is then an international education worth it? Yes, it is but developing countries must seriously look at expanding and developing in sophistication and outlook their own educational systems and institutions. One, because those clever and intelligent students that cannot afford an international education are left in the cold. This has connotations and dimensions of inequality and therefore morality in it. Second, students within a given country are deprived of a fuller educational experience. How can developing countries do this? By entering into twinning programs, joint ventures and cross-country collaborations is the answer among other things like curricular development, inculcation of critical thinking and so on. This might remove what may be called the ‘moral hazard ‘of higher education and level the playing field. It is then about time that policy makers in the developing world seriously think about this issue and take robust action.

On the pros and cons of education in a Western University

Globalisation is not going to die. It will assume a new form and character&nbsp;if the lessons from the recent past have been learnt and absorbed. With renewed focus on multilateralism after&nbsp;the election of Joseph Biden to the highest office in the United States, a fairer globalisation might emerge.&nbsp; While a fairer globalisation is contingent on policy impetus, renewal and refocus of multilateral institutions which will axiomatically take some time, globalisation, as it exists in the now is undergoing sharp changes in form and even character.

Hastened and propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing movement to wider and broader digitisation of economies. Be it retailing and consumer demand, work from home, e-commerce and governance and so on a sharp and pronounced shift to digitisation can be discerned. To employ, re-use and &nbsp;paraphrase the assertion of the NY Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, who in this enthusiasm got most things wrong but some things right (even defined by prescience and insight), ‘ if the defining economic parameters of the previous century were weight and mass, in this century it will be speed and velocity through bits and bytes’ , holds a searing resonance as the 21st&nbsp;century advances and evolves.

This digitisation aided and abetted by other significant technological advances like Artificial Intelligence(AI), Robotics, Virtual Reality , Algorithms , or in other words , the technologies of the 4th&nbsp;Industrial Revolution will wrought far reaching , tremendous &nbsp;changes in all domains of life- political, social, cultural , educational and practical. What the world is at the cusp of is its ‘Amazon(isation) &nbsp;- a world where the real and the virtual will increasingly blur and meld into each other.

In this emerging world, what would it mean to be educated and skilled? Would the two be dichotomous and neatly compartmentalised? Or would there be a correlation- a neat one- between the two?

On the face of it , the world inaugurated by the 4th&nbsp;Industrial Revolution will put a premium on skill. This may be true as can be. It self- evidently takes skill to develop software, apps, make robots and run them, develop and construct algorithms of a sophisticated nature. But, yet again self-evidently, the world of Artificial intelligence(AI), Robotics, algorithms will require education and educated people who can not only manage technology but also empathise and relate to each other, lead, organise work albeit in different permutations and combinations and engage with each other in&nbsp; different international social contract and so on.

Consider a typical Multi-National Firm (MNF) operating in the milieu of the 4th&nbsp;Industrial Revolution. Its work will be broken down and disaggregated into bits and bytes all over the world. The pattern of this work will not be merely a pale echo of outsourced back end operations to the developing world but might, in all likelihood, be of a more disparate and disaggregated nature, mediated by skill and the skill premium. In this milieu, mere skills will not be enough. A skilled technician would need to be educated to high standards to both work with, relate to, understand, manage, and even lead colleagues, and co-workers from different parts of the world.&nbsp; This condition will also require empathy, cross cultural and intercultural understanding and accommodation – all themes and notions that can come together in an educated individual.

This example, given the extant and putative ubiquity of the nature of work, can be grafted and tacked onto any domain that will even only have a global ingress. Say, for example, examination and diagnosis of medical records of a patient in the West by doctors in India or Ghana. To be seamless and rather frictionless, the natural complement of skill will have to be education- two domains that are different despite being related.

Being skilled means proficiency and expertise in a technological area. It can range from skill in operating a lathe to developing a very sophisticated app or algorithm.&nbsp;But while skill requires some education, being skilled does not always add up to&nbsp; being educated. Education and being educated amount to a sophisticated and nuanced view of the world and its inhabitants, development or refinement of empathy for fellow human beings (howsoever different culturally), analytical capability, ability to solve complex problems- both of a technical and human nature, excellent communication skills that can straddle cultures and societies , and above all the appreciation of fellow human beings as just that: human beings with feelings, aspirations and dignity who, in a globalised world, work together in a shared global endeavour.

Admittedly, this is a reductive portrait of what education and an educated person mean and imply, but these are the main features. As the 4th&nbsp;Industrial Revolution advances and gets ensconced in the sinews of society, economics, culture, politics and education, it may be time to review our assumptions about skill and education. While both bear some relation to each other, but it (relationship) needs to be made more robust and more intense. This calls for a special role for the university systems of the world which must, as a matter of policy integrate the technocratic aspects of education with philosophic , non -utilitarian aspects.&nbsp;Or, in other words, integrate the techne&nbsp;with logos to develop more ethical, virtuous , empathetic and even productive human beings. The time for this is now!

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do&nbsp;not represent the views of&nbsp;WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse&nbsp;the views of the writer)

Globalisation is not going to die. It will assume a new form and character if the lessons from the recent past have been learnt and absorbed. With renewed focus on multilateralism after the election of Joseph Biden to the highest office in the United States, a fairer globalisation might emerge.

Globalisation is not going to die. It will assume a new form and character if the lessons from the recent past have been learnt and absorbed. With renewed focus on multilateralism after the election of Joseph Biden to the highest office in the United States, a fairer globalisation might emerge. While a fairer globalisation is contingent on policy impetus, renewal and refocus of multilateral institutions which will axiomatically take some time, globalisation, as it exists in the now is undergoing sharp changes in form and even character. Hastened and propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing movement to wider and broader digitisation of economies. Be it retailing and consumer demand, work from home, e-commerce and governance and so on a sharp and pronounced shift to digitisation can be discerned. To employ, re-use and paraphrase the assertion of the NY Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, who in this enthusiasm got most things wrong but some things right (even defined by prescience and insight), ‘ if the defining economic parameters of the previous century were weight and mass, in this century it will be speed and velocity through bits and bytes’ , holds a searing resonance as the 21st century advances and evolves. This digitisation aided and abetted by other significant technological advances like Artificial Intelligence(AI), Robotics, Virtual Reality , Algorithms , or in other words , the technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution will wrought far reaching , tremendous changes in all domains of life- political, social, cultural , educational and practical. What the world is at the cusp of is its ‘Amazon(isation) - a world where the real and the virtual will increasingly blur and meld into each other. In this emerging world, what would it mean to be educated and skilled? Would the two be dichotomous and neatly compartmentalised? Or would there be a correlation- a neat one- between the two? On the face of it , the world inaugurated by the 4th Industrial Revolution will put a premium on skill. This may be true as can be. It self- evidently takes skill to develop software, apps, make robots and run them, develop and construct algorithms of a sophisticated nature. But, yet again self-evidently, the world of Artificial intelligence(AI), Robotics, algorithms will require education and educated people who can not only manage technology but also empathise and relate to each other, lead, organise work albeit in different permutations and combinations and engage with each other in different international social contract and so on. Consider a typical Multi-National Firm (MNF) operating in the milieu of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Its work will be broken down and disaggregated into bits and bytes all over the world. The pattern of this work will not be merely a pale echo of outsourced back end operations to the developing world but might, in all likelihood, be of a more disparate and disaggregated nature, mediated by skill and the skill premium. In this milieu, mere skills will not be enough. A skilled technician would need to be educated to high standards to both work with, relate to, understand, manage, and even lead colleagues, and co-workers from different parts of the world. This condition will also require empathy, cross cultural and intercultural understanding and accommodation – all themes and notions that can come together in an educated individual. This example, given the extant and putative ubiquity of the nature of work, can be grafted and tacked onto any domain that will even only have a global ingress. Say, for example, examination and diagnosis of medical records of a patient in the West by doctors in India or Ghana. To be seamless and rather frictionless, the natural complement of skill will have to be education- two domains that are different despite being related. Being skilled means proficiency and expertise in a technological area. It can range from skill in operating a lathe to developing a very sophisticated app or algorithm. But while skill requires some education, being skilled does not always add up to being educated. Education and being educated amount to a sophisticated and nuanced view of the world and its inhabitants, development or refinement of empathy for fellow human beings (howsoever different culturally), analytical capability, ability to solve complex problems- both of a technical and human nature, excellent communication skills that can straddle cultures and societies , and above all the appreciation of fellow human beings as just that: human beings with feelings, aspirations and dignity who, in a globalised world, work together in a shared global endeavour. Admittedly, this is a reductive portrait of what education and an educated person mean and imply, but these are the main features. As the 4th Industrial Revolution advances and gets ensconced in the sinews of society, economics, culture, politics and education, it may be time to review our assumptions about skill and education. While both bear some relation to each other, but it (relationship) needs to be made more robust and more intense. This calls for a special role for the university systems of the world which must, as a matter of policy integrate the technocratic aspects of education with philosophic , non -utilitarian aspects. Or, in other words, integrate the techne with logos to develop more ethical, virtuous , empathetic and even productive human beings. The time for this is now! (Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer)

In the emerging world, being skilled will be as important as being educated

Judit Polgar might be the one woman in the world who knows how Beth, the heroine of the hit Netflix series 'The Queen’s Gambit,' really feels. Like Beth, Polgar, who is from Hungary, stood out during her career because she regularly beat the world’s top players, including Garry Kasparov, in 2002, when he was ranked No&nbsp;1.

Polgar, the only woman to ever be ranked in the Top 10 or to play for the overall world championship, retired from competitive chess in 2014. Watching the series, which she described as an “incredible performance,” gave her a sense of déjà vu, particularly in the later episodes.

But there was one respect in which she could not identify with Beth’s experience: how the male competitors treated her.

“They were too nice to her,” Polgar said. When Polgar was proving herself and rising in the world rankings, the men often made disparaging comments about her ability and sometimes jokes, which they thought were funny but were actually hurtful, she said.

And no one ever resigned to her, as Shapkin did to Beth in Episode 7 by gallantly holding her hand near his lips.

“There were opponents who refused to shake hands,” she recalled. “There was one who hit his head on the board after he lost.”

Not every woman has had negative experiences. Irina Krush, who won her eighth US&nbsp;Women’s Championship last month, said she felt as if the chess community and men in particular were supportive of her when she was an up-and-coming player. She said of the series, “The spirit of what they are showing conforms to my experience.”

Whether what happens to Beth is typical or not, the popularity of 'The Queen’s Gambit' has inspired anew a debate about inequality and sexism in chess and what, if anything, can be done about them.

Though chess would seem like one area where men and women should be able to compete on equal footing, historically, few women have been able to do so. Among the more than 1,700 regular grandmasters worldwide, only 37, including Polgar and Krush, are women. Currently, only one woman, Hou Yifan of China, ranks in the Top 100, at No&nbsp;88, and she has been playing infrequently, even before the pandemic.

The superiority of men in the game is so well established that the best female players have freely acknowledged it. In a recent issue of Mint, in an article titled 'Why Women Lose at Chess,' Koneru Humpy, an Indian player currently ranked No&nbsp;3 among women, said men are just better players. “It’s proven,” she said. “You have to accept it.”

The dearth of women at the top of the game is one reason that there are separate tournaments for women, including a world championship; the World Chess Federation even created titles for women, such as women grandmaster.

Having such institutionalized, second-class status might seem like a bad idea, but not according to Anastasiya Karlovich, a grandmaster who was the press officer for the World Chess Federation for several years. She said the women’s titles permit more female players to earn a living as professionals, thereby increasing their participation in the game.

Karlovich said the Netflix show has helped her indirectly: It has made the parents of her chess students look at her differently.

“They have more respect for me. They understand better the life of a player,” she said.

While some men have speculated that the reason there are so few top female players is because they are not wired for it — Kasparov once said that it is not in their nature — women think the overriding reason is cultural expectations and bias.

Krush said the cultural cleaving between boys and girls happens at a young age. Scrolling through lists of the top players in the United States who are 7, 8 and 9, Krush pointed out that there are only a handful of girls in the Top 10.

That creates and reinforces another problem that discourages women’s participation: too few social contacts. Jennifer Shahade, a two-time U.S. women’s champion who has written two books about women in chess ('Chess Bitch' and 'Play Like a Girl!') and is the women’s program director at the US Chess Federation, said teenage girls tend to stop playing chess because there are so few of them and they want the social support. That Beth is a loner is likely an important reason she does not quit playing in tournaments.

Of 74,000 members in total, the US Chess Federation said it has about 10,500 female members. Shahade wants to increase that number, as well as their participation. To that end, she and the federation started an online chess club in April to keep female players engaged during the pandemic. In the last few weeks, there have been between 80 and 140 participants, with quite a few older players. The last meeting also had a special guest: Kasparov, who has become a big booster of women’s chess since his retirement from competition in 2005. He was also a consultant on the Netflix series.

To keep the momentum going, Shahade is launching a new online group called the “Madwoman’s Book Club.” The title refers to a pejorative name used for the queen in the 15th and 16th centuries after it became the most powerful piece on the board. The first meeting, this Friday, already has 100 people signed up.

The subject of the discussion should come as no surprise: 'The Queen’s Gambit'&nbsp;by Walter Tevis, the book on which the Netflix series is based. 
&nbsp;

Judit Polgar might be the one woman in the world who knows how Beth, the heroine of the hit Netflix series 'The Queen’s Gambit,' really feels. Like Beth, Polgar, who is from Hungary, stood out during her career because she regularly beat the world’s top players, including Garry Kasparov, in 2002, when he was ranked No 1.

Judit Polgar might be the one woman in the world who knows how Beth, the heroine of the hit Netflix series 'The Queen’s Gambit,' really feels. Like Beth, Polgar, who is from Hungary, stood out during her career because she regularly beat the world’s top players, including Garry Kasparov, in 2002, when he was ranked No 1. Polgar, the only woman to ever be ranked in the Top 10 or to play for the overall world championship, retired from competitive chess in 2014. Watching the series, which she described as an “incredible performance,” gave her a sense of déjà vu, particularly in the later episodes. But there was one respect in which she could not identify with Beth’s experience: how the male competitors treated her. “They were too nice to her,” Polgar said. When Polgar was proving herself and rising in the world rankings, the men often made disparaging comments about her ability and sometimes jokes, which they thought were funny but were actually hurtful, she said. And no one ever resigned to her, as Shapkin did to Beth in Episode 7 by gallantly holding her hand near his lips. “There were opponents who refused to shake hands,” she recalled. “There was one who hit his head on the board after he lost.” Not every woman has had negative experiences. Irina Krush, who won her eighth US Women’s Championship last month, said she felt as if the chess community and men in particular were supportive of her when she was an up-and-coming player. She said of the series, “The spirit of what they are showing conforms to my experience.” Whether what happens to Beth is typical or not, the popularity of 'The Queen’s Gambit' has inspired anew a debate about inequality and sexism in chess and what, if anything, can be done about them. Though chess would seem like one area where men and women should be able to compete on equal footing, historically, few women have been able to do so. Among the more than 1,700 regular grandmasters worldwide, only 37, including Polgar and Krush, are women. Currently, only one woman, Hou Yifan of China, ranks in the Top 100, at No 88, and she has been playing infrequently, even before the pandemic. The superiority of men in the game is so well established that the best female players have freely acknowledged it. In a recent issue of Mint, in an article titled 'Why Women Lose at Chess,' Koneru Humpy, an Indian player currently ranked No 3 among women, said men are just better players. “It’s proven,” she said. “You have to accept it.” The dearth of women at the top of the game is one reason that there are separate tournaments for women, including a world championship; the World Chess Federation even created titles for women, such as women grandmaster. Having such institutionalized, second-class status might seem like a bad idea, but not according to Anastasiya Karlovich, a grandmaster who was the press officer for the World Chess Federation for several years. She said the women’s titles permit more female players to earn a living as professionals, thereby increasing their participation in the game. Karlovich said the Netflix show has helped her indirectly: It has made the parents of her chess students look at her differently. “They have more respect for me. They understand better the life of a player,” she said. While some men have speculated that the reason there are so few top female players is because they are not wired for it — Kasparov once said that it is not in their nature — women think the overriding reason is cultural expectations and bias. Krush said the cultural cleaving between boys and girls happens at a young age. Scrolling through lists of the top players in the United States who are 7, 8 and 9, Krush pointed out that there are only a handful of girls in the Top 10. That creates and reinforces another problem that discourages women’s participation: too few social contacts. Jennifer Shahade, a two-time U.S. women’s champion who has written two books about women in chess ('Chess Bitch' and 'Play Like a Girl!') and is the women’s program director at the US Chess Federation, said teenage girls tend to stop playing chess because there are so few of them and they want the social support. That Beth is a loner is likely an important reason she does not quit playing in tournaments. Of 74,000 members in total, the US Chess Federation said it has about 10,500 female members. Shahade wants to increase that number, as well as their participation. To that end, she and the federation started an online chess club in April to keep female players engaged during the pandemic. In the last few weeks, there have been between 80 and 140 participants, with quite a few older players. The last meeting also had a special guest: Kasparov, who has become a big booster of women’s chess since his retirement from competition in 2005. He was also a consultant on the Netflix series. To keep the momentum going, Shahade is launching a new online group called the “Madwoman’s Book Club.” The title refers to a pejorative name used for the queen in the 15th and 16th centuries after it became the most powerful piece on the board. The first meeting, this Friday, already has 100 people signed up. The subject of the discussion should come as no surprise: 'The Queen’s Gambit' by Walter Tevis, the book on which the Netflix series is based.

How 'The Queen's Gambit' started a new debate about sexism in chess

Nigeria has the highest number of children out of school & now due to the pandemic young girls in the country are struggling to remain in school. Watch the report to know more.

Young girls in Nigeria struggle for education

A few days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, David Letterman sat behind his desk at CBS’s “Late Show” and shared the story of a rally in Choteau, Montana, to raise money for New York. Getting choked up, he told his viewers, “If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the spirit of the United States, then I can’t help you.”

Nineteen years later, with the country in the midst of a monthslong pandemic, Letterman found it difficult to conjure up any similarly inspiring anecdotes. One morning last week, this veteran late-night host, broadcaster and comedian, now 73, was sitting in a park here, contemplating the Hudson River and cracking wise about the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

“It looks kind of unfinished,” he said through a fabric mask that barely held back his unruly beard. “Doesn’t it look like the new kid got to design it?”

But truth be told, Letterman was in a more melancholy than mirthful frame of mind. Though he, his wife, Regina, and their son, Harry, have remained safe, he knows several people who were stricken by the coronavirus, some of whom died from it. And he is deeply frustrated by what he feels have been inconsistent, nationwide efforts to inform people about the pandemic and mitigate its spread.

While hardly its most devastating casualty, Letterman’s Netflix interview show, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” returns Wednesday but nearly came to a halt. He had recorded two episodes, with Kim Kardashian West and with Robert Downey Jr., before the pandemic, and believed the season — if not the series — was finished.

Instead, he was able to produce two more episodes over the summer, under substantially different circumstances: one with Dave Chappelle, which was recorded at an outdoor pavilion in Yellow Springs, Ohio; and one with Lizzo, at her home studio in Los Angeles, which had no audience at all.

For Letterman, each of these episodes offered him a further education in the evolution of entertainment and deeper insights as an interviewer and observer of human nature. Even so, he found himself yearning for what he called “the carefree days of nonsense” when he could “bring people into a theater and talk to them for an hour, and when we were done I would go out into the crowd and shake hands, and everybody would want to tongue-kiss me.”

“We don’t do that anymore,” he added.

Letterman spoke further about his pandemic experience, the making of his Netflix series and what he hopes the future might hold for him. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

Q: How has the pandemic been for you? What is it like for you now?

A: Like everybody else, you forget about it. Six, eight months into it, you go on talking as though things are normal, and then it’s, oh, no, we can’t do that because of the pandemic. In the beginning, it was more than ghastly. The husband of a woman that worked at (“Late Show”), he died. A teacher at Harry’s school died. Paul Shaffer and his wife both had it. Cathy, his wife, was hospitalized. Barbara Gaines, who was a producer on the show, she and her wife both had it. And on and on and on.

Q: How do you feel when you come into contact with people elsewhere in the country who don’t seem to be taking the pandemic as seriously?

A: That makes me very sad. Because we learned a lesson that these other people are dismissing. I was talking to a friend of mine, and he was furious at the mayor of his city for keeping it closed, and he said, “Well, that guy will never be reelected.” And I just thought, do I tell him what this really can be? We’re looking at a quarter of a million people dead soon. But I just didn’t want to have that fight. 
 
Q: After the 9/11 attacks, you gave several “Late Show” monologues where you tried to rally your viewers’ spirits and bring them together. Do you ever feel like saying anything similar now?

A: Something applicable to these times? I wish I had the wherewithal to say something meaningful. But all of these people who are resisting the idea of prevention, I just keep thinking: What about the families of the 220,000 people who are dead? I wonder how they’re feeling. I don’t get it. I have no solution other than to do what is told: Take care of yourself and your family.

Q: How did the pandemic affect your work on your Netflix series?

A: I thought we were done for good. Really. In the beginning, it really seemed like, holy God, they’re coming over the wall, we’re all going to die. People keep reminding me that, at my age, I’m particularly vulnerable. Which I don’t appreciate at all. “Dad, you know you’re close to 100, you’d better not go out.”

Q: How did you decide to continue with your season?

A: We had two more episodes (with Lizzo and Dave Chappelle) in preproduction, and we were eager to do something. We did them within a very short period of time, and then we came home. By that point, there were protocols in place from the production company and from Netflix that we had to observe, gladly, and we got through it OK.

Q: Kim Kardashian West, who is now a prized guest on your Netflix series, was a frequent target of mockery in your “Late Show” days.

A: Oh, I was at the head of that list. I can remember when she would be booked on the show, it was like, I don’t know anything about her, and I’ve never seen her show. And then when we went to talk to Kanye, I thought, oh, I’ve misjudged this woman.

Q: What changed your mind about her?

A: After we met with Kanye West (for the previous season of the Netflix series), I had a long talk with her at their home, and I started to think about how I had used her as a joke and regarded her as someone not to be taken seriously. I found that that impression was not the end of the story. She had a family. She has her prison reform program. I won’t comment on the ease of being married to Kanye West. And if she can keep a show like that on the air for all those years, that’s an accomplishment. If you can stay in business on television that long, good for you.

Q: You went to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to interview Dave Chappelle. Did you perform at his outdoor comedy show there?

A: Yes. I think I did it. (To his publicist) Did I do it? (Publicist answers: “You did it.”) I’m being told I did it (laughs). It was grand. The setting is unique. It’s outdoors. Everybody’s tested, everybody social distanced. He had three or four comics on and each comic made my heart sink deeper. Because when I was doing comedy, a lot of it was (weakly) “Hey, where you from?” But these men and women, whoa — the level of it, the intellect of it, the presentation of it is so much more than it was when me and my little buddies were, “Hey, how ya doin’, I just got in from Indiana.” Really? No one cares. Get outta here.

Q: Do you ever have moments in these interviews where you feel as if you don’t have a shared frame of reference to talk to some of these guests?

A: Yes. Because the experience is barely parallel. We’re all in show business, but that’s as close a comparison as you can make, culturally. I did feel like, is this going to look stupid? An old guy here, trying to talk to people who are thriving and alive and dominating the world through social media? I felt like it was a wreck. That’s the inner dialogue.

Q: How do you get past this?

A: Like anybody else that you talk to, every human being, there are situations that helped develop into what they are. So you’re going to get a story out of anybody. It may not happen in the first five minutes, but in every one of these experiences, there’s always a conduit for mutual experience. “Oh yeah? You think that’s something? Well, one time I choked on a peanut-butter sandwich and nearly died.” You have to make everybody a good interview.

Q: Do you think that late-night television, a genre that you helped to pioneer, has been diminished in recent years — that so much of it has become political comedy that doesn’t really move the needle and crowds out everything else?

A: I know that people have been hugely successful with it. Stephen (Colbert) has done a great job with my old show — his show now. In my day, the goal was just anything to make the audience laugh. That may be part of the dynamic now. People have this hunger to see the current administration being assailed and embarrassing itself. So I think that’s what (late-night shows) worked toward. I don’t fault them for that. After a while, it wears thin, but the appetite for it has not worn thin. I think they still do enough business to keep people happy.

Q: Do you ever find yourself fearing for the future of this country?

A: I really did, until recently. And now I am confident — or more confident than I’ve been in the last four years — that we’re changing presidents in a couple of weeks. And it will be a huge victory. Not just for our culture and our government, but the simple act of voting will have been the reason that the rest of our country is put back together and, in many ways, saved from what appears to be tyranny, certainly jeopardy. I think it will be a huge victory on many fronts, not the least of which is calling attention to the valuable freedom of voting.

Q: Please don’t mistake this for a suggestion, but do you ever think about packing it in as a broadcaster entirely?

A: First of all, you can’t hurt my feelings because I’m dead inside. But the Netflix people put me back in business in a way that has been, for me, really, really fun. On the other hand, I recognize my own shelf life. I’m way overdue. When it happens, I still will enjoy little things here and there, and that’ll be enough. But there’s other people more capable. I got no problem with that. If there is any kind of schedule, it would be when my son is finished with high school. But if it’s tomorrow, that’s fine.

Q: Your son, Harry, is 16 now. Are you worried about how the pandemic is going to affect his life?

A: I think it’s every parent’s concern, regardless of the age of their kids. But for Harry and his buddies, the junior year of high school is a crucial experience. Now they’re starting to look beyond high school, and it’s not good. For guys Harry’s age and older, it might be a setback. Time takes care of everything, and one hopes that that’s the case here.

Q: How do you talk about these feelings with him?

A: I had a conversation with my son the other night that went this way. Because of the pandemic and the fact that he’s getting older, I said, Harry, your mother and I have two responsibilities. One is to keep you safe. And other than the time that your mother let you roll off the bed and land on your head, we have kept you safe. The other responsibility is your happiness. And he said, “Have you been drinking?” So that’s how that works at my house.

&nbsp;

A few days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, David Letterman sat behind his desk at CBS’s “Late Show” and shared the story of a rally in Choteau, Montana, to raise money for New York.

A few days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, David Letterman sat behind his desk at CBS’s “Late Show” and shared the story of a rally in Choteau, Montana, to raise money for New York. Getting choked up, he told his viewers, “If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the spirit of the United States, then I can’t help you.” Nineteen years later, with the country in the midst of a monthslong pandemic, Letterman found it difficult to conjure up any similarly inspiring anecdotes. One morning last week, this veteran late-night host, broadcaster and comedian, now 73, was sitting in a park here, contemplating the Hudson River and cracking wise about the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. “It looks kind of unfinished,” he said through a fabric mask that barely held back his unruly beard. “Doesn’t it look like the new kid got to design it?” But truth be told, Letterman was in a more melancholy than mirthful frame of mind. Though he, his wife, Regina, and their son, Harry, have remained safe, he knows several people who were stricken by the coronavirus, some of whom died from it. And he is deeply frustrated by what he feels have been inconsistent, nationwide efforts to inform people about the pandemic and mitigate its spread. While hardly its most devastating casualty, Letterman’s Netflix interview show, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” returns Wednesday but nearly came to a halt. He had recorded two episodes, with Kim Kardashian West and with Robert Downey Jr., before the pandemic, and believed the season — if not the series — was finished. Instead, he was able to produce two more episodes over the summer, under substantially different circumstances: one with Dave Chappelle, which was recorded at an outdoor pavilion in Yellow Springs, Ohio; and one with Lizzo, at her home studio in Los Angeles, which had no audience at all. For Letterman, each of these episodes offered him a further education in the evolution of entertainment and deeper insights as an interviewer and observer of human nature. Even so, he found himself yearning for what he called “the carefree days of nonsense” when he could “bring people into a theater and talk to them for an hour, and when we were done I would go out into the crowd and shake hands, and everybody would want to tongue-kiss me.” “We don’t do that anymore,” he added. Letterman spoke further about his pandemic experience, the making of his Netflix series and what he hopes the future might hold for him. These are edited excerpts from that conversation. Q: How has the pandemic been for you? What is it like for you now? A: Like everybody else, you forget about it. Six, eight months into it, you go on talking as though things are normal, and then it’s, oh, no, we can’t do that because of the pandemic. In the beginning, it was more than ghastly. The husband of a woman that worked at (“Late Show”), he died. A teacher at Harry’s school died. Paul Shaffer and his wife both had it. Cathy, his wife, was hospitalized. Barbara Gaines, who was a producer on the show, she and her wife both had it. And on and on and on. Q: How do you feel when you come into contact with people elsewhere in the country who don’t seem to be taking the pandemic as seriously? A: That makes me very sad. Because we learned a lesson that these other people are dismissing. I was talking to a friend of mine, and he was furious at the mayor of his city for keeping it closed, and he said, “Well, that guy will never be reelected.” And I just thought, do I tell him what this really can be? We’re looking at a quarter of a million people dead soon. But I just didn’t want to have that fight. Q: After the 9/11 attacks, you gave several “Late Show” monologues where you tried to rally your viewers’ spirits and bring them together. Do you ever feel like saying anything similar now? A: Something applicable to these times? I wish I had the wherewithal to say something meaningful. But all of these people who are resisting the idea of prevention, I just keep thinking: What about the families of the 220,000 people who are dead? I wonder how they’re feeling. I don’t get it. I have no solution other than to do what is told: Take care of yourself and your family. Q: How did the pandemic affect your work on your Netflix series? A: I thought we were done for good. Really. In the beginning, it really seemed like, holy God, they’re coming over the wall, we’re all going to die. People keep reminding me that, at my age, I’m particularly vulnerable. Which I don’t appreciate at all. “Dad, you know you’re close to 100, you’d better not go out.” Q: How did you decide to continue with your season? A: We had two more episodes (with Lizzo and Dave Chappelle) in preproduction, and we were eager to do something. We did them within a very short period of time, and then we came home. By that point, there were protocols in place from the production company and from Netflix that we had to observe, gladly, and we got through it OK. Q: Kim Kardashian West, who is now a prized guest on your Netflix series, was a frequent target of mockery in your “Late Show” days. A: Oh, I was at the head of that list. I can remember when she would be booked on the show, it was like, I don’t know anything about her, and I’ve never seen her show. And then when we went to talk to Kanye, I thought, oh, I’ve misjudged this woman. Q: What changed your mind about her? A: After we met with Kanye West (for the previous season of the Netflix series), I had a long talk with her at their home, and I started to think about how I had used her as a joke and regarded her as someone not to be taken seriously. I found that that impression was not the end of the story. She had a family. She has her prison reform program. I won’t comment on the ease of being married to Kanye West. And if she can keep a show like that on the air for all those years, that’s an accomplishment. If you can stay in business on television that long, good for you. Q: You went to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to interview Dave Chappelle. Did you perform at his outdoor comedy show there? A: Yes. I think I did it. (To his publicist) Did I do it? (Publicist answers: “You did it.”) I’m being told I did it (laughs). It was grand. The setting is unique. It’s outdoors. Everybody’s tested, everybody social distanced. He had three or four comics on and each comic made my heart sink deeper. Because when I was doing comedy, a lot of it was (weakly) “Hey, where you from?” But these men and women, whoa — the level of it, the intellect of it, the presentation of it is so much more than it was when me and my little buddies were, “Hey, how ya doin’, I just got in from Indiana.” Really? No one cares. Get outta here. Q: Do you ever have moments in these interviews where you feel as if you don’t have a shared frame of reference to talk to some of these guests? A: Yes. Because the experience is barely parallel. We’re all in show business, but that’s as close a comparison as you can make, culturally. I did feel like, is this going to look stupid? An old guy here, trying to talk to people who are thriving and alive and dominating the world through social media? I felt like it was a wreck. That’s the inner dialogue. Q: How do you get past this? A: Like anybody else that you talk to, every human being, there are situations that helped develop into what they are. So you’re going to get a story out of anybody. It may not happen in the first five minutes, but in every one of these experiences, there’s always a conduit for mutual experience. “Oh yeah? You think that’s something? Well, one time I choked on a peanut-butter sandwich and nearly died.” You have to make everybody a good interview. Q: Do you think that late-night television, a genre that you helped to pioneer, has been diminished in recent years — that so much of it has become political comedy that doesn’t really move the needle and crowds out everything else? A: I know that people have been hugely successful with it. Stephen (Colbert) has done a great job with my old show — his show now. In my day, the goal was just anything to make the audience laugh. That may be part of the dynamic now. People have this hunger to see the current administration being assailed and embarrassing itself. So I think that’s what (late-night shows) worked toward. I don’t fault them for that. After a while, it wears thin, but the appetite for it has not worn thin. I think they still do enough business to keep people happy. Q: Do you ever find yourself fearing for the future of this country? A: I really did, until recently. And now I am confident — or more confident than I’ve been in the last four years — that we’re changing presidents in a couple of weeks. And it will be a huge victory. Not just for our culture and our government, but the simple act of voting will have been the reason that the rest of our country is put back together and, in many ways, saved from what appears to be tyranny, certainly jeopardy. I think it will be a huge victory on many fronts, not the least of which is calling attention to the valuable freedom of voting. Q: Please don’t mistake this for a suggestion, but do you ever think about packing it in as a broadcaster entirely? A: First of all, you can’t hurt my feelings because I’m dead inside. But the Netflix people put me back in business in a way that has been, for me, really, really fun. On the other hand, I recognize my own shelf life. I’m way overdue. When it happens, I still will enjoy little things here and there, and that’ll be enough. But there’s other people more capable. I got no problem with that. If there is any kind of schedule, it would be when my son is finished with high school. But if it’s tomorrow, that’s fine. Q: Your son, Harry, is 16 now. Are you worried about how the pandemic is going to affect his life? A: I think it’s every parent’s concern, regardless of the age of their kids. But for Harry and his buddies, the junior year of high school is a crucial experience. Now they’re starting to look beyond high school, and it’s not good. For guys Harry’s age and older, it might be a setback. Time takes care of everything, and one hopes that that’s the case here. Q: How do you talk about these feelings with him? A: I had a conversation with my son the other night that went this way. Because of the pandemic and the fact that he’s getting older, I said, Harry, your mother and I have two responsibilities. One is to keep you safe. And other than the time that your mother let you roll off the bed and land on your head, we have kept you safe. The other responsibility is your happiness. And he said, “Have you been drinking?” So that’s how that works at my house.

David Letterman isn’t here to cheer you up this time

As COVID-19 cases in China sink to new lows, the world's largest population of university students is heading back to campus in a migration defined by lockdowns, patriotic education and cutting-edge surveillance equipment.&nbsp;

The highly choreographed return comes as Chinese universities revert to in-person instruction for the fall semester after months of pandemic controls.

Some universities have strict rules governing how students eat, bathe and travel. Students in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai told Reuters that they must submit detailed movement reports and stay on campus.

"But they haven't yet told us the specific application process or what reasons will be considered reasonable," said one student at Beijing's Renmin University.&nbsp;

Renmin University did not respond to a request for comment. A notice on its social media account confirmed students must apply to leave campus.

<h6><img alt="People pass facial recognition camera-controlled gates to enter Peking University as Chinese students gradually return to their campuses after an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Beijing, China August 31, 2020. " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="01b81efa-4dac-476e-a6e5-2f0e2ed51890" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design-5_12.jpg" /> 
People pass facial recognition camera-controlled gates to enter Peking University as Chinese students gradually return to their campuses after an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Beijing, China August 31, 2020. | Reuters</h6>

At the same time, government procurement documents show dozens of&nbsp;universities have purchased "epidemic control" surveillance systems based on facial recognition, contact tracing and temperature checks.&nbsp;

There are more than 20 million university students in China, and most live on campus in shared dorm rooms, presenting a challenge for health authorities.&nbsp;

On Chinese social media, students have chafed at the controls, which mirror restrictions on the wider population during the height of the outbreak in March.

Responding to the criticism last week during a media briefing, officials from China's Ministry of Education said that the measures weren't compulsory for universities, but that students should not leave campuses unless necessary.

They also said "patriotic health campaigns" would be key to successfully reopening universities, and said lessons in "anti-epidemic spirit", including the "touching deeds" of medical workers, were compulsory.

HI-TECH SURVEILLANCE

Procurement documents posted online in the past two months by dozens of Chinese universities give insight into campus life in the COVID era, detailing technology systems designed to bar outsiders and collect students' data.

Many systems call for dozens of cameras that can collect facial data and temperatures, as well as notification systems that require students to enter information multiple times a day.&nbsp;

"All of a sudden we found dozens of cameras in our dorm building, six on each floor," said a student at Peking University, who asked to remain anonymous.

"It's like someone is watching you from when you wake up to when you go to sleep," said another Peking University student surnamed Mei, who found cameras in her dorm when she returned this month.

Peking University did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

One system at the University of Science and Technology Liaoning cost 429,000 yuan ($62,376) and uses cutting-edge facial-recognition temperature cameras that can spot people without masks, bidding documents show.

The platform compiles a daily "body temperature report", and stores students' historical temperatures for 30 days.

Nanchang University in Jiangxi province spent 158,000 yuan on a system that tracks and saves data on students' movements using their national ID numbers and facial recognition.&nbsp;

A system at Tianjin Normal University collects details on students' families, the addresses of places they visit off campus and how they get to the university.

It can also send reminders to students and teachers, and those who don't respond can be flagged to university personnel. Students who spoke to Reuters confirmed a variety of daily reporting requirements.

SHOWER BOOKINGS

The new rules have also given rise to more mundane challenges, students said.&nbsp;

Students returning to Nanjing University said they struggled to book time in the dormitory showers between disinfection rounds.&nbsp;

"Many students can't wash," said one Nanjing student surnamed Liu, adding that some sneak in without booking.

Several students said the rules could be flouted. Liu said temperature checks at campus gates were lax, with gate guards waving their thermometers from a distance.

Others said they feared the new surveillance tech would outlast the pandemic.&nbsp;

"I think there is that concern among students, but there's no option but to accept it," said Mei, the student at Peking University.

As COVID-19 cases in China sink to new lows, the world's largest population of university students is heading back to campus in a migration defined by lockdowns, patriotic education and cutting-edge surveillance equipment.

As COVID-19 cases in China sink to new lows, the world's largest population of university students is heading back to campus in a migration defined by lockdowns, patriotic education and cutting-edge surveillance equipment. The highly choreographed return comes as Chinese universities revert to in-person instruction for the fall semester after months of pandemic controls. Some universities have strict rules governing how students eat, bathe and travel. Students in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai told Reuters that they must submit detailed movement reports and stay on campus. "But they haven't yet told us the specific application process or what reasons will be considered reasonable," said one student at Beijing's Renmin University. Renmin University did not respond to a request for comment. A notice on its social media account confirmed students must apply to leave campus. People pass facial recognition camera-controlled gates to enter Peking University as Chinese students gradually return to their campuses after an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Beijing, China August 31, 2020. | Reuters At the same time, government procurement documents show dozens of universities have purchased "epidemic control" surveillance systems based on facial recognition, contact tracing and temperature checks. There are more than 20 million university students in China, and most live on campus in shared dorm rooms, presenting a challenge for health authorities. On Chinese social media, students have chafed at the controls, which mirror restrictions on the wider population during the height of the outbreak in March. Responding to the criticism last week during a media briefing, officials from China's Ministry of Education said that the measures weren't compulsory for universities, but that students should not leave campuses unless necessary. They also said "patriotic health campaigns" would be key to successfully reopening universities, and said lessons in "anti-epidemic spirit", including the "touching deeds" of medical workers, were compulsory. HI-TECH SURVEILLANCE Procurement documents posted online in the past two months by dozens of Chinese universities give insight into campus life in the COVID era, detailing technology systems designed to bar outsiders and collect students' data. Many systems call for dozens of cameras that can collect facial data and temperatures, as well as notification systems that require students to enter information multiple times a day. "All of a sudden we found dozens of cameras in our dorm building, six on each floor," said a student at Peking University, who asked to remain anonymous. "It's like someone is watching you from when you wake up to when you go to sleep," said another Peking University student surnamed Mei, who found cameras in her dorm when she returned this month. Peking University did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. One system at the University of Science and Technology Liaoning cost 429,000 yuan ($62,376) and uses cutting-edge facial-recognition temperature cameras that can spot people without masks, bidding documents show. The platform compiles a daily "body temperature report", and stores students' historical temperatures for 30 days. Nanchang University in Jiangxi province spent 158,000 yuan on a system that tracks and saves data on students' movements using their national ID numbers and facial recognition. A system at Tianjin Normal University collects details on students' families, the addresses of places they visit off campus and how they get to the university. It can also send reminders to students and teachers, and those who don't respond can be flagged to university personnel. Students who spoke to Reuters confirmed a variety of daily reporting requirements. SHOWER BOOKINGS The new rules have also given rise to more mundane challenges, students said. Students returning to Nanjing University said they struggled to book time in the dormitory showers between disinfection rounds. "Many students can't wash," said one Nanjing student surnamed Liu, adding that some sneak in without booking. Several students said the rules could be flouted. Liu said temperature checks at campus gates were lax, with gate guards waving their thermometers from a distance. Others said they feared the new surveillance tech would outlast the pandemic. "I think there is that concern among students, but there's no option but to accept it," said Mei, the student at Peking University.

Facial recognition and bathtime bookings: How China's universities are reopening

The flight of Sudiksha Bhati's dreams crashed even before taking off, according to her father, who said his 20-year-old daughter wanted to help rural children access education.

He also expressed anguish over no Uttar Pradesh government representative having reached out to the family even two days after the young woman, who was pursuing graduation in a US college, was killed in a road accident here.

"I was hopeful that this government would be concerned, but it is not," said Jitendra Bhati (46), the victim's father.

Sudiksha, who hailed from Deri Scanar village in Gautam Buddh Nagar's Dadri, died on Monday in a road crash in adjoining Bulandshahr district when she was riding pillion on a motorcycle with her younger brother, a minor.

Her family has alleged that the accident happened because two motorcycle-borne men were following her two-wheeler and harassing her.

Police, however, had said the woman's brother did not mention anything about harassment at the time of the incident.

Bhati said Sudiksha, the eldest of his six children, paved her own way to the US for higher studies and knew well about the hardships faced by children in villages in terms of access to education.

She wanted to become an enabler for those children, he said.

"She would tell us that there are organisations in the US which work on such issues, and was planning to begin her own organisation from her village to help children access education by helping them with books, stationary, tuitions, career guidance," he told PTI on the phone.

"She wanted to work for others. But the flight of her dreams has crashed even before it could take off," Bhati said.

Sudiksha was pursuing a graduation course in entrepreneurship at the Babson College, Massachusetts, US, after qualifying for a Rs 3.80-crore scholarship.

Her family members said she had come to India due to the coronavirus pandemic and was scheduled to go back to the US on August 20.

Bhati said he had an unstable income for the last several years and recalled how Sudiksha would tell him and her mother that their "time to become happy" was about to arrive.

"I worked as a driver till 2006 and did some odd jobs here and there over the next decade. I had opened a dhaba near Dhoom Manikpur village in Greater Noida around three years ago but had to shut it this year at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak and the accompanying lockdown," he said.

"I remember she would tell her mother and me: 'Aap logon ke hasne ke din bas aane wale hain' (Your happy days are about to arrive). But I had not imagined that our days to cry and mourn her untimely loss would arrive sooner," he added.

Bhati said his family is now awaiting justice by immediate arrest of the culprits.

"No government representative has reached out to us to even ask how we are doing," he said.

Reacting to a video on social media in which the Bulandshahr district magistrate said Sudiksha's family could not be contacted over phone and personnel have been sent to her home, Bhati said, "How come you could easily reach me on the phone but not anyone from the administration?" He, however, said he got a phone call from Bulandshahr police officials on Wednesday in connection with the probe into the case.

Asked if anyone from the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) or Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to meet him, he replied: "At least some political parties have shown concern but the government has not."

Bhati said he and his family are now getting "stressed" because of the repeat telecast of video bites of police and administration officials in Bulandshahr over his daughter's death.

"They are repeatedly hitting the point about who was riding the motorcycle in their videos. I have said it to the press that my nephew (Sudiksha's cousin brother) was riding it. But nobody is talking about how she died," he remarked.

"I have lost my daughter. Can the officers talk about that?" he said, adding, "The government officials are now giving assurances. In our country, you can give assurance to anybody walking on the road. It is the easiest thing to do."

Earlier on Wednesday, the police said they have questioned the owners of 15-20 Bullet motorcycles in connection with Sudiksha's death, to follow up with her family's claim about harassment by two bike-borne men.

The Bulandshahr Senior Superintendent of Police has constituted a three-member SIT, led by Circle Officer (city) Diksha Singh, to probe the matter.

The district police has filed an FIR against two unidentified people on the basis of a complaint by Sudiksha's father.

The flight of Sudiksha Bhati's dreams crashed even before taking off, according to her father, who said his 20-year-old daughter wanted to help rural children access education.

The flight of Sudiksha Bhati's dreams crashed even before taking off, according to her father, who said his 20-year-old daughter wanted to help rural children access education. He also expressed anguish over no Uttar Pradesh government representative having reached out to the family even two days after the young woman, who was pursuing graduation in a US college, was killed in a road accident here. "I was hopeful that this government would be concerned, but it is not," said Jitendra Bhati (46), the victim's father. Sudiksha, who hailed from Deri Scanar village in Gautam Buddh Nagar's Dadri, died on Monday in a road crash in adjoining Bulandshahr district when she was riding pillion on a motorcycle with her younger brother, a minor. Her family has alleged that the accident happened because two motorcycle-borne men were following her two-wheeler and harassing her. Police, however, had said the woman's brother did not mention anything about harassment at the time of the incident. Bhati said Sudiksha, the eldest of his six children, paved her own way to the US for higher studies and knew well about the hardships faced by children in villages in terms of access to education. She wanted to become an enabler for those children, he said. "She would tell us that there are organisations in the US which work on such issues, and was planning to begin her own organisation from her village to help children access education by helping them with books, stationary, tuitions, career guidance," he told PTI on the phone. "She wanted to work for others. But the flight of her dreams has crashed even before it could take off," Bhati said. Sudiksha was pursuing a graduation course in entrepreneurship at the Babson College, Massachusetts, US, after qualifying for a Rs 3.80-crore scholarship. Her family members said she had come to India due to the coronavirus pandemic and was scheduled to go back to the US on August 20. Bhati said he had an unstable income for the last several years and recalled how Sudiksha would tell him and her mother that their "time to become happy" was about to arrive. "I worked as a driver till 2006 and did some odd jobs here and there over the next decade. I had opened a dhaba near Dhoom Manikpur village in Greater Noida around three years ago but had to shut it this year at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak and the accompanying lockdown," he said. "I remember she would tell her mother and me: 'Aap logon ke hasne ke din bas aane wale hain' (Your happy days are about to arrive). But I had not imagined that our days to cry and mourn her untimely loss would arrive sooner," he added. Bhati said his family is now awaiting justice by immediate arrest of the culprits. "No government representative has reached out to us to even ask how we are doing," he said. Reacting to a video on social media in which the Bulandshahr district magistrate said Sudiksha's family could not be contacted over phone and personnel have been sent to her home, Bhati said, "How come you could easily reach me on the phone but not anyone from the administration?" He, however, said he got a phone call from Bulandshahr police officials on Wednesday in connection with the probe into the case. Asked if anyone from the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) or Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to meet him, he replied: "At least some political parties have shown concern but the government has not." Bhati said he and his family are now getting "stressed" because of the repeat telecast of video bites of police and administration officials in Bulandshahr over his daughter's death. "They are repeatedly hitting the point about who was riding the motorcycle in their videos. I have said it to the press that my nephew (Sudiksha's cousin brother) was riding it. But nobody is talking about how she died," he remarked. "I have lost my daughter. Can the officers talk about that?" he said, adding, "The government officials are now giving assurances. In our country, you can give assurance to anybody walking on the road. It is the easiest thing to do." Earlier on Wednesday, the police said they have questioned the owners of 15-20 Bullet motorcycles in connection with Sudiksha's death, to follow up with her family's claim about harassment by two bike-borne men. The Bulandshahr Senior Superintendent of Police has constituted a three-member SIT, led by Circle Officer (city) Diksha Singh, to probe the matter. The district police has filed an FIR against two unidentified people on the basis of a complaint by Sudiksha's father.

Sudiksha Bhati wanted to help rural children access education, says father of US student killed in mishap

An Ecuadorean teenager has set up an improvised school under a tree in a poor neighborhood of northern Guayaquil for some 40 students who haven't been able to study during the COVID-19 lockdown for lack of internet access.

Ecuador teen teaches class under a tree for kids without internet

In the aftermath of the implementation of China’s controversial national security law in Hong Kong, which bans criticism of the Chinese administration, and subverts&nbsp;pro-democracy protests, schools are now being asked to review textual content.

"Positively teach students"&nbsp;

On Monday, the city’s Education Bureau said that schools shall not provide any reading material which violates the law, in a bid to “positively teach” students regarding the new law.

The security law, which was imposed last week, criminalises secession, terrorism, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces. Those found guilty may serve prison sentences, even life imprisonment.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/world/china-warns-canada-of-consequences-over-hong-kong-interference-311066" hreflang="en">China warns Canada of 'consequences' over Hong Kong interference</a>

While the critics have called it an attack on the “One country, two systems” mode of administration under which Hong Kong was given to China by Britain, Beijing claims that this will only address “loopholes” in the current legislation.

Recently, books from libraries on the topic of democracy recently disappeared. Additionally, many leaders and activists have also gone missing-in-action.

The Education Bureau has directed teachers to review “all teaching material, including books”.

"As with other serious crimes or immoral behaviour that is not socially acceptable, materials should be removed and re-selected," the bureau said.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="http://wionews.com/videos/hong-kong-protesters-get-creative-against-security-law-310956/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Pro-democracy books disappear

Many books written by activists like Joshua Wong and Tanya Chan are no longer available for reading.

Even though China claims it will let Hong Kong take care of its affairs, in rare circumstances people could be extradited to mainland China. In essence, this law materialises the goals of the now-panned extradition law while effectively ensuring no dissent against Chinese administration brews in the financial hub.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/world/democracy-books-disappear-from-hong-kong-libraries-310691" hreflang="en">Democracy books disappear from Hong Kong libraries</a>

Fearing jail time, or worse, naysayers of the Chinese government will be put in prison for three-ten years depending on the gravity of crimes. Those who commit “serious crimes” may also face life imprisonment.

What emerged as a protest against China’s now scrapped extradition law for Hong Kongers, turned into a larger demand for democracy and against Chinese influence in the city.

The city is judged by its mini-constitution called “Basic law”. Any actions by people qualifying as “endangering the state” may be used to arrest people.

In the aftermath of the implementation of China’s controversial national security law in Hong Kong, which bans criticism of the Chinese administration, and subverts pro-democracy protests, schools are now being asked to review textual content.

In the aftermath of the implementation of China’s controversial national security law in Hong Kong, which bans criticism of the Chinese administration, and subverts pro-democracy protests, schools are now being asked to review textual content. "Positively teach students" On Monday, the city’s Education Bureau said that schools shall not provide any reading material which violates the law, in a bid to “positively teach” students regarding the new law. The security law, which was imposed last week, criminalises secession, terrorism, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces. Those found guilty may serve prison sentences, even life imprisonment. Also read: China warns Canada of 'consequences' over Hong Kong interference While the critics have called it an attack on the “One country, two systems” mode of administration under which Hong Kong was given to China by Britain, Beijing claims that this will only address “loopholes” in the current legislation. Recently, books from libraries on the topic of democracy recently disappeared. Additionally, many leaders and activists have also gone missing-in-action. The Education Bureau has directed teachers to review “all teaching material, including books”. "As with other serious crimes or immoral behaviour that is not socially acceptable, materials should be removed and re-selected," the bureau said. Pro-democracy books disappear Many books written by activists like Joshua Wong and Tanya Chan are no longer available for reading. Even though China claims it will let Hong Kong take care of its affairs, in rare circumstances people could be extradited to mainland China. In essence, this law materialises the goals of the now-panned extradition law while effectively ensuring no dissent against Chinese administration brews in the financial hub. Also read: Democracy books disappear from Hong Kong libraries Fearing jail time, or worse, naysayers of the Chinese government will be put in prison for three-ten years depending on the gravity of crimes. Those who commit “serious crimes” may also face life imprisonment. What emerged as a protest against China’s now scrapped extradition law for Hong Kongers, turned into a larger demand for democracy and against Chinese influence in the city. The city is judged by its mini-constitution called “Basic law”. Any actions by people qualifying as “endangering the state” may be used to arrest people.

Schools in Hong Kong will review teaching material to 'positively teach' students

Schools have been forced to make a shift to digital classrooms amid the Coronavirus pandemic, but is this model effective? Do we have the right modules or tutorials for online education? Are teachers prepared for remote teaching? What about disadvantaged children and families who have no access to smart technologies? Will the lack of brick-and-mortar classrooms have long-lasting consequences for children? Or can online education be an effective alternative in a post-Covid world? Watch the show to find out.

Hard Reset: Impact of Coronavirus on Education

Pope Francis on Friday (June 5) spoke about the importance of education, and invited people to commit themselves to caring for the environment.

'Education is listening and celebrating life', Pope Francis says in video conference with Latin first ladies

The desire to study and help her family led Alisson Goez, an eight-year-old girl from rural Medellin in Colombia, to sell her drawings to buy a computer to attend virtual classes from home during the coronavirus quarantine

Colombian girl sells art to buy computer for home studies

Paris bookstore Ici Librairie redrew its floor plan as it reopened on Monday (May 11) after France lifted strict lockdown measures in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

Paris bookstore reopens after lockdown, stacking alcohol gel next to bestsellers

Israel partly reopened nurseries and kindergartens on Sunday (May 10), increasing the number of children who have returned to daycare as part of efforts to revive the economy as coronavirus worries subside.

Preschoolers return as Israel further eases coronavirus curbs

Group of teachers working to keep education available for displaced children in Atmeh camp, turn to lessons via WhatsApp as threat of coronavirus forces the tent school to close.

Fearing corona, young teachers turn to Whatsapp lessons in Syria camp

UK school pupils practices a foot-to-foot 'handshake' on Wednesday (March 4) that has been adopted around the world as a way stop spreading the coronavirus.

UK school practices handshake with feet as coronavirus spreads

Completing formal school education from a school-based in rural areas can feel like a 12-15-year-long hurdle race! These hurdles spare no student.&nbsp;

The cultural, social, and economic factors make special provisions for female students. They have to move past additional hurdles in the presence of more restrictions and safety concerns. Most of the times, these additional hurdles disqualify them from the race to complete their education.&nbsp;

Lack of Motivation and Awareness: There is a lack of motivation amongst many students and their families in ensuring any form of education. The importance of education is not perceived as a priority by many families. They believe that the children have to ultimately join the farmlands and will not get a job after completing school education, so there is little value in it. Providing education, thus, seems like an unnecessary and expensive step to take – or even a risk. They rather prefer getting some help from their children at their farmlands or at homes. Veerni, my host organisation, provides free and safe educational and boarding facility to the underprivileged girls of Rajasthan. Despite Veerni’s support and facilities, almost every year 1-2 students drop out due to family and economic pressures.&nbsp;

Inaccessibility: Even if the students and their families value the importance of education, inaccessibility of resources becomes a hurdle. These hurdles include the absence of schools in villages, the absence of secondary schools in villages, bad economic conditions, remote locations of schools, the absence of basic facilities (such as clean drinking water, toilets, and benches) and motor vehicles for schools located in remote areas. There are multiple schemes and programmes run by the central and the state governments. However, many of these remain unknown by the majority of people. Before Veerni’s intervention through secondary education, there were several villages in which completion of education was a far-fetched dream.&nbsp;

Compromised State of Teaching Staff: Factors like teacher absenteeism, lack of adequate teaching staff, poor quality of the teaching, lack of regular training sessions, and lack of accountability compromise the quality of education. While teaching spoken and written English at Veerni to the students of class 6 to class 9, I witnessed first-hand the unfortunate state of education at public schools in villages. Students who were learning English grammar struggled to understand the difference between small letters, cursive writing, numerical values in words, basic spellings, and elementary conversational words.&nbsp;

Social Factors: Earlier, girls were not allowed to complete education as the society would then deem them as unfit and unsuitable wives and daughters-in-law. This thought has been changing due to the increasing demand of educated females by the semi-educated or educated males. Caste and communal issues also lead to dropouts. A few years ago, several students belonging to the lower castes were forced by the upper castes of the same village to leave Veerni. To shed light on this: ‘Under the Adarsh Scheme , the merging of the schools has forced the children to drop out. It becomes difficult for Dalit children to attend school when educational institutions in their neighbourhood are merged with those in upper-caste localities. Many female students from conservative families also drop out when girls schools are merged with co-ed ones.

To a large extent, these issues can be resolved with the help of non-governmental organisations, governmental organisations, and civic bodies. These problems can be controlled in the following three foundational ways:&nbsp;

Infrastructure and Capacity Building: These organisations can focus on capacity building of the existing infrastructure and construct additional schools in the areas where there is an absence of schools or secondary schools. The 2019-20 budgetary provision of Rs 1,581 crores for education in Rajasthan under the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan School Infrastructure Scheme would be utilised for construction of over 14,000 classrooms, laboratories and libraries and 23 new school buildings as well as the renovation of 83 buildings.

The Rajasthan state government with the help of the Boston Consulting Group, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Central Square Foundation, implemented the Rajasthan Adarsh Yojana in 2014. 
 
Under this scheme, more than 12,000 elementary and secondary schools have been merged to create 'Adarsh' schools which will be properly staffed and equipped with sufficient resources to provide quality education.[5] However, these schemes shouldn’t be considered as a straight-jacket solution. These issues require transformation from below and steps should be taken considering the social and cultural standing of the community.&nbsp;

Safe Boarding and Educational Facility:  Another change can be brought by establishing safe boarding and educational facilities for students. Motivation can be drawn from the Veerni Institute, SMART Academy of Tech Mahindra Foundation and others. In this way, they can provide quality education, reduce student-teacher absenteeism, ensure a proper student-teacher ratio, support physical and mental health and development, and prepare them for higher education.&nbsp;

Outsourcing: In the due process of making arrangements for the above two solutions or in case of unavailability of the resources, external resources can be utilised temporarily. The government, the non-governmental organisations, schools and civic bodies can collaborate with individuals or organisations that can provide their services on a temporary basis to provide interim healing.&nbsp;

These services can be of spoken and written English, physical education, arts, vocational training, self-defence and career counselling. They can be delivered either through an offline medium or an online medium. These structural issues shouldn’t become a reason for hampering the education, growth and development of millions of students studying in the rural areas of the country.

Lastly, there are certain issues especially socio-cultural issues which will keep increasing the hurdles in the race to a complete education. This will require the stakeholders to contribute years of effort to revolutionise the ground reality.&nbsp;

Consistent efforts, cultural understanding, awareness campaigns amongst others will play a significant role in transforming the current reality. Veerni Institute is an inspirational example.&nbsp; 
 
*A previous version of this article was <a href="https://aif.org/a-hurdle-race-education-in-rural-areas/ ">originally published</a> by the American India Foundation 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;

Completing formal school education from a school-based in rural areas can feel like a 12-15-year-long hurdle race! These hurdles spare no student. The cultural, social, and economic factors make special provisions for female students.

Completing formal school education from a school-based in rural areas can feel like a 12-15-year-long hurdle race! These hurdles spare no student. The cultural, social, and economic factors make special provisions for female students. They have to move past additional hurdles in the presence of more restrictions and safety concerns. Most of the times, these additional hurdles disqualify them from the race to complete their education. Lack of Motivation and Awareness: There is a lack of motivation amongst many students and their families in ensuring any form of education. The importance of education is not perceived as a priority by many families. They believe that the children have to ultimately join the farmlands and will not get a job after completing school education, so there is little value in it. Providing education, thus, seems like an unnecessary and expensive step to take – or even a risk. They rather prefer getting some help from their children at their farmlands or at homes. Veerni, my host organisation, provides free and safe educational and boarding facility to the underprivileged girls of Rajasthan. Despite Veerni’s support and facilities, almost every year 1-2 students drop out due to family and economic pressures. Inaccessibility: Even if the students and their families value the importance of education, inaccessibility of resources becomes a hurdle. These hurdles include the absence of schools in villages, the absence of secondary schools in villages, bad economic conditions, remote locations of schools, the absence of basic facilities (such as clean drinking water, toilets, and benches) and motor vehicles for schools located in remote areas. There are multiple schemes and programmes run by the central and the state governments. However, many of these remain unknown by the majority of people. Before Veerni’s intervention through secondary education, there were several villages in which completion of education was a far-fetched dream. Compromised State of Teaching Staff: Factors like teacher absenteeism, lack of adequate teaching staff, poor quality of the teaching, lack of regular training sessions, and lack of accountability compromise the quality of education. While teaching spoken and written English at Veerni to the students of class 6 to class 9, I witnessed first-hand the unfortunate state of education at public schools in villages. Students who were learning English grammar struggled to understand the difference between small letters, cursive writing, numerical values in words, basic spellings, and elementary conversational words. Social Factors: Earlier, girls were not allowed to complete education as the society would then deem them as unfit and unsuitable wives and daughters-in-law. This thought has been changing due to the increasing demand of educated females by the semi-educated or educated males. Caste and communal issues also lead to dropouts. A few years ago, several students belonging to the lower castes were forced by the upper castes of the same village to leave Veerni. To shed light on this: ‘Under the Adarsh Scheme , the merging of the schools has forced the children to drop out. It becomes difficult for Dalit children to attend school when educational institutions in their neighbourhood are merged with those in upper-caste localities. Many female students from conservative families also drop out when girls schools are merged with co-ed ones. To a large extent, these issues can be resolved with the help of non-governmental organisations, governmental organisations, and civic bodies. These problems can be controlled in the following three foundational ways: Infrastructure and Capacity Building: These organisations can focus on capacity building of the existing infrastructure and construct additional schools in the areas where there is an absence of schools or secondary schools. The 2019-20 budgetary provision of Rs 1,581 crores for education in Rajasthan under the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan School Infrastructure Scheme would be utilised for construction of over 14,000 classrooms, laboratories and libraries and 23 new school buildings as well as the renovation of 83 buildings. The Rajasthan state government with the help of the Boston Consulting Group, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Central Square Foundation, implemented the Rajasthan Adarsh Yojana in 2014. Under this scheme, more than 12,000 elementary and secondary schools have been merged to create 'Adarsh' schools which will be properly staffed and equipped with sufficient resources to provide quality education.[5] However, these schemes shouldn’t be considered as a straight-jacket solution. These issues require transformation from below and steps should be taken considering the social and cultural standing of the community. Safe Boarding and Educational Facility:  Another change can be brought by establishing safe boarding and educational facilities for students. Motivation can be drawn from the Veerni Institute, SMART Academy of Tech Mahindra Foundation and others. In this way, they can provide quality education, reduce student-teacher absenteeism, ensure a proper student-teacher ratio, support physical and mental health and development, and prepare them for higher education. Outsourcing: In the due process of making arrangements for the above two solutions or in case of unavailability of the resources, external resources can be utilised temporarily. The government, the non-governmental organisations, schools and civic bodies can collaborate with individuals or organisations that can provide their services on a temporary basis to provide interim healing. These services can be of spoken and written English, physical education, arts, vocational training, self-defence and career counselling. They can be delivered either through an offline medium or an online medium. These structural issues shouldn’t become a reason for hampering the education, growth and development of millions of students studying in the rural areas of the country. Lastly, there are certain issues especially socio-cultural issues which will keep increasing the hurdles in the race to a complete education. This will require the stakeholders to contribute years of effort to revolutionise the ground reality. Consistent efforts, cultural understanding, awareness campaigns amongst others will play a significant role in transforming the current reality. Veerni Institute is an inspirational example. *A previous version of this article was originally published by the American India Foundation (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

A hurdle race: Education in rural areas

Ivy League universities such as Harvard and Yale are now being investigated by the US Department of Education on suspicion that they received undisclosed funds from foreign countries.

Ivy League universities such as Harvard and Yale are now being investigated by the US Department of Education on suspicion that they received undisclosed funds from foreign countries. As per reports, elite schools are not fully reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign gifts and contracts. Responses are allegedly being prepared by both universities for the government. This precedes a clampdown on monetary transactions between academic institutions and foreign entities, for universities are required under US law to report all gifts and contracts from foreign sources above $250,000. Similar letters were sent in November by the Department of Education to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Maryland, demanding information on contracts with foreign structures. Department of Education has reportedly discovered upwards of 6.6 billion dollars since July in the form of previously unreleased gifts from nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, and the United Arab Emirates. The figure is reported to be significantly underestimated and officials have previously described overseas spending at US universities as a “black hole," warning that such money can come with strings attached. US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos stated that this is about transparency. "If colleges and universities are accepting foreign money and gifts, their students, donors, and taxpayers deserve to know how much and from whom.” Unfortunately, more and more shreds of evidence about universities underreporting or not reporting foreign funds at all are discovered the longer this investigation continues. Yale has decided not to disclose foreign funding for the past four years, per reports from the Department of Education. The university is suspected of failing to disclose at least $ 375 million in foreign gifts and contracts. The agency has reportedly expressed concern about Harvard not having “appropriate institutional controls over foreign money” which led to its inability to report on foreign gifts and contracts. Department of Education sent letters to Ivy League universities and called on them to provide names and addresses of foreign sources involved in contracts and gifts, as well as the events financed since August 2013. Yale was ordered to release similar information on foreign contributions, while Harvard was requested to disclose records concerning the governments of China, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and companies including Chinese technology giant Huawei. Department of Education noted that American universities were utilised "to disseminate propaganda in the interests of the authorities of other countries.” Additionally, the government expressed concerns that other States may fund American universities to gather confidential information. First in the list of threats were Russia and China, per the new National Counterintelligence Strategy of the US for 2020–2022. Other nations on the list included Cuba, Iran, North Korea, the Hezbollah movement, the Islamic State terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda and more. The countries mentioned above are reportedly using sophisticated tools such as autonomous systems, biometric devices, advanced encryption, surveillance systems to use information as a strategic resource to achieve their goals in the field of economic security and put pressure on their competitors. Active steps from the opposition can allegedly undermine the military advantage of the United States as well as the credibility and authenticity of American products and services. To deal with this threat, the counterintelligence branch has decided to increase the level of protection offered to critical infrastructure, diminish the number of threats to key supply chains and counter the cyber and technical activities of foreign intelligence, among other goals. US authorities have recently begun to demand the implementation of a rule that orders American universities to notify authorities of foreign contracts and gifts in the amount of $ 250,000 and more. A large-scale program aimed at strengthening control over the finances of American higher education institutions is the headstone of this investigation, involving States whose policies run contrary to America and have been plotting to win over the best minds of the country. US Department of Energy issued a ban on full-time employees working with colleagues from other countries as the groundwork in the United States could be used by them in particularly sensitive projects. Workers who continue to maintain such ties will be asked to sever them or resign, per reports. Recognized leaders in their respective scientific fields will be affected by the ban, as their access to technological developments of interest to foreign governments will be affected. The United States will be protected from data leakages to nations posing a threat to the US.

375 million dollars from foreign countries to Ivy League schools, US Department of Education investigates

India needs funds for education, but foreign funds come with strings attached. India's education system needs urgent reform and money.

This is a young country - a demographic jackpot. But no Indian university features among the top 100 in the world. It's not because of a lack of talent, but because of lack of capital.

India's education sector is starved of funds - major universities are still state-run and they depend on the government for cash.

In this budget, the government allocated Rs 99,300 crores to education - it sounds like a big sum, but it's not enough.

It was a modest increase from the previous budget, but academics say it won't fulfil the needs of educational institutions. That's where foreign players come in.

The entry of foreign universities can improve the system and make Indian universities more competitive, promote innovation and facilitate global academic cooperation.

But, how do you regulate such a setup? How do you make sure that foreign money doesn't influence Indian education?

That is the problem America is grappling with today. Since 2012, American colleges and universities reported more than 10 billion dollars in foreign assistance. In 2017, 91 institutions reported that they received more than one billion in gifts and contracts from foreign governments and non-government sources.

The money came from 105 countries. But, China has emerged as the biggest donor, now the Trump administration is cracking down. The initial probe suggests that the relationship between universities and foreign donors has evolved over time.

And the laws have simply failed to catch up as India opens its doors to foreign players, it must take lessons from America. A tight regulatory framework is needed to keep foreign investments in check.

The government should not leave academic research completely in the hands of private players, funding research critical to national development must remain a strategic priority.

Academic experts must be mobilised to review foreign grants, contracts, collaborations and affiliations. In the end, foreign funding must promote learning, academic autonomy and student engagement at universities.

India's campuses are centres of learning, free speech and debate, foreign funding should not be allowed to turn them into agenda pushers.

(Disclaimer: WION Edit is the channel's take on the big events of the world) 
&nbsp;

India needs funds for education, but foreign funds come with strings attached. India's education system needs urgent reform and money. This is a young country - a demographic jackpot.

India needs funds for education, but foreign funds come with strings attached. India's education system needs urgent reform and money. This is a young country - a demographic jackpot. But no Indian university features among the top 100 in the world. It's not because of a lack of talent, but because of lack of capital. India's education sector is starved of funds - major universities are still state-run and they depend on the government for cash. In this budget, the government allocated Rs 99,300 crores to education - it sounds like a big sum, but it's not enough. It was a modest increase from the previous budget, but academics say it won't fulfil the needs of educational institutions. That's where foreign players come in. The entry of foreign universities can improve the system and make Indian universities more competitive, promote innovation and facilitate global academic cooperation. But, how do you regulate such a setup? How do you make sure that foreign money doesn't influence Indian education? That is the problem America is grappling with today. Since 2012, American colleges and universities reported more than 10 billion dollars in foreign assistance. In 2017, 91 institutions reported that they received more than one billion in gifts and contracts from foreign governments and non-government sources. The money came from 105 countries. But, China has emerged as the biggest donor, now the Trump administration is cracking down. The initial probe suggests that the relationship between universities and foreign donors has evolved over time. And the laws have simply failed to catch up as India opens its doors to foreign players, it must take lessons from America. A tight regulatory framework is needed to keep foreign investments in check. The government should not leave academic research completely in the hands of private players, funding research critical to national development must remain a strategic priority. Academic experts must be mobilised to review foreign grants, contracts, collaborations and affiliations. In the end, foreign funding must promote learning, academic autonomy and student engagement at universities. India's campuses are centres of learning, free speech and debate, foreign funding should not be allowed to turn them into agenda pushers. (Disclaimer: WION Edit is the channel's take on the big events of the world)

WION Edit: Foreign financial Influence in universities -  lessons for India

There is a record hike in Indian students choosing foreign universities, however, we have seen many times children opt for global education because either their parents want them to go overseas, or their friends and fellow classmates study abroad. Shweta Khurana explains how peer pressure on students for global education increases the internal pressure and unhealthy competition, and they should be allowed to make their own choice.

Students should not be compelled to opt for global education

Zurich is emerging as a favourite city among Indians. More and more Indians are migrating to the Switzerland city, Indians are attracted by its education, system and, startup culture.

WION Wallet: Switzerland's banking, fintech centre attract Indians

The changes to the charter of Fudan University in Shanghai, considered one of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/opinions/chinas-failed-quest-for-soft-power-268344">China</a>'s more liberal institutions, came to light on Tuesday when the education ministry said it had approved alterations for three universities.

Within hours, the Fudan amendments were trending on the Weibo social media platform with one hashtag viewed more than a million times.

"If I may dare to ask those who initiated the amendment of the Fudan University charter, how do you expect our generation of Fudan people to face our ancestors," said one Weibo user.

But that post and many similar ones questioning the changes - in particular, the removal of the phrase "freedom of thought" - was deleted by Wednesday afternoon, although the issue was being discussed in private WeChat groups.

Since Communist Party leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/china-tightens-the-screws-after-leaks-on-state-sponsored-atrocities-in-xinjiang-268348">tightened</a> controls on the internet and civil society in a campaign that has seen increasing censorship and shrinking space for dissent, including on campuses.

Xi has also sought to boost the party's role and deepen its influence across society.

A video circulating on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon showed a group of Fudan University students singing their college anthem, which includes the phrase "freedom of thought", during their lunch break.

Students there confirmed to Reuters that the event had taken place.

Calls to Fudan University's press department on Wednesday to seek comment went unanswered. The Ministry of Education did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

Late on Wednesday, the 114-year-old university posted a statement on social media saying the charter alterations had been made "in strict accordance with legal procedures".

It also noted, however, that the school would continue to have the same anthem. The song, composed in 1925, includes the phrase "academic independence and freedom of thought".

The party has kept an eagle eye on campuses to nip would-be dissent in the bud since university students led pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Universities in China have long operated without full academic independence. Curricula are bound by Communist Party diktats and political norms that render certain topics or positions off-limits.

Still, some commentators on Weibo noted how the amendments pointed to an expansion of Communist Party control, with the revised charter saying that&nbsp;Fudan's "party committee is the core of the university" and would be responsible for setting its direction and making major decisions.

The new charter said the university would "weaponise the minds of teachers and students using Xi Jinping’s socialist ideology with characteristics of China in the new era”.

Fudan is ranked 109 globally in the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/opinion-will-greater-autonomy-bring-quality-to-indias-top-colleges-34995">Times Higher Education</a>'s 2020 World University Rankings.

The two other universities that made changes to their charters were Shaanxi Normal University and Nanjing University, according to documents published by the Ministry of Education, which showed that it had approved the changes on Dec. 2

Their revised charters similarly included references to strengthening the leadership of the Communist Party at the universities.

The changes to the charter of Fudan University in Shanghai, considered one of China's more liberal institutions, came to light on Tuesday when the education ministry said it had approved alterations for three universities.

The changes to the charter of Fudan University in Shanghai, considered one of China's more liberal institutions, came to light on Tuesday when the education ministry said it had approved alterations for three universities. Within hours, the Fudan amendments were trending on the Weibo social media platform with one hashtag viewed more than a million times. "If I may dare to ask those who initiated the amendment of the Fudan University charter, how do you expect our generation of Fudan people to face our ancestors," said one Weibo user. But that post and many similar ones questioning the changes - in particular, the removal of the phrase "freedom of thought" - was deleted by Wednesday afternoon, although the issue was being discussed in private WeChat groups. Since Communist Party leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has tightened controls on the internet and civil society in a campaign that has seen increasing censorship and shrinking space for dissent, including on campuses. Xi has also sought to boost the party's role and deepen its influence across society. A video circulating on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon showed a group of Fudan University students singing their college anthem, which includes the phrase "freedom of thought", during their lunch break. Students there confirmed to Reuters that the event had taken place. Calls to Fudan University's press department on Wednesday to seek comment went unanswered. The Ministry of Education did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. Late on Wednesday, the 114-year-old university posted a statement on social media saying the charter alterations had been made "in strict accordance with legal procedures". It also noted, however, that the school would continue to have the same anthem. The song, composed in 1925, includes the phrase "academic independence and freedom of thought". The party has kept an eagle eye on campuses to nip would-be dissent in the bud since university students led pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Universities in China have long operated without full academic independence. Curricula are bound by Communist Party diktats and political norms that render certain topics or positions off-limits. Still, some commentators on Weibo noted how the amendments pointed to an expansion of Communist Party control, with the revised charter saying that Fudan's "party committee is the core of the university" and would be responsible for setting its direction and making major decisions. The new charter said the university would "weaponise the minds of teachers and students using Xi Jinping’s socialist ideology with characteristics of China in the new era”. Fudan is ranked 109 globally in the Times Higher Education's 2020 World University Rankings. The two other universities that made changes to their charters were Shaanxi Normal University and Nanjing University, according to documents published by the Ministry of Education, which showed that it had approved the changes on Dec. 2 Their revised charters similarly included references to strengthening the leadership of the Communist Party at the universities.

Change to Chinese university's charter dropping 'freedom of thought' stirs debate

education-0

Education, News on Education, stories on Education, articles on Education, Education stories at Wion, Education news, Education latest news

education 0