Source : Deccan Herald
Name: Ribhav Nair
Grade: 7
School: Ekya School, Byrathi
“Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings – Evan Esar.”
How apt and sincere! This quote speaks volumes about zoos which are undoubtedly a safe haven for many endangered species. Many people believe that zoos cage animals and put them in small enclosures just for people to look at; they don’t give the animals any sort of freedom. Though that is true, people are so narrow minded that they don’t bother to look at the positive side of zoos. To start with, zoos educate people. And the information they provide to the public, could save a whole species. Secondly, zoos raise money for those endangered species that would not have survived in the wild. With the money raised, they give the species one more opportunity to bounce back and continue life. They also give animals shelter, food, and protection from poachers, habitat loss, and predators. Whether acceptable or not to innumerable minds, zoos have saved countless species of animals.
Against
Name: Siri Neti
Grade: 9
School: Vishwa Vidyapeeth, Yelahanka
I have always had my reservations about zoos and the pandemic has only strengthened my stance. Haven’t we all been confined to our houses? Aren’t we relieved to be able to live our lives with freedom to stroll, and go out as desired?
We are independent as a nation and as humans so don’t the animals have the right to live independently? Mind you, animals are not for entertainment.
Every time I visit a zoo, the sight of animals cramped up behind walls or metal cages melts my heart. Animals in captivity often suffer from boredom and stress. We, as humans, have no right to capture animals and captivate them. The generational bond of the animals breaks if we sell or trade them to other countries. Helping the endangered animals breed and give birth to their own species is not a bad idea but excessive breeding leads to overpopulation of the animals. I believe that there are many zoos that should be shut down immediately and the majority of ‘good zoos’ still need to make massive improvements to their facilities.
Source: The Hindu
Last year, the pass percentage in the Bengaluru region in the Class X examination was 98.23%
As many as 99.96% CBSE students from Karnataka cleared Class X. The Bengaluru region bagged the second spot.
Last year, the pass percentage in the Bengaluru region in the Class X examination was 98.23%. The first spot was bagged by the Trivandrum region, where 99.99% of the students had cleared the exam.
A statement issued by CBSE stated that 62,503 of the total 62,529 students in Karnataka cleared the exam. As many as 34,838 of 34,856 boys and 27,665 girls of the total 27,673, cleared. The pass percentage for boys was 99.95%, which was marginally lower than the pass percentage of girls at 99.97%.
Students were graded based on the scores obtained in Class X in the unit tests, mid-term examinations and the pre-board examinations.
While schools in the city are elated with the scores, many students who are toppers in their schools feel that their marks would have been higher if the board examinations were conducted. Many school managements also pointed out that they had to moderate the marks of students.
Shrutika D., a Class X student, said that she was extremely disappointed with the scores as the marks were moderated. “I feel I would have scored better marks if the examinations were conducted. However, I will opt not to write the examination again as my Class XI preparation has already begun. It will be difficult to break the flow and study for Class X again.”
Dakshayini Kanna, principal, Harvest International School, said that many of their students who had scored high marks had told her that they would have had a better chance of obtaining higher marks and centums had they appeared for the board-based examination. “However, we are happy with the results and have told the students that their scores are similar to the marks they may have scored if the examination was conducted. We also feel that the results collated are in line with the National Education Policy, which aims to move away from a one-time board examination.”
Jyothi Menon, Head of School, Ekya School, ITPL, said that although it has been a tough year, students overcame those hurdles very well. She said that there was a significant increase in the number of students who scored above 90%.
Manju Balasubramaniam, principal, Delhi Public School – North, said that the results did not come as a surprise to the students as it was an extremely transparent process and they were made aware of how the results would be calculated.
Source: Business News This Week
From helping students to grant access to education through different learning styles simultaneously to solving problems associated with student absenteeism, hybrid teaching has emerged as one of the best teaching methods in today’s era of education. Hybrid learning has made a passage into the scholarly field a long time ago and has forwarded through numerous changes, presently procuring a spot as an augmentation of formal learning. Hybrid learning combines online with synchronous or on-site learning where parts of the curriculum are taught online while other activities are taught in a classroom setting.
Considering the current COVID-19 scenario, the hybrid model of learning has become one of the effective and popular methods of education. It offers the best of both worlds; getting access and flexibility of an online course with the additional support and classroom interaction with faculty and classmates. Apart from this, it also provides huge benefits for both students and teachers such as:
Students are regularly arranged into visual, sound, and sensation classes, and most understudies learn best utilizing a mix of these for retaining various types of ideas or data. The virtual medium makes it workable for instructors to offer this sort of gaining experience even from distant areas. Availability of a huge amount of study materials online in the forms of text, video, quizzing and interactives gives students more agency over their learning and enables them to engage with course material in the ways they learn best. As institutions expand their learning options, hybrid learning can provide more learning opportunities for students. For instance, students who can’t travel to campus can learn online while the rest of the class participates in person.
Time management is a necessity in education. Good time management skills boost productivity thereby helping students to complete more tasks by prioritizing time. Time management skills help a learner reduce stress and manage their own time to meet deadlines, collaborate more, and be able to focus on their passion. In hybrid, one can also control lectures and learn more efficiently. Also, it provides students to be more flexible with their time and can improve their overall performance.
Educational technology expands the reach of teachers beyond classroom sessions and office hours. E-learning offers the chance for an instructor to record meetings – rather than going through a module more than once for various clumps of understudies, the educator can rather invest that energy being useful, either by investing additional time upgrading their information or by offering more opportunities for customized regard for every understudy and assisting them with conquering novel learning difficulties. With the available technologies, teachers now have access to more pedagogical tools to engage and challenge more students.
- By Ms Ayesha Sirajuddin, Head of South Campuses, Ekya Schools, Bangalore