The National Education Policy 2020 is a landmark decision to transform the educational system of India. After three decades, this legislation overhauls the existing education structure and introduces comprehensive changes.
NEP seeks to promote equity, inclusivity, quality, sustainability and internationalisation of the Indian education system. It emphasises bringing access for all students regardless of their socioeconomic status or geographically challenged locations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in economic problems and sudden unemployment, exacerbating labour market disruptions and increasing inequality. People must develop their skills to thrive in today’s increasingly competitive workplace.
Simultaneously, the COVID-19 situation has also stressed the need for skill development since it will assist the workforce in finding employment that matches their competency levels. As a result, governments in many countries are implementing skill development initiatives. But how can these initiatives help to save the world post-COVID-19?
The COVID-19 has made the world realise that we should learn and adapt to new skills and changes to sustain the pandemic.
From schools to companies, every organisation had to recreate new strategies and policies during the pandemic to help their business and institutions survive. To stand up in this pandemic, individuals will need to reskill and upskill their talents, which will be discussed below in this article. In the following article, we offer eight skills an individual can apply in their daily activities throughout their lives within a post-COVID-19 world. The skills that would be crucial in this pandemic are:
According to the COVID-19 (Miscellaneous Provisions) ACT 2020, it is stated that upon any declaration of an epidemic, which can prove to be harmful to the students, all educational institutions are allowed to close and start learning from a distance.
Soon after the lockdown announcement, the Ministry of Education decided to move to online teaching for pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions during the lockdown period. They will also assist staff to implement this new type of learning. The government approved giving 2572 tablets to children under the Social Register of Mauritius (SRM) for poor households.
The travel and tourism industry has become a global industry, which is widely considered one of the fastest-growing industries globally.
There are various purposes for one to be a tourist and to travel. Some of the reasons people travel could be for fun, experience, or increase their knowledge and learning, or for work purpose. People generally came to Mauritius for the 3s (Sun, Sea, Sand). However, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world as it has somehow stopped the world for a while. This current disaster has forced people to stay home, and in a certain way, they are imprisoned for their security. The coronavirus has massively affected all the industries around the world but mainly the travel and tourism industry. COVID-19 has caused several negative impacts such as travel restriction and closed borders by many countries internationally.
UNICEF in partnership with AstraZeneca is launching a 5-year program focused on youth-led policy change around prevention of mental ill-health, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory diseases by targeting key risk factors such as substance use, physical inactivity, air pollution and environmental risks, tobacco use, and unhealthy diets.
Throughout this process, UNICEF will systematically involve young people in all phases of the program and include them in the decision-making process with country governments. Only by doing so, can we together ensure healthier, happier, and safer lifestyles and environments for young people.
YUVA believes that the appellation of NGOs should change from “Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO)” to “Civil Society Organisation (CSO)”.
In the past decade, there has been a radical, worldwide change in the way Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) present themselves in the civil society, before the funding agencies and in various nationals and international fora. One significant change is that NGOs now call themselves CSOs, that is Civil Society Organisations. This change is replete with meaning, connotations and implications. And all these meanings and implications have proved crucial for the way CSOs have evolved over the past decade or so. (Mohanty, 2002) Continue reading “YUVA lobbies to change appellation of ‘NGO’ to ‘CSO’”
New tuberculosis (TB) ethics guidance, launched today by the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to help ensure that countries implementing the End TB Strategy adhere to sound ethical standards to protect the rights of all those affected.
TB, the world’s top infectious disease killer, claims 5 000 lives each day. The heaviest burden is carried by communities which already face socio-economic challenges: migrants, refugees, prisoners, ethnic minorities, miners and others working and living in risk-prone settings, and marginalized women, children and older people.
“TB strikes some of the world’s poorest people hardest,” said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “WHO is determined to overcome the stigma, discrimination, and other barriers that prevent so many of these people from obtaining the services they so badly need.”
Poverty, malnutrition, poor housing and sanitation, compounded by other risk factors such as HIV, tobacco, alcohol use and diabetes, can put people at heightened risk of TB and make it harder for them to access care. More than a third (4.3 million) of people with TB go undiagnosed or unreported, some receive no care at all and others access care of questionable quality.
The new WHO ethics guidance addresses contentious issues such as, the isolation of contagious patients, the rights of TB patients in prison, discriminatory policies against migrants affected by TB, among others. It emphasizes five key ethical obligations for governments, health workers, care providers, nongovernmental organizations, researchers and other stakeholders to:
provide patients with the social support they need to fulfil their responsibilities
refrain from isolating TB patients before exhausting all options to enable treatment adherence and only under very specific conditions
enable “key populations” to access same standard of care offered to other citizens
ensure all health workers operate in a safe environment
rapidly share evidence from research to inform national and global TB policy updates.
From guidance to action
Protecting human rights, ethics and equity are principles which underpin WHO’s End TB Strategy. But it is not easy to apply these principles on the ground. Patients, communities, health workers, policy makers and other stakeholders frequently face conflicts and ethical dilemmas. The current multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) crisis and the health security threat it poses accentuate the situation even further.
“Only when evidence-based, effective interventions are informed by a sound ethical framework, and respect for human rights, will we be successful in reaching our ambitious goals of ending the TB epidemic and achieving universal health coverage. The SDG aspiration of leaving no one behind is centred on this,” said Dr Mario Raviglione, Director, WHO Global TB Programme.
“The guidance we have released today aims to identify the ethical predicaments faced in TB care delivery, and highlights key actions that can be taken to address them,” he added.
World TB Day is an opportunity to mobilize political and social commitment for further progress in efforts to end TB. This year, World TB Day signals new momentum at the highest levels with the announcement of the first ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending TB, which will be held in Moscow in November 2017.
“The Global Ministerial Conference will highlight the need for an accelerated multisectoral response to TB in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Dr Ren Minghui, Assistant Director-General HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases. “It will emphasize that global action against antimicrobial resistance must include optimized care, surveillance and research to address MDR-TB urgently”.
The Conference will inform the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on TB which will be held in 2018.
