Insights

Turn your weakness into power- Weaknesses is not the end it’s the beginning

Why do we often talk about our weaknesses? Because they are the very reasons that push us, challenge us, and motivate us to transform them into our strengths. Every small effort you make to overcome your fears brings you one step closer to your purpose in life.

For students, challenges don’t start in college or jobs,they begin the very first day you step into formal schooling. We mistakenly believe that scoring high marks or securing a top rank is the ultimate challenge. In that race, we start comparing ourselves to others, sometimes even blaming teachers for being biased or unfair. We convince ourselves that they are favoring others or deliberately not giving us good grades.

But the truth is,it’s not about them. It’s about us. Instead of blaming others or situations for not getting the results we desire, we must introspect. The real question is-Have we set the right goals? Are we working consistently toward them?

Stop blaming circumstances, teachers, parents, or anyone else for where you are. Shift your mindset. Change your attitude. Because your attitude has the power to transform your personality and shape your future.

Success begins when you take responsibility for your growth. It starts with you.

Stop blaming ,start becoming!

 Let’s practice simple discipline in life-How to turn weaknesses into strengths -

Accept, Don’t Deny-The first step to growth is accepting your weaknesses. If math is tough, accept it. If public speaking scares you, accept it. Denial never helps. Acceptance opens the door to solutions.

Stop Comparing, Start Improving- Your competition is not your classmates. It’s the version of you from yesterday. Focus on your own growth curve.

Small Steps, Big Changes-Don’t aim to change everything overnight. Start with small steps:

30 minutes of daily revision.Practicing one fear every week like speaking in class.Seeking help from teachers rather than blaming them.

Find Your Strength Zone-Everyone is not meant to shine in the same area. Some are good at academics; others at creativity, communication, sports, or problem-solving. Find what sparks you and work on that.

Replace Blame with Gratitude-Every time you feel like blaming—pause and think of three things you’re grateful for. This simple exercise shifts your brain from negativity to positivity.

Build the ‘Never Give Up’ Attitude-Failure is part of the journey. Fail. Learn. Rise. Repeat.

Life isn’t about being perfect, it’s about progress. As a student, stop worrying about others and start focusing on yourself. Your weaknesses are not roadblocks, they are stepping stones to success.

Blaming parents, teachers, or circumstances won’t change your future. But changing your attitude today, right now, can transform your life forever.So, remember this Your attitude will decide your future. Stop blaming parents, teachers, or situations. Start becoming the best version of YOU.

Your life is your responsibility. Your success is your choice. The secret nobody tells you: Weakness is not your enemy. It’s your greatest teacher.

Stop saying:I can’t.It’s hard.It’s someone else’s fault.

And start saying:I will try.I will learn.I am responsible for my growth.

As globalization deepens and English continues to reign supreme in the hallways of academia, the reemergence of regional languages in higher education illustrates a historical moment. The reestablishment of parts of universities, colleges, and research institutions by regional languages shows that we are reclaiming our culture, our beliefs, and our rights to academic space—language diversity is valued, knowledge is being made available to new bodies of knowledge, and an alternative to a single medium of academic currency is being established. Although we can attribute the process to policy changes, socio-political movements, pedagogical changes, and renewed cultural pride, we must acknowledge the ever-growing number of people who can read and write in more than one language, both regional and global; their regional languages are taking shape through higher education.

RECLAIMING ROOTS 

The role of language in education is more than just a vehicle for communication. It builds identity, shapes cognitive development, and constraints access to knowledge and opportunities. For decades, perhaps centuries, and especially in post-colonial contexts like India, the inherently unequal workings of higher education have positioned dominant global languages, mainly English, as hegemonic. What English has accomplished is notable from functional and economic perspectives, and while this language and culture shift reached wider segments of the population, regional languages and cultures have been alienated, and traditional and local cultures and systems have been overlooked. An important shift has occurred; regional languages are slowly carving out space in higher education settings. The rebirth of language, enriched by technological advancements, policy changes, and deeper cultural awakening, in academia is transforming the institutional landscape.

LINGUISTIC HIERARCHIES IN ACADEMIA 

During the colonial period, formal or institutional language dominance was established as English, French, and Portuguese increasingly defined formal education systems across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The British Raj in India specified the medium of instruction as English to establish a group of intermediaries who would assist in colonial rule. This created a language hierarchy that valorized English as the means of academic advancement and educational prestige, while the regional languages informed informal education or primary education.

After independence, regional languages remained steeped in educational disparity; English established and sustained its dominance over higher educational institutions, mainly owing to its global utility and association with elite status. Therefore, despite being spoken by millions of people, regional languages were limited to the margins of academia. This created another linguistic divide within higher education that served to sustain social inequalities, limited educational access for those who did not speak English, and produced a sense of cultural inferiority.

India, like many multilingual nations, has a tradition of accepting linguistic diversity. Ancient Indian educational institutions, for example, Nalanda and Takshashila, operated in contexts where regional languages and styles were used to share language, literature, and knowledge across the cultural context of India—for instance, we can observe Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, and other regional dialects as languages used in ancient Indian learning.

 With the colonial period, with regard to British rule, English began to emerge as a dominant educational language and to attract a large disproportionate amount of attention over Sanskrit and regional dialects. Since independence, although the Constitution of India recognized 22 scheduled languages, there remains a dominant academic human capital reliance on English (as that language of the educational elite).

The Winds of Change: Policy Support & Constitutional Mandates

One of the significant catalysts for the resurgence of regional languages in higher education is policy change. In India, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 represents a major political reform. The NEP articulates an aggressive policy that supports mother tongues and regional languages to be a primary medium of instruction at all levels of education, including higher education. The policy outlines the need for more bilingual universities, how to write learning materials in vernaculars, and teacher training in multilingual contexts.

Policy reform is one of the most powerful catalysts for this change. In India, the NEP 2020 has given a policy framework and direction for mother tongue and regional language instruction at all levels of education, including higher education. The NEP strongly emphasizes providing multilingual options for students primarily during their foundational and undergraduate years in higher education.

The New Awakening: Language as a Tool for Inclusion and Equity

The resurgence of regional languages in postsecondary education is a sociolinguistic, social-political, and educational phenomenon that embraces inclusion and democracy. Language is a powerful tool of empowerment; when students have access to education in their mother tongue or a regional language, they can have fewer barriers to understanding, expression, and critical engagement.

In multilingual states like India, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, regional language educational modalities are increasingly recognized as essential to inclusion. When students from diverse backgrounds—especially those from rural and marginalized communities—have the opportunity to learn in the language they express their concepts, they become more inclusive opportunities in higher education because they are more equitable and accessible and more culture/language respectful to the communities they represent.

Challenges on the Road Ahead 

The momentum is undeniable, but there are still significant barriers to address. The most daunting is the lack of scholarship and standardized terminology in regional languages, particularly in science, law, engineering, and medicine. To translate complex theories or technical jargon into languages with smaller academic lexicons will mean more work for linguistic and subject matter experts.

There is also a lack of trained faculty to teach more developed subjects in regional languages. i.e., classification. Equally overpowering is the social conditioning by parents, employers, and, most sadly, students themselves overwhelmingly associating English-medium methods of education with having superior job prospects. There will need to be not just change, but a cultural shift.

There is also institutional inertia and bureaucracy, which will slow its formulation; e.g., there may be some reluctance by universities to change their curriculum or others required to retrain instructors. Moreover, even with funding available, in order to publish books, including textbooks, journals, and online lessons/lessons in regional languages, it could significantly limit the publication in regional languages.

Technological Enablers: Connecting the Language Divide

The emergence of digital technologies has been critical to the revival of regional languages, and now with e-learning facilitation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation, we can offer educational courses in more languages than before.

Government platforms like SWAYAM, DIKSHA, and ePathshala in India are beginning to offer courses and materials in Hindi and other regional languages, allowing more students, including rural and marginalized students, to access educational content. Also, private edtech through facilities or inclusion of regional languages can now reach a wider audience, which includes language options.

Towards a Multilingual Academic Future 

The reclamation of regional languages in higher education is timely and revolutionary. It is an opportunity to address historical inequalities, obliterate elitist structures, and reconceptualize education as an inclusive, democratic endeavor. It is a possibility to say that linguistic plurality is not a liability but a strength, a strength that can enrich academic life, help to create social solidarity, and release new ways of being human.

We need to work together, stakeholders such as governments, universities, educators, students, and civil society, to make this future real by constructing a multilingual academic ecosystem, which involves creating content and translating relevant content, re-working educators’ education, changing perceptions about society, and developing research in and on regional languages.To be successful, this future must be embraced by all stakeholders—students, educators, policymakers, parents, and industry members. The aim is not to collapse English or other global languages but to create an academic ecosystem whereby all regional languages can breathe equally with value, power, and respect. And where every student can dream, think, ask questions, and create in a language that resonates most in their hearts and minds.

The future of higher education is not one that becomes synonymous, but one that embraces multiple realities. When we allow regional languages to reclaim a position of their rightful place in academic inquiry, academia will have the ability to be much more inclusive, much more local, and paradoxically, much more global. 

ARTICLE BY- ANANYA AWASTHI 

At 79, Jeffrey Bland is not just a survivor of time—he's a flag-bearer of a healthier, smarter way of life. Dubbed the "father of functional medicine," Bland has devoted his life to asking what appears to be an antiquated but revolutionary question: Can it be done? Can health care be prodded to turn its focus away from treating disease and simply prevent disease in the first place?

It is a philosophy that he developed while working with two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling during his period of work at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in the 1980s. That initial work resulted in co-founding, with his wife Susan, of the Institute for Functional Medicine in 1991 and eventually the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute. Now, at close to eight decades old, Bland not only constructs the future of medicine—he lives the ethics of it daily. Health Begins with Self-Worth

Health, to Bland, isn't physical—it starts in the brain. "I believe you have to wake up every morning feeling like you're worth being healthy," he explained to CNBC Make It in a sketch of his own morning routine. This teeny-tiny but powerful change in mindset is the secret to longevity in his book. "To wake up and be thankful for another day—that sets you up for all the things that are going to happen later on."

An Hour a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Bland exercises for an hour a day. Perhaps run-walking, aerobics, or reformer Pilates classes with his wife. He doesn't cut corners on exercise. "It doesn't need to be extreme," he says, "but it does need to be deliberate."

He also suggests maintaining a health diary—a simple but useful device for tracking what works best for your body. Eating, exercising, sleeping, having individual tendencies under the magnifying glass can be the key to how to be vibrant and energized in the long run.

Eat the Rainbow, Literally

Nutrient density is Bland's number one nutritional concern. Not in the sense of platter assembly—but quality nutrition. "Rainbow foods and vegetables contain phytonutrients," he insists. Phytochemicals that color food deep red, orange, and yellow offer fewer chronic disease threats of heart disease, cancer, and dementia.

From ruby-red strawberries to emerald-green kale, Bland's food is the rainbow of nature, not only designed for pleasure, but for cellular well-being.

Relax with Purpose

There is no work ever done—but Bland is convinced of completing the day as much as beginning it. In the evening, he indulges in an hour "meditating relaxation." For him, most often that amounts to some kind of light reading—adventure novels or the outdoors, a departure from the day's technical novels.

"I don't lie there brooding about that last e-mail," he says. Instead, he seeks inner peace—letting go of heightened mental activity, and a signal to the body to let go and restore itself.

Live Beyond Yourself

Above all, maybe, Bland's approach has a powerful sense of purpose. Functional medicine isn't as much a vocation to him—a calling. Through education, through religion, or through the ministry, he believes you must find something that gets you connected with something greater than yourself.

It's giving yourself over to the possibility that you're part of something much, much bigger than yourself," he says. "Whatever you leave behind will remain here."

In a culture obsessed with hacks and biohacks, Jeffrey Bland offers a more mature, deepening path to wellness. It's not about trying to turn the clock back, but in creating practices honoring the body, awakening the mind, and feeding the soul.

And at the tender ripe age of 79 and agile, a protégée of a Nobel laureate shows us that true health comes not through gimmicks—but through thanksgiving, exercise, and diet, and for more than the self.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and former Delhi ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendra Jain have reportedly told the Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) that Public Works Department (PWD) officials should be held accountable for the alleged inflated costs in the previous government’s school classrooms project, according to statements given to the agency, accessed by HT.

But PWD engineers who were questioned by ACB officials have accused the changes that resulted in the inflation of the project cost as having been done on the orders of the two ministers, the papers reveal.

ACB is probing suspected violations in a project to build 12,748 semi-permanent classrooms in schools operated by the then AAP government. Originally worth ₹860 crore, the project cost rose to over ₹2,800 crore, reportedly without the issuance of new tenders or following customary procurement norms. Jain was interrogated by ACB on June 6 and Sisodia on June 20. Around 20 other witnesses – largely government functionaries – were interrogated in May this year.

Their depositions, as per internal ACB records, reveal a cycle of blame between political and bureaucratic leadership.

Asked if he had sanctioned the construction of semi-permanent buildings (SPS) at a meeting on August 8, 2015, Sisodia stated that the meeting was presided over by the principal secretary of the PWD and that officers there would have made any decision. He stood by the same stand when questioned why SPS buildings were selected instead of permanent buildings already under construction.

On why permissions were not taken from local authorities, Sisodia said worried officials would have abided by the law.

When asked why one consolidated estimate was not given and 16 individual preliminary estimates were done, Sisodia replied that officers handling the project should be interrogated. Sisodia believed that all the work was carried out in line with the General Finance Rules — which are to be implemented in cases pertaining to public finances.

ACB, in turn, has discovered, officials involved familiarly assert, that these 16 estimates were broken down into 63 smaller tenders. Sisodia denied being aware of the architecture firm that had supposedly suggested costly specifications to increase expenditures.

Jain also stated that he did not sanction SPS structures, and PWD was constructing them on vacant plots available. When he was questioned regarding modifications in specifications, Jain replied that the education department, the client agency, had requested upgrading for improved student facilities—like vitrified tiles, kota stone floors, and brick cladding. Jain confirmed he did not know the architectural firm.

But contradicting both the leaders, a PWD project manager, also interrogated by ACB, asserted that works amounting to ₹42.5 crore in five schools were conducted without inviting fresh tenders, on verbal directions from Jain. The officer alleged Jain sanctioned the shift from permanent to SPS buildings and personally supervised the project—visiting schools, taking calls, and holding meetings. A PowerPoint presentation by the architecture firm was allegedly presented to Jain on June 21, 2016, in his room, the PWD official informed ACB. This official informed ACB, that Jain was "close to" the architecture firm and a firm representative accompanied Jain in some meetings.

The official also purportedly told Jain visited a school location on July 4, 2016, sanctioned a sample model, and ordered changes in scope of work. He complained the richer specifications were enforced at Jain's behest. The other former senior PWD engineer, in a statement to ACB, stated Jain and Sisodia would inspect sites regularly and sanction changes.

ACB is now set to consider contradictions in testimony as it probes if due process was circumvented and if political meddling caused inflation of costs in the high-value classrooms project.

 A few years ago, if a student said they were feeling anxious, tired, or “just off,” most schools would’ve told them to drink some water and “focus on their studies.” Things have changed.(sort of) Today, many schools are finally starting to acknowledge that mental health is real, and that it matters. A growing number of them even have counselors on campus now. That’s a step forward.

But it’s not the solution. Not just by itself.

Let’s say a school has one counselor for 800 students. That’s not an exaggeration. According to a 2022 report by UNESCO, the average student-to-counselor ratio in India is well above 500:1, and in many schools , especially government ones it's closer to 1,000:1 or worse. In comparison, the American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of 250:1. You don’t need to be a statistician to know better that those numbers don’t add up.

Think about the sheer emotional load in any classroom, students dealing with parental pressure, bullying, loneliness, learning difficulties, gender identity issues, depression, body image struggles, or just the crushing fear of not doing well enough. Now imagine all of that funneled to one person sitting in a tiny office, expected to fix everything in half-hour sessions between classes. It’s not just unrealistic ,it’s almost cruel.

Mental health doesn’t start and stop at the counselor’s door. It starts in the classroom, in the staff room, in the way a teacher responds to a student who’s zoned out in class. It shows up when a student’s marks suddenly drop, or when someone who used to be loud and opinionated starts going quiet. It exists in the silences. And most of those silences go unnoticed because the people who see students everyday, those teachers often aren’t trained to recognize mental health red flags.

In January 2025, a 15‑year‑old student at Global Public School in Kochi tragically ended his life by jumping from his apartment building  a painful result of persistent harassment from schoolmates. According to an investigation, the boy was repeatedly subjected to ragging, including being humiliated over his skin color. He was forced to lick toilet seats, had his head pushed into toilets, and endured torturous treatment both online and offline  .

This is what happens when support is a job title and not a culture. A counselor’s presence is important, yes. But a counselor alone can’t hold up a system that doesn’t prioritize well-being across the board.

Real mental health support should look like this:

• Teachers getting trained to identify signs of distress and respond with empathy, not punishment.

• Exams being spaced in ways that don’t leave students burned out by 17.

• School policies that make room for breaks, rest, and non-academic forms of success.

• Students having someone to talk to before things get so bad they need intervention.

Some schools are starting to get this. In Mumbai, a few ICSE schools have introduced peer-led support groups. In Kerala, the “Our Responsibility to Children” initiative has trained thousands of teachers in basic psychological first aid. These are good models. They’re not flashy, but they work because they understand that support has to be normalised in schools.

There’s also the issue of stigma. In many schools, going to a counselor still feels like a last resort, something you do when you’re “not normal.” Students hesitate. Teachers dismiss concerns. Parents panic. A real mental health system can’t survive in a place where people are afraid to even say the words “mental health.”

And then there’s the pressure  the kind we’ve normalized. Marks over everything. Comparison as motivation. The endless grind. This culture doesn’t just ignore mental health but it actively harms it. We shouldn't just teach students how to “cope” better , we should be asking why they have to cope so much in the first place.

Yes, we need counselors. We need more of them, better trained, better paid, better integrated into the school system. But we also need schools where every adult is part of the support system, not just one overworked counselor. Because students don’t experience stress in isolated rooms  they carry it through hallways, classrooms, lunch breaks, and home.

Mental health is not an add-on. It’s not a special service. It’s normal. And until schools start treating it that way, no number of counselors will ever be enough.

By Aditi Sawarkar

With regard to infra amenities and physical facilities in poor health, and lackadaisical child safety norms, to unapproved funds idle and intrinsic digital learning shortcomings, schools in 24 West Bengal districts have performed poorly on all but a few parameters employed to measure schooling, a report published by the Union Ministry of Education last Wednesday reported.

2022-23 and 2023-24 Performance Grading Index graded the government and private schools state and district wise in India. 

There were six categories, and they were measured in the schools, i.e., learning outcomes (availability of teacher, access to learning), effective classroom transactions, infrastructure facilities & student entitlements, school safety & protection of child, digital learning and governance process.

The UTs/districts and the states were on a different gradation scale. The districts had a total of 600, and the states had a total of 1,000.

The UTs/states were graded in 10 grades, i.e., Daksh (competent) or grade 1 (91 percent to 100 percent states/UTs), Akanshi-3 (aspirational) or grade 10 (up to 10 percent score for states/UTs). The rest of the grades between them was held by 10 percentage points.

Even at the district level, 10 grades between 1 and 10 were given. Grade 1 (districts having more than 90 percent total marks), or Utkarsh (excellent), was the highest grade, and grade 10 (districts having a high of 10 percent), or Akanshi-3, was the lowest grade.

Composite school achievement in West Bengal—national and district levels—is dismal. National level performance in 2022-23 and 2023-24 was of Akanshi-1, class of 521-580 marks or 21-30 percent.

District level data also indicated that everything is not alright with West Bengal classrooms.

In the infrastructure facilities & school entitlements head alone, for example, 12 of the 24 districts experienced a mid-level decline in scores.

This part is aimed at assessing school facilities and infrastructure such as handrails in ramps, laboratory equipment, libraries, kitchen plots, sports equipment, etc. It tries to determine if the major schools received free uniforms and textbooks within one month of opening dates and the number of higher-grade girls who received special incentives such as bicycles, scholarships, etc.

The Siliguri—a district sub-division of Darjeeling district—is comparable to a district in the report.

There is one where nearly all the districts lagged behind, and that is computer-based learning, i.e., student-computer ratio, percentage of computer-trained teachers, internet accessibility in schools, etc.

The West Bengal districts' all-India rank is 5.5 out of 50 for 2022-23 and 5.6 for 2023-24. The top was by Kolkata for 12 and 13 (out of 50) for 2022-23 and 2023-24, respectively, and then Siliguri.

The report further outlines how student safety initiatives fall behind the agenda of most of the state districts like Kolkata, Murshidabad, Hooghly, Malda and Nadia. The average score of 24 districts in this segment was 3.5 (on a scale of 35) for the year 2022-23 and 4.5 for the year 2023-24.

The school child safety & protection is giving topmost priority to protection of students via disaster management readiness by schools, girls' self-defence training, etc.

West Bengal has also lost Centre's Samagra Shiksha for which it has already been sanctioned only for 2022-23 and not 2023-24. It has also left administrative posts vacant in schemes like digitisation of attendance of teachers and students, the report further added. Overall score which districts have registered in governance process category stands at 30.2 (of 84) for 2022-23 and 30.8 for 2023-24.

North 24 Parganas outperforms Kolkata

Not capital city Kolkata but North 24 Parganas was at the top (302 out of 600) of overall perception in 2023-24 among 24 West Bengal districts. North 24 Parganas stood alone among state districts to score Prachesta-1 (trying) or grade 5 (51 percent to 60 percent) ranking.

166 out of 290 was the district's outcome measure score considering such factors as number of children at various grades with a letter, number, new Indian languages, science grade; number of children of grade 1 benefited by at least one year pre-primary education; number of out-of-school children to be re-placed in school; availability and teacher ratio, etc.

It had 34 out of 51 in facilities & student rights at school and only 5 out of 35 in child protection & safety at school, and 7 out of 50 in virtual learning.

The remaining state districts were Prachesta-2 or Prachesta-3 scored for both years.

15 districts were rated Prachesta-2 and 9 districts were rated Prachesta-3 in 2022-23. North 24 Parganas was promoted one rank to Prachesta-1 in 2023-24, Birbhum, Siliguri and Malda were promoted the rank to Prachesta-2, and six others were promoted to Prachesta-3.

There was a humongous gap between top rated district, North 24 Parganas at 302 in 2023-24, and bottom of 216 which also included Uttar Dinajpur.

How districts perform overall

No district in the state got the top two grades of Utkarsh and Uttam-1 (model). One got the grade of Uttam-2 for 2023-24 but no such district got it for 2022-23.

At the national level, West Bengal received Akanshi-1. Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Sikkim were some other states/UTs that fell under this category. Chandigarh received the top mark in India, and Meghalaya received the bottom one.

Centre report follows the West Bengal education department in the wake of the school service commission recruitment scandal. Nearly 26,000 teachers and officials have been dismissed this year following the April Supreme Court order that the 2016 recruitment by the West Bengal School Service Commission was marred and confirmed the Calcutta High Court order cancelling recruitments.

The protest demonstrations remain to be watched by the workers who had protested against discriminatorily dismissal from service due to corruption in the education department.