Did the budget miss out on the fundamentals?
Job Board + Education Budget + Myanmar Crisis + Phrases
Hello, hope you are having a great Sunday. This week we reflect on the education budget, Myanmar’s never-ending Crisis and how can you not use certain phrases in a meeting.
Top Jobs of the Week
Internship Opportunity at Ministry of External Affairs
The last date to apply- is 15 February 2022. Apply here
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Location- Gujrat. Apply here
Communication Officer, Saksham Trust
To apply, send your CV at- arti@saksham.org
How has the education scenario changed in the pandemic?
The Union Budget 2022-23 was announced on 1st February 2022. Since then it has been deliberated and discussed among policymakers, experts, and critics.
Education and Healthcare have been largely impacted sectors during the pandemic, amongst many. This week, we would be reflecting on the budget's impact on the education sector with 250 million students being impacted due to the school closures. Even though the pandemic forced the system to adopt digital ways for learning, there was a section that could not access these services easily.
The Expectations-
Many experts believe that the Government should have taken action on the digital divide by focusing on programs for teacher training and subsidy provisions for students to access laptops and smartphones, to reduce the drop-out rates and absenteeism.
The budget’s focus areas-
The current budget of 2022-23 increased by 11.6% for the education sector from the last fiscal year. It focused on strengthening the digital ecosystem by integrating digital and international universities, in the higher education area.
Increasing the accessibility of the internet in rural areas by introducing digital initiatives like ‘One Class One TV Channel’ to improve the inclusivity and accessibility of services was another thing the budget focused on.
The Hits and the Misses:
The Hits:
The introduction of more than 200 channels covering multiple regional languages to promote inclusivity was appreciated among the experts.
Skill training and digital learning were expected to be the key focus in the budget. Initiatives like DESH-Stack e-portal, Digital University, this year’s education budget did justice to the educators’ expectations.
The Misses:
The Right To Education Forum (a collective national initiative of the civil society) expressed that:
“Union Budget 2022-23 fails to address the challenges posed by digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, by focusing yet again on digital learning and proposing the expansion of e-VIDYA, instead of focusing on the need to re-open schools on a priority basis.”
(Sources: NDTV, India Today, KPMG)
How has the year been for Myanmar?
The military overtakes in Myanmar last year, left political scientists and international players in shock and dismay. The absence of proper governance structures and democratic practices paved the way for a crisis at the socio-economic and political levels for the country. As per a recent report published by UNDP, the crisis has been deepened. Find out how-
The crisis can be traced back to the major events which were criticised worldwide and led to the imposition of various sanctions on Myanmar.
The first event was in August 2017, the time when Rohingya Muslims (illegal immigrants from Bangladesh) were persecuted by the military.
Another twist of events took place when Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy again came in power in 2020 but in 2021 the military staged a coup alleging that the win of the 2020 elections was fraudulent.
Following this, the United States, European Union and New Zealand imposed sanctions on Myanmar and since then country’s economy has been deteriorating. Now, Canada and the United Kingdom also joined the superpower in imposing the sanctions.
The Present Scenario of 2022-
Research findings from the report published by UNDP in 2022:
Fall of Kyat
The value of Myanmar’s currency Kyat has fallen by nearly half since the coup. The depreciation is the direct result of the political turmoil caused by the military coup. This is further pushing up the costs of imported goods.
Ever Escalating Violence:
The doctors, teachers and journalists who continue to protest for not working under the coup face violent retaliation from their communities and local defence forces. Moreover, the health and education systems are in a disarray.
Fleeing Away
3,40,000 people were displaced before the coup during the Rohingya Genocide and 3,20,000 are the newly displaced people which included civilians too. The escalated fighting could also result in refugee flows into neighbouring Thailand and India.
Trafficking of Women and Children:
Trafficking of women has also been highlighted as a concern, with increased economic desperation the number of people resorting has increased. Along with this, they are being lured under false promises and being forced into sexual slavery. This trend is worrisome and is a violation of human rights.
(Sources: Forbes, United Nations, BBC, Reuters, Al Jazeera, International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, The Diplomat)
Stop using these phrases in a meeting
As the modern workplaces have evolved from offline to online and now to Hybrid, it’s time for teams/managers to also evolve the way they use phrases in their daily work practices.
Rae Ringel, the President of The Ringel Group, a leadership development consultancy, did crowdsourcing on social media and among colleagues to know about certain phrases that degrade the purpose of the meeting. The responses which resonated with her, are:
“We’re going to wait five minutes for everyone to join.”
This is one of the most used phrases at the start of the meeting. However, this disrespects the people who joined the meeting on time. In order to wait for the people who haven't joined try to initiate grounding exercises. For instance: asking everyone to write down the objective or the intention of the meeting or any ice-breaker can bring the team in high spirits.
“You’re on mute.”
The use of this phrase makes the other person on the receiving end feel silly (that they still don't know how to unmute). Rae’s colleague here suggested a more affirming way of conveying the same. That is- “If you’re speaking, I can’t hear you.”
“We’re building the plane while flying it.”
When the speaker uses this phrase the people on the receiving end get confused about what is being addressed by the speaker. Instead of using this phrase try to structure and address the issue directly by talking about what has been figured out in the project and what is yet to be learnt.
“Let’s take this offline.”
Simply using this phrase without any mention about the time and place where this offline conversation will be initiated undermines the person’s view. Next time try saying this- “That’s an important topic that’s beyond the scope of this meeting. I’ll email you when we wrap up.”
“I’m going to give you 10 minutes of your life back.”
Rae expressed that this phrase undermines the outcome of the meeting and if the meeting is well-structured and concise, the outcome should be celebrated. Next time consider saying- “Wow. Because everyone was so productive, we were done 10 minutes early. Thank you so much for your presence and participation. Have a great day.”
(Source: Harvard Business Review)
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