The Uttar Pradesh government has made amendments to the financial aid rules of the Project Alankar with an aim to benefit and improve the condition of government-aided secondary Sanskrit schools in the state.

As per the previous mandate, the school management was required to bear the cost of renovation of old buildings for up to 50 per cent. The remaining cost was to be borne by the state government. The government has now reduced the financial cost to be borne by the government to just 5 per cent. In addition, it has also allocated a budget of Rs 100 crore for the renovation projects.  

Following this the Directorate of Education in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh has received proposals from various schools who wish to take advantage of the scheme and renovate their schools. The government has received proposals for a total of around Rs 22 crore to enhance and develop their school buildings. The proposals have been received from government-aided Sanskrit schools in districts such as Basti, Muzaffarnagar, Sonbhadra, Ambedkarnagar, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Balrampur, and Maharajganj.

The move was introduced to address the lack of adequate provision and funds in the budget that is resulting in the government schools’ building turning dilapidated.

In the 2022-23 academic year, the state government has made a provision of Rs 100 crore under for reconstruction, expansion, electrification etc of dilapidated buildings of government schools of the state. A major portion of the fund remained unused as not many schools approached the Uttar Pradesh government for renovation.

An 8-year-old Israeli boy, believed to be among the 200 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, spent his 9th birthday while in captivity. Before turning 9, he had sent a birthday invitation to his friends to celebrate the day with him. Now, a picture of the heartbreaking invitation that has surfaced on Instagram, shows Ohad standing with a heart-shaped leaf in his palm.

“Come celebrate my 9th birthday with me on Saturday, October 21, 2023,” says the invitation.

”This is the invitation he sent to his friends to celebrate with him over the weekend. Instead of being surrounded by family and friends, he will ‘celebrate’ in captivity, in the hands of terrorists. On October 7, 2023, Ohad, along with his mother and grandparents, were ripped from their home, kidnapped by Hamas, and taken to Gaza. Ohad, along with hundreds of civilians, is being held hostage by Hamas,” the caption of the post shared by StandWithUs reads.

Watch the video here:

The caption of the post further described him as a bright young boy and an only child. ”Ohad is a brilliant chess player and a wizard with the Rubik’s Cube. He also loves playing soccer and tennis. Please share this so we can bring him home,” the caption added.

Reacting to the image, one user wrote, ”Oh little Ohad, just a child. Please let him be released and safe with his family and the remainder of the Israelis.” Another commented, ”Praying for the safe return of Ohad and all of the hostages.”

According to the Times Of Israel, Ohad was kidnapped by Hamas operatives on October 7 and taken to Gaza along with his mother Keren, and his grandparents.

The Israeli military confirmed that the family’s cell phones had been detected in Gaza.

”I keep imagining what he is going through. He’s a sensitive boy. Did he see dead bodies? He wears glasses. Did they take them from him? Can he see anything? I keep thinking of every scenario, hoping for the least catastrophic. I just hope that he is safe and with his mother, ” Ohad’s grief-stricken father, Avi Zichri said. 

Notably, Ohad is Mr. Zichri’s only child with his partner, Keren Munder, a 54-year-old special education teacher and volleyball coach for children with disabilities. 

Exposure to violent conflict can produce fear, horror, and lifelong trauma in young children. As the Israel-Hamas war intensifies, the conflict is taking a horrendous toll on innocent children from both regions. Several heartwrenching visuals of children crying, running through the streets, and cowering in bomb shelters after airstrikes have surfaced online. Recently, another heartbreaking image of a scared little girl hiding in a storage unit after surviving the Hamas attack went viral.

In a shocking incident, a nursery school teacher forced a six-year-old student to eat his vomit on his birthday, as per a report in the South China Morning Post. After the student finished his lunch, the teacher stuffed more food in his mouth. Previously, the boy had thrown up “chunks of pumpkin” after he had too much to eat. 

The incident took place on September 15 at the Maluwan Kindergarten in northeastern China’s Liaoning province. His parents filed a complaint, accusing the teacher of abusing their child. They claimed that their child’s illness resulted from having to consume the pumpkin on a full stomach. They also added that their son, who was dressed in new clothes for the occasion, came home with filthy clothes. They forgot about it until the child told his grandmother that the teacher had forced him to eat more food after having a proper lunch.

As per the outlet, the parents requested to watch the CCTV footage several times after they informed the school about the incident. However, they were not granted access to it until the police intervened. After conducting an inquiry, the local education office confirmed the matter on October 13 on its official WeChat account. It required the teacher to be fired from the institute. They also asked the school to apologise to the parents. Further, they also recommended that the principal overhaul the nursery’s staff structure and the local education office even dropped the school’s ranking.

However, as per SCMP, this is not the first time such incidents have been reported in China. In 2017, a preschool of the RYB Education in the Chaoyang area was the subject of complaints to Beijing police over a teacher who was disciplining the kids with needles. The teacher, whose last name is Liu, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and barred from working with children for five years.

Further, it was reported in August that a kindergarten teacher in northeastern China had both beaten and pulled her students to the ground. One parent said that her child developed a fractured nose and stopped wanting to attend school.