I’ve done it too in my life – work too hard and spend too much time away from home. And then you find an inspirational video on YouTube, or read an amazing book that says you need a work-life balance. You go home and make all these promises to your wife, you write down ten goals, get stuck in, and after a week it just all falls apart and it fizzles out.

Here are some things that I’ve done to overcome that in my life. 

I love my life and I believe you can too. I also believe that we’ve been given more than enough time to create and achieve the greatest of things in life, it’s just that you waste so much time. 

So I’m glad that you here to walk along with me and have a look at some key areas, maybe you have some burning questions in your mind. If you’ve got any questions about how to have a better work-life and have a better family life, how to spend more time with your friends, how to get more out of life, how to achieve more, how to feel more purpose, more gratitude, then what I’d like you to do is subscribe to this video. 

I’m going to be updating videos every Tuesday. 

Hit the bell for notifications, and we can keep in touch. 

My name is Mitch Rankin and I’m a co-founder of English Forward, the Internet’s largest learn English question and answer and community website. Over the past number of years we’ve reached 300 million users, we’ve impacted millions of lives, and over the next 10 years we want to positively impact 1 Billion people’s lives.

We believe that English is a tool that can be used to expand your knowledge of the world, to expand your education, to connect with other people and it’s a very useful tool that can actually help us make a positive impact in the world around us.

Communication is key and we want to be a part of that, and we’re so grateful that you here to be a part of that with us. 

I don’t know whether you’ve heard about the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule? That 80% of your results are going to come from 20% of your effort. This was actually first documented by Vilfredo Pareto in 1895 when he looked around at the distribution of wealth in Italy and he realized that 80% of the wealth and 80% of the land was actually controlled by 20% of the people. He looked further afield in other countries and he realized that exactly the same principle applies, and this principle applies to science, through nature and through your life and mine. 

If you make it to-do list and you write down ten goals 80% of all results will come from two of those goals 

Most of the effort in your life,  most of the results that you’ve produced, have come from 20% of your efforts.  In fact 80% percent of everything you you’ve done has been a complete waste of time, and if you don’t believe me, just take stock, have a look around you, look at your friends, look at your family, look at what you’re doing now, look at how you spend your precious time.

Now that you realize that 80% of everything you do is completely wasted – squandered so why don’t you focus more on the 20%? 

 Is it that we don’t know about it?  

Is it that you’re too lazy? 

What is it that makes us so different from the people that have actually put the effort in that have achieved the results, the people that have been prepared to focus on the 20%, that we won’t put those actions in place in our lives. 

We’re talking about education and how your education has set you up for the life that you want. If you feel like your education is put in the the position you want to be right now, if are you living the life of your dreams, put YES in the comments below if you feel like your education has been lacking, put NO.

 I’d like to tell you a story.  

When I was younger and starting out in my business, I ran a coin-operated pool table business in the African townships around the city that we lived in. When we started out, we started out with one table.  It was a very simple business where you put money into a slot, the balls come out and somebody plays. 

The next person that wants a game, puts money into the slot the balls come out and somebody plays. 

We learned how to run that business, and by the time I got to 10 pool tables, I had no time. 10 pool tables were taking all of my time, and the reason for that is that I was spending 80% of my time on the wrong things. 

But as I got better and better and I understood that business, I started to spend my time on the right things, and so now 20% of my time was actually getting me 80% of the results that I was getting before. 

This allowed me to expand that business to 20 pool tables. My time was completely full again, but applying those same principles to the same 20% I was able to grow that business to 30 tables. Over a period of 18 months we refined those systems so that 20% of the effort that we were putting into the 10 pool table when we started we could now run 300 pool tables. 

The same effort, yes it took a little bit more time driving around to the different locations but the same effort in putting into the 10 tables magnified, we were able to scale and grow that to 300 tables. 

And that simple principle, when I learned it, allowed me to change the course of my life because I took one simple technique, one principle, I focussed on the things that actually mattered, not the things that I thought mattered but the things that actually mattered.

I put those things into the business, I applied effort to those things, and those produced 80% of the results and started creating my first passive income. 

When you have a system in place that takes 20% of your effort, 20% of your time it frees up a lot of time for you to do the things that you want and that’s what work-life balance came in for me.  

Now I wasn’t spending all of my time running around looking after the tables, fixing tables, collecting coins. 

I had a system in place that actually ran that, focused my time and actually gave me time to spend time with my family, and I got what I really wanted out of the pool table business, which wasn’t just making mone. 

Believe you me, it’s really easy to make money, what’s very hard is to actually create time for yourself, and once you realize the most important things in your life are actually the moments, that the memories, the relationships and experiences that you have in your life because at the end of it all none of us are going to take stock and say we made so much money in our life. 

We’re going to look around at the people in love, at the experiences we’ve had, the relationship we’ve created and all of those beautiful moments in our lives. And that’s what’s important. 

The Pareto principle when applied properly can create the special moments in your life, just as it’s created in mine.

Work-life balance for each of us is different and individual.  

For me, it’s spending time with my family. We travel for six months of the year, it’s surfing, it’s kite surfing and spearfishing, it’s hunting.

I love being outdoors, I love being in the ocean. 

For you, it might be walking through the bazaars of Istanbul,  it might might be traveling, or it might be backpacking through South America, you might be a skydiver, you might be a Ballerina, You might want to feed the poor, you may want to travel with NGOs all over the world. 

I don’t know what you want to do with your life, but one thing I do know is that it’s important that you work on what you want to do with your life because time is passing. 

The most precious thing we have is time. 

Work-life balance – we weren’t put here to work all the time. 

We were put here to be productive and spend our time doing the things that are meaningful and purposeful, that create relationships that are worthwhile, so at the end of it all we can have a purposeful life and look back and say with gratitude, that we actually achieved something lasting in our lives. So if you are listening to this and you’re thinking man, I’m so far off track,  How do I get back on track? 

There are just two things I’d like to do

The first one is decide what you want to do with your life. 

Where do you want to be? Write that down.  

What does the end picture look like? Start with the end in mind. 

When you’ve done that you’ll be set up, just take the next step in achieving  a purposeful life. 

And step number two, you need to decide what you need to do to actually get there, and once you’ve done that make a list of things that you think that need to be done to achieve that. 

Pick the top 20%, the hardest things , and start working on those. As soon as you start getting some victories with those things you’re gonna find that you get self-confidence, that your morale is boosted and you can actually move forward. 

As you start picking up momentum in your life and getting rid of the deadwood, you’re gonna find that you’re achieving more, you’re feeling better about yourself and your life will change, and you will start achieving the things that you so desperately want for your life. 

So once you’ve worked out what it is you actually want to achieve in your life you need to start learning how to do that, and if you don’t know, don’t worry ,there are so many tools on YouTube, online where you can go get information from people that are experts in your field, people that have been before. 

You need to surround yourself with those people, spend more time with themHow do you spend time with them? By reading, reading about their stories, listening to them online, listening to their podcasts making notes ,starting to take what they are saying and putting it into action, changing your habits day by day  and once you do that you’ll find that you’ll start getting the outcome that you need. 

So finding a work-life balance is not really straightforward; there are lots of different things to consider, and it’s really important to sum them all up before you jump in and make a decision. One thing I can say to you though is learning English is a key asset. We’ve got a vibrant community in English for qualified teachers, active chat groups, people that are concerned students just like yourself.  You might want to connect with others all over the globe and practice your English. Why don’t you come in join us there if you’d https://youtu.be/yl2URjRuvXM

Do you spend enough quality time with your family? 

By the end of this video [Complete with sub titles as an English Lesson] you will know how to effectively use one technique that I’ve used to have a fulfilling career and spend lots of quality time with my family. 

For the best advice on developing a successful, powerful life and learning the English language at the same time subscribe to my channel and hit the bell so you can be notified of the videos I’m going to post for you every Tuesday. 

My name is Mitch Rankin and I’m a co-founder of English Forward the Internet’s largest learn English Question and Answer and community website. We’ve reached over 300 million people and our aim in the next 10 years to reach 1 billion people. We help people find the tools that they need to have a successful life. 

To find out if you’re spending too much time at work and too little time with your family you need answer these three questions. 

Question number one. Does your dog bark at you when you get home? Only kidding! 

Question number two. How many times a week do you share a meal around a table together? The goal is to have 4 meals around a table discussing, talking about life and loving each other. 

And Question number three . How many times have you had to say “Sorry I’m late… again” 

Often the reason we have a work-life conflict is that we just can’t say “No” to our colleagues and our boss. We take on more and more work and we think that’s doing our part for the company but it’s really infringing on our personal time, and sometimes it’s just out of a need to want to be liked more by the people around us. 

So that’s you if you want to be liked by people just let me know by saying “Yes” in the comments below, it will give me some feedback and how I can address this and possibly help you with some thoughts.

Well I promise to share one thing with you that would help you get your work life family back on track and here it is.

You’ve just got to learn to say “No”. 

“No, No, No” and sometimes it’s really difficult just to say no like that to colleagues, but you can couch it in different ways.

You could say “I’m sorry I can’t help you with that right now I’ve got a prior commitment” or you could say “I apologize maybe we could get back to that later but I’m on the way to a meeting”, and all of those would be true if you’d made a commitment to your wife to be home for dinner with the kids or you’d promised to take her for a walk after work. 

Doing something new is never easy and setting boundaries all the more so, but I’d like to challenge you to do one thing today. Just start by saying “No” say no to one thing that you’ve been saying yes to all this time and see how it goes, and if you’ve got any great feedback I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to hear how this has helped you and possibly helped you see that you can actually have a work/life balance .

If you’d like to join a community of people just like you come along to English Forward where I’m posting up-to-date advicewith other people on how to navigate the sometimes tricky space. 

If you like this video please click the like below subscribe, and share it with your friends and please send me some comments in the comments below. I’d love to hear what your takeaways were with the one thing that stood out to you from this video was, whether you got any benefit, you’ve got any questions please put them there and I’ll get back to you with it and just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing this time with me. I look forward to chatting with you in the next video https://youtu.be/KsnqEZTl3rY

That number today has been reportedly reduced to 690 million – meaning that at least 280 million children are better off today than they would have been two decades ago. Together, China and India account for more than half of the global decline in stunting alone. But what of the African education crisis? Here are observations:

In South Africa alone, millions of children continue to be robbed of a childhood. We now need to continue to push to reach every last child and ensure they receive the childhood they deserve.

Local governments can and must do more to give every child the best possible start in life. Greater investment and more focus is needed if we are to see every child can enjoy a safe, healthy, and happy childhood.

For those countries that made the most progress, including Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Niger, the results showed that political choices can matter more than national wealth.

With COVID-19, the conditions of community rural schools will be worse as maintenance will be made impossible by budgets diverted to address more urgent needs related to hospitalization, care, and daily subsistence. What are these school conditions that beg for our attention? Let’s peek at a child’s diary:

Dear Diary

My friend Petunia Buthelezi wrote to me yesterday and said she is not sure when they will be going back to school as the education department and the government is in conflict about social distancing measures and how they would apply in a classroom setting. She has 65 fellow students in the class…. How does social distancing work in a school like this?

South African education crisis

In many parts of South Africa, the schooling system looks more like a war zone than a field ripe for fertile minds.

Amnesty International recently reported a bleak picture of the basic education system that is failing learners from poorer communities. Titled Broken and Unequal: The State of Education in South Africa, it highlights the dire situation of South African education.

This is a far cry from the words spoken by President Cyril Ramaphosa at his state of the nation address in 2019, that in the next six years the government would provide every school child in South Africa with a tablet.

Many schools would be grateful to have a toilet. 

Of the 23,471 public schools, 20,071 have no laboratory, 18,019 have no library and most have dilapidated restrooms with what passes for toilets. Of the schools, 37 have no sanitation facilities at all.  4,358 schools are using pit latrines and 269 schools have no electricity.

This story is not unique to South Africa, and the same issues as the African education crisis are afflicting many developing countries. 

If we look at this bleak picture of education, mirrored in many parts of the world, it is almost inconceivable to marry it to the bright picture of an interconnected online education system that provides an equitable, fair learning platform for every student.

The Solution? Unless pressure is applied to the governments in emerging markets to spend the allocated funds, the education system will remain defunct for the foreseeable future. In South Africa, the education budget was 16.7% of government expenditure in 2019/2020.

If a significant portion of it had been spent correctly and not misappropriated, the amount would have gone a long way to alleviate the plight of a sinking education system in the country.

Sub Saharan Africa and Asia

In 2006 UNESCO, estimated that over 84 percent of classrooms had over 40 pupils per teacher. 

Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have the most schools with pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) exceeding 40:1 are in. 

SubSaharan Africa has the highest PTR with Congo having a PTR of 54:1, Mali 55:1, Mozambique 67:1, Rwanda 65:1, Ethiopia, and Malawi around 70:1, 

Afghanistan with 83:1, Cambodia 50:1, and Bangladesh 50:1., and other South Asian countries have high PTR. (UNESCO, Institute of statistics, 2008). 

The pressure to fulfill the international mandate of providing more teachers has more and more developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, South, and East Asia, and Latin America regions using the services of under-qualified teachers, who not only are inexperienced but also have no expertise in teaching a classroom of 50+ pupils. 

Large class sizes often go beyond 100 pupils

The classroom conditions are particularly acute in a number of developing countries where large class sizes often swell up and go beyond 100 pupils. We see a lack of planning by government agencies. Or is it a matter of focus and involvement with children? Is it a matter of lack of resources or inattentiveness to the African education crisis?

The rush to fill the physical classroom void left in the wake of Coronavirus in developed countries highlights the growing gap for marginalized students that do not have access to technology infrastructure or data, leaving them further behind each day that passes. 

On the one hand, we have the resources, finances, and students. And on the other hand, we have corrupt officials in governments, the custodians of the education system, and our future workforce. 

Teaching is moving online, on an untested and unprecedented scale. Student assessments are also moving online, with a lot of trial and error and uncertainty for everyone. Many assessments have simply been canceled. Importantly, these interruptions will not just be a short-term issue, but can also have long-term consequences for the affected cohorts and are likely to increase inequality.

The education crisis now becomes more insurmountable, bigger than the problem of latrines. The case of the broken and unequal education crisis becomes highlighted now with incompetence and corruption.

A child to the rescue? Or will adults redeem themselves?

Do we need a Greta Thurnberg to take on the African education crisis and say her emotive and daring speech during the UN Climate Summit:

I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet, I am one of the lucky ones. Children are suffering.

Crypto investors are looking at Africa as the new hub for business expansion and we look at only a part of the incoming revenues to be channeled towards the region with the “worst education system”. We are encouraged by this prediction by one crypto writer:

The Africa Bitcoin love affair is yielding encouraging results for the crypto. Bitcoin use cases are growing exponentially, and developing economies are discovering every new way to boost BTC adoption. This narrative has played out pretty well for the African continent, where Bitcoin adoption is going strong.

I am reminded of the saying Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? a Latin phrase found in the work of the Roman poet Juvenal from his Satires (Satire VI, lines 347–348). It is literally translated as “Who will guard the guards themselves?“

What’s the new normal after COVID-19 might be far beyond what we imagined, far worse. Nobody is immune to the coronavirus. For many schools around the globe, it’s not yet clear what will happen in August and September. School administrators meet constantly with their staff and faculty, and discussions revolve around mandated shutdowns and the cities’ and states’ stay-at-home orders. What’s the future for education on lockdown?

Planning for anything right now feels impossible — and for that reason, many schools are considering multiple possibilities. Many schools were caught flatfooted by COVID-19. Most were unprepared.

The New York Times reported last week that the coronavirus has already cost U.S. universities millions of dollars, affected by factors like sports season cancellations, housing payment refunds, demand for tuition discounts, and fundraising challenges. What’s normal is to enjoy life to the hilt, go to gigs, shop to the max, worry no more. But after COVID-19?

Harvard had to return its $8.6M bounty in a flurry of protests by no lesser than President Trump. What will you do with the same amount of money, if you have the same opportunity to make changes?

And yet, somewhere, shines a light as preparations were made beforehand by those with homegrown skills and concerned citizens. Let’s look at a slice of life at the biggest lockdown in the world and what’s about to transpire, the New Normal after COVID 19 – specifically, for schools and students relying on them:

Dear Diary

It is time for school.

I’ve opened my Whatsapp, downloaded the pdf file, listened to the audio that teacher Singh sent us, and I am waiting for the teacher to join us in the virtual “classroom” to discuss today’s lesson.

In the past month I’ve used Youtube, Facebook live, Google Classroom, and English Forward Telegram chat to do my school work and meet my classmates.

About 70% of my school class is attending lectures. I can see the attendance displayed on the screen.

I am among 60 million students attending school online I’ve been told.

And Prime Minister Modi has just extended the lockdown until 3 May.

This is the story of many young people, not only in India but the world over. It is Education 4.0, and this is the new normal in a typical school day. Until it changes.

Online education is a term that has been used loosely as an ideal, a solution to the education challenges faced today. COVID-19, however, has hastened the ushering in of the online education sector, and mobile networks have become the preferred platform.

Only a handful of private schools could adopt online teaching methods effectively as they had the resources to quickly pivot to the new model. Some of their low-income private and government school counterparts have completely shut down as they do not have access to e-Learning solutions.

Students, in addition to the missed opportunities for learning, no longer have access to healthy meals, sometimes the school is the only place they would be fed on a daily basis. This has caused huge economic and social stress in many communities. Even teens were at risk in their own homes.

Connectivity for access to educational tools

Online education depends on several key factors to work efficiently, and a robust network and connectivity is the number one priority.

COVID-19 has created an environment for collaboration, and notably, a successful initiative between telecom firms and streaming companies like Netflix and YouTube has lowered the transmission bit rate from high definition to standard definition. This has allowed networks to maintain capacity and has made more bandwidth available for a large number of users.

This is a result of European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton revealing on Twitter that he had an “important phone conversation” with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. He said

Infrastructures might be in strain” with so many people staying home to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. He recommended people “switch to standard definition when HD [high-definition] is not necessary.

As we move into these unchartered waters, the key to creating valuable learning tools will be to ensure that learning app firms, technology providers, and telecom service providers develop a learning system that makes learning truly enjoyable. 

As we move into the new millennium of education, teachers are preparing lessons using distance learning tools, and parents are learning new teaching techniques at home, juggling their job responsibilities and responsibilities in the classroom.

New normal after COVID-19

We should take heed of three sectors as a starting point for the new normal after COVID-19

1. E-learning Applications

There are many online learning apps like BYJU’s, Adda24x7, Duolingo, Khan Academy, and others that are our starting point in designing new tools for students.

     2. Higher Education

Universities and higher educational institutions have a responsibility to utilize online learning effectively as a critical determinant of a country’s economic future in the higher education sector, which has been significantly disrupted by the pandemic.

     3. School Education

Saanvi, our “Blockchain Babe”, a student in Mumbai, attends her online school with the same enthusiasm as she did when she was attending classes. She said:

I love the new schooling system online – it is fun, and I don’t have to wake up early to get ready. The teachers are also very accommodating and take extra time to make us understand the topics.

According to a UNESCO report, more than 1.5 billion school children around the world are using online education, following the global lockdown. 

Where do we go from here?

Not all is lost. Blockchain influencers are gathering up strength in numbers to fast-track projects. Time is of the essence. Due to the atmosphere of urgency, Americans are being made aware of their lackadaisical perspective on education, and lack of concern for 3rd world communities.

When asked about what they believe is the most significant hurdle blockchain and crypto industry needs to overcome to drive adoption rate, around 53.8% of people think that it is the lack of awareness and knowledge. Approximately 34.4% of people also feel that lack of resources like the internet or electricity has diminished the interests of many investors.

Inclusive learning solutions, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalized, need to be developed. The fight with the coronavirus, it seems, will be a long one, and the way we educate our next generations has undoubtedly changed. The new normal after COVID-19 should be education inclusion for children of school age – without gender, geographical, social, or economic boundaries.

Ending poverty through education boggles the mind. Access to education is not a privilege, it’s a right. And yet, 262 million children are not in school, the majority are girls. Hitching their wagon to a star is the dream of hopeful youngsters reared by parents who have been through the rigors of wars, poverty, unemployment, and epidemics.

We are told that the poor will always be with us. That’s propaganda to prevent dissatisfaction with governments and institutions. I had a dream, and in my dream, we all work together with a diverse group of governments, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, the private sector, and teachers. We are united in this advocacy of ending poverty through education.

Ending poverty through education easier said than done? An impossible dream? Let’s look through the eyes of a child in India and her seemingly simplistic interpretation of what adults say.

Dear Diary

Yesterday I helped my Pitaji set up a small aquaponics farm in our backyard that we made from collected scraps and other household items. It’s something I’ve been interested in for a long time, as I’ve read all about the aquaponics farms in India, and I particularly love the Youtube videos on the Madhavi farms, the largest commercial aquaponic farm in India. There is even an aquaponics village in India.

As we prepare to go back to school online and start embracing the new normal my Pitaji and mum have been discussing education with us. We watch the news of desperate situations in societies all over the world where lockdowns are extended and the humanitarian challenges develop into an ever-growing crisis.

Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO said

” Education is not a privilege, it is a legal right”

and

“As we mark the 70th year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there are still 262 million children out of school, and more than 750 million youth and adults unable to read and write. This is unacceptable and countries must ensure that the millions of people left behind have access to the powerful seed of education they are entitled to.”

I recently read an article she wrote about education being like a seed, and it got me thinking.

Farmers know all about seeds, right? There is a time to plant and a time to harvest, and they are in different seasons. If you don’t plant you cannot expect a harvest. So if education is the seed, what are we planting and what are we going to harvest?

What is education, and why is it intimately so important?

There are many different ideas about what a good education is, and I turned to my dictionary to establish a base of understanding for some of my ideas.

My dictionary says that education is the process of receiving and giving systematic instruction, especially at the school or university. It is a body of knowledge that is acquired while being educated. It is information about training in a particular subject.

I was reminded of the video I watched about Mitch Rankin the CEO and Co-founder of English Forward, we spoke about “Starting with the end in mind”

So what is at the “end” of a good education? Ultimately, it is to create a contributing member of society that can fulfill Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which results in a well-adjusted, functioning human being that is able to interact with their environment and fellow humans in a harmonious manner.

This made me start thinking about an education and aquaponics, where I will be able to set up a small scale commercial farm in our yard that would produce fish and vegetables which I’ll be able to sell to our neighbours. There is a girl in South Africa that set up an aquaponics farm at 15 years of old, and she has developed a thriving business.

Another beautiful story I read about was that a community in Kenya has developed a community currency and uses a payment system on the blockchain to pay for goods and services in the community and create a medium of exchange.

I thought of how we could combine these two ideas, and educate people in the field of farming and finance, using an aquaponic farm and blockchain technology.

This would go a long way to alleviating poverty and creating a platform for a meaningful education that was relevant and had a predictable outcome, that of creating a business and feeding a family, with the added benefit of a creating a business for an entrepreneur. 

Around this concept we could build all the fundamentals of a good education, mathematics, English, history of farming, social sciences and technology, a community of students, sensors and robotics, AI and drones, resulting in an education for all.

Ending poverty through education

Investing in education is investing in the future of one’s country and therefore, should have high priority. It is not only important for economic reasons but also because we have a commitment to children to fulfill their right to education. This means that we have to find ways to include the children that are currently out of school.

This means that we need more teachers, more classrooms, ongoing training for teachers, a variety of educational materials. On top of that, we need an effective curriculum to make sure children can read and write when they leave school and that they are provided with the necessary basic skills to participate well in their communities. That’s traditional education but how about if we factor in blockchain technology to cut costs but not quality?

Just think of the return on the investment, if one kid from a rural area, given access to education and through his passion for learning, discovers something that has the potential to improve everyone’s life. And the downside… keep him in the dark and his mind’s potential is wasted. Multiply that by 262 million.

How many children have been deprived of opportunities to contribute not only to their own future but also to the improvement of their communities? I think that education is not even a right… it is a necessity.

Schools around the world are closed and 1.5 billion children are stuck at home. This excludes any tertiary level students and has forced us to rethink the future of education. The spike in demand for online learning has been massive and possibly is the boost that will give online education it needs to become entrenched as the way we will educate in the future.

A 2017 Google and KPMG report estimated that India’s online education market would be a $2 Billion industry by 2021, a significant increase of $250 Million from 2016.

Dear Diary

My friend Nelly Khumalo in Johannesburg South Africa just DM me on Instagram to say that the 21-day lock has been extended for 2 more weeks until the end of April. What will happen in India this week? Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi extend the lockdown here? Will I be able to keep up with my studies this year or will I lose a year of my life?

The current education system of testing students by getting them to memorize, replicate and then forget after the exam is over, and the need to repeat the cycle is largely a waste of time. 

Blockchain technology & online education system

With the pandemic upon us, school discontinuance, and the uncertainty of getting a viable education, the time is ripe for awareness and adoption of blockchain technology. A shift from viability to productive usability would help mass adaption across the globe and the world to embrace blockchain technology. Two things have been highlighted by COVID-19:

1. Online tailor-made education and the ability to track each student is vital for the progression towards inclusion for all.
2. The ability to track progress and create an incorruptible record of their progress in scale is only possible with a blockchain type online education system. 

Online learning would enable personalized lessons as well as a more relevant, engaging, and up to date learning process.

This is the time to radically change a system that has had very little change over the past 300 years.  With everything, in a standstill, now is the time to make a move, consider

COVID-19 outbreak is a boon, not a curse for us, the economy and the future – KEY

In a progressive country like India, only half of the population has access to the Internet, mainly in the large cities excluding millions of learners in isolated regions. This is the same story for developing countries the world over.

There is such a long way to go as the penetration of online education has only scratched the surface. Yet, there is a path being laid out by blockchain believers and communities:

Onset and adoption of an all-in digital economy for education, governance, shopping, data, lifestyle, and more is more evident than ever.Now it’s no longer a choice. The world cannot go back to the same old ways. – Mr. KEY

COVID-19 is changing education’s bad habits

We are all creatures of habit and these enforced lockdowns have ensured we fundamentally change the way we go about our day today. COVID-19 has forced the world to change education habits that have been in trenched for hundreds of years and challenged our beliefs about how and why we educate, and the actual purpose of education and how we can ensure a better outcome.

If you believe that the need for basic education is a right that every citizen on Earth should have, then now is the time to stand behind that idea. If governments and big business the world over rallied around the idea that now is the time to change, education will take a huge step forward and become far more inclusive rather than taking a step sideways and only allowing privileged students to access the new online educational systems.

 Will we look back and say COVID-19 was the catalyst in creating a new normal in the way we are educated?

Many countries are asking people to stay at home but the arrogant chose to continue to travel possibly infecting people in the process. Shutting down population movement limits the transmission of the virus but can have unintended consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable people. We see street children on sidewalks staring as we drove past. They have been forgotten in the fight for the survival of global economies.

How valuable is online access to the global population in this direst of times when information is the dividing line between life and death? Can you imagine a world divided by language, with no means of reaching out for help because communication is limited? What are the thoughts of a child caught in the middle of a pandemic?

COVID 19 symptoms value to a child

Dear Diary:

I am reading an online article about 1.3 billion people in India that have been locked down for 21 days.

The question haunting my thoughts is whether this will stop the coronavirus in India. What are your thoughts Diary?

Today I read an online article in English. I feel older…old, more grown up, like I have a responsibility now to do my part as a student. 

Thank goodness I am able to read English and speak it fluently. Most of the news we are getting from around the world, on all the major news channels, in all the major newspapers, in all the major online publications, is in English. 

And yet there are hundreds of millions of people that cannot read or understand about the enormity and the impact that the COVID-19 coronavirus will have on their futures. 

They have limited access to global news and knowledge.

My Pitaji says it must be like being blind – hearing half-truths and rumors.

Last week the Shivaji park was full of people, laughing and spending time together. This is one of our cities largest and most popular public areas where it is packed with sports teams, school children and elderly people walking, joggers and people basically going about their every day relaxing in a beautiful space.

All of this is gone because of the announcement on the 24th of March, and the announcement made to slow the spread of COVID-19. We had 24 hours to prepare, 24 hours when everything was forgotten except buying food and getting enough supplies to sustain us for who knows how long?

Will I be able to see my school friends again soon? 

The Time For Online Education Is Now

The urgency with which we need to apply ourselves to our education has escalated beyond our imagination. As global citizens we need new applications and innovations in education for our future and future generations, so we can function as a more harmonious living organism if we are to survive as a species.

For some, this is a time of profit and little pain – for most it is a regression into the “dark ages” for their education, and with that their hope of a better future.

Unless the world does something. Now.

Better online education resources

Key milestones to achieve the United Nations goal #4

• Access to high-speed data
• Good online education with accreditation achievable using blockchain technology 
• Learning an excellent and unparalleled skill that allows one to unlock and understand the information that is available to freely – the knowledge and skill of being able to speak English.
• A community of like-minded students, like the group on the English Forward Telegram chat
• Access to world-class teachers that can answer your questions about learning English

In this time we will give up some fundamental basic human rights in an effort to support and rally as a global community, united against #COVID-19.

While the top priority now is sufficient resources for health services, it’s a time to garner support and funding for better online education resources.

Poorest of the poor excluded

We are at a crossroads as humanity. Which path do we choose? Self-preservation or inclusion?

It is very strange not getting into the ocean every day. We are used to spending a lot of time together from homeschooling and we really enjoy it so that’s great. We set up a daily schedule to create some normality and rhythm to the days and weeks for the kids, so every day is like it was except exercise changes and other activities fill time.

It is hard watching the ocean in front of the house and not being able to get in. I’m thinking of the sea as information to which some population is prohibited from accessing. Those in rural areas, the poorest of the poor. What is the government doing for the children? What can we do for them now that their education and survival are at stake?

Today, education remains an inaccessible right for millions of children around the world. More than 72 million children of primary education age are not in school and 759 million adults are illiterate and do not have the awareness necessary to improve both their living conditions and those of their children

Time will tell if we can move mountains to get our goals accomplished.

Like a gigantic bird of prey, this pandemic has swooped down on the unwary school populace and tore down the fragile structure of tottering traditional school systems in most countries. Thus, inevitably, the need for a blockchain-based educational system is being revealed.

Not only for schools, but blockchain-based education has also been on the agenda of most higher education institutions for those in need of upskilling and educational programs that will help them further their career.

Upgrading the education system has long been on the drawing board but rescheduled due to budget constraints and resistance by the educators themselves who lack the qualification for the technology.

How will education change for the better – or the worse – in the long term? We believe blockchain can play a positive role in an online education future. Let’s see how a child will react to a world with little or no access to educational tools. How does she make her way from devastation to gain the fullest blockchain uses?

Blockchain Babe’s Diary

Dear Diary

The world has changed, since yesterday.  There are so many confusing thoughts going through my mind…

• I can’t go to school anymore, not because I don’t want to, I do, but because my school has closed. Thank goodness homeschooling is legal in India…but if it wasn’t would they suddenly legalize online education and how would I access it?
• The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how millions of my fellow students around the globe are educated.

• Every day I hear new reports of coronavirus spreading rapidly across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, and schools closing.

• I am so happy I am able to access my education online…but what about the millions of students who can’t and are now stranded in an educational “no man’s land”

My Pita-ji tried to explain it all to me, but all I want is to be normal and travel and make friends and have fun. Will it ever be the same as it was?

In a matter of weeks, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted global thinking on education. No public gatherings over a certain number of people, social distancing and self-isolation, has suspended attendance at schools and universities. The OECD estimated that on March 13 that over 421 million children have been affected due to school closures in 39 countries. An additional 22 countries have implemented partial “localized” closures.

Blockchain uses in education long overdue

This shift in global thinking has prompted new examples of innovation in education, with millions of students in China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran in “homeschooling” situations. How about blockchain benefits in education? 

English Forward believes a radical revamp of the education system needs to be addressed to ensure that there is inclusion for all students globally through this process. It’s reasonable to assume that COVID-19, and the decisions made as a result of the virus, could spawn radical change and have a lasting impact on the trajectory of learning innovation and digitization. Could this be the time blockchain finds its place in education?

Diary…I’ve heard of so many great solutions in different countries

In Hong Kong students have started to learn at home, via interactive apps. 

120 million Chinese students got access to learning material through live television broadcasts. 

A Nigerian school online used learning via Google Classroom and supplemented it with face-to-face video instruction.

In Lebanon students submitted homework via video, learning how to shoot a video and video editing in the process.

The ‘learning anywhere, anytime’ and “lifetime learners” is simple as 5G technology becomes more accessible in countries such as China, US, and Japan, which have access to digital tools and good access to wifi and data.

What of the less developed countries? How do the students in those places keep up with global trends unless there are a real focus and urgency for equal education for all? Given the digital divide, new shifts in education approaches could widen equality gaps, not improve it. Blockchain is the equalizing factor.

The relevance of public-private educational partnerships will grow in importance as governments, publishers, education professionals, technology providers, and telecom network operators need to prioritize these partnerships to achieve a level educational playing field. 

Could this be the catalyst for change in countries where education has predominantly been provided by the government, and how will this happen? What are the opportunities and threats to inclusion?

A long-term cost-effective, self-funding solution

Presently, only around 60% of the world’s population is Prohibitiveonline. For Hong Kong students, digital classes on tablets are very normal, but this concept is very foreign in Somalia where some students rely on lessons sent via WhatsApp or email.

The children in affluent families have a distinct advantage because of the cost of digital devices and data plans.

Unless access costs decrease and the quality of access is improved globally, the widening gap in quality education will grow, resulting in many being left behind. A long-term cost-effective, self-funding solution is vital to sustained growth and inclusion, and a blockchain educational platform ticks these boxes.

The global impact of COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of building educational tools and systems able to withstand various threats, from pandemic disease to extremist violence to geographical displacement and the changing technological classroom.

The pandemic is an opportunity for us to build systems with the predictability and reliability students need in this unpredictable world. Blockchain supports and allows many a simple implementation of many of these concepts and ideas, and gives students in a constantly more connected world the tools to thrive.  

Knowledge of blockchain uses in education

A year ago, blockchain uses in education has gained considerable attention from researchers and practitioners. This is mainly due to its unique features including decentralization, security, reliability, and data integrity. Despite this growing interest, little is known about the current state of knowledge and practice regarding the use of blockchain technology in education.

Here are some popular blockchain uses in education:

My team and I have been building towards the future with the help of our strong community, but we need more help from networked communities willing to collaborate with us. The possibilities are as endless as the problems we are seeking answers for. What are the best ways of applying blockchain uses in education?

Barriers to technological innovations for supporting education include inadequate telecommunications bandwidth, lack of trained support staff, and the cost and the availability of simple telephones, cell phones, computers, and electricity.

Problems being asked by all stakeholders:

1. What processes are needed to provide electricity and broadband access for all educational institutions (e.g. schools, colleges, universities);
2. What processes are needed to provide broadband access to all lifelong learners (adults who can pay reasonable rates for access);
3. What alternatives do institutions have if they are unlikely to be connected to reliable electricity service in the foreseeable future;
4. What alternatives are there for introducing computers or increasing their numbers in schools and institutions of higher learning; and
5. If computers are to be installed in institutions, what processes are underway to ensure full training and support for teachers and learners to effectively integrate these into the teaching, learning and school management processes?
6. What are the innovations in education that can help meet the three-billion people challenge?

The choices we make today will secure the future of an online education system available for all tomorrow. Would you like to know more about blockchain uses in education? Where do you stand in this spectrum?

Learn about the importance of using a custodian service to safe keep the identity of your private keys and crypto wealth.

Interviewee: Alexander Kech
Position: CEO of Onchain Custodian, former Head of Securities & FX, Asia Pacific at SWIFT

Disclaimer: This is a guest article. The views, opinions, and positions expressed within it are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Cryptopolitan. The accuracy, completeness, and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.

Learn how to access lending platforms and how to have the same level of service as anybody else, and change the world through blockchain.

Interviewee: Mel Gelderman
Position: Founder & CEO, Tokencard

Disclaimer: This is a guest article. The views, opinions, and positions expressed within it are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Cryptopolitan. The accuracy, completeness, and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.