Last week, the director general of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Dr Abdulla Al Karam, urged schools and educators to place greater emphasis on student happiness and well-being. Dr Al Karam eloquently hit the nail on the head saying: “Happiness leads you to success, not the other way around.” He contradicted the widely held notion that if we push students hard enough, they might succeed academically and find happiness.
Dr Al Karam is far from alone in challenging this flawed notion. Speaking at the World Innovation Summit for Health, held this year in Doha, former UK health minister, Lord Darzi, argued that many schools are operating as “exam factories”, with little or no concern for the psychological well-being of pupils. I call this situation “sick school syndrome”. In their worst incarnation, sick schools actually heighten the psychological distress of students and then fail in their duty of care to provide an appropriate number of adequately qualified emotional counsellors (career counsellors don’t count).
Within our current “exam factory” model, ever-greater pressure is being placed on our children to excel, make-the-grade and gain acceptance to the best universities and graduate programmes. Academic success has always been highly valued, but our current obsessive overemphasis on academic achievement has driven many students to despair. All children are hardwired to love learning, but after a few years in an exam factory they come to loathe it – this is the true tragedy. We talk about lifelong learning, while simultaneously extinguishing the innate passion in our young people to pursue knowledge.
The pressure of the exam factory is evident in other ways too. Academic dishonesty has, in some countries, become rampant. Studies of US college students report rates of cheating, such as plagiarism, to be as high as 90 per cent. Many of the cheats are no doubt good-kids-gone-bad, individuals who felt compelled to cheat so as not to get left behind. Similarly, the use of so-called “smart drugs” is clearly on the rise. Childline, a UK charity providing a telephone helpline for stressed youngsters, reported that calls related to exam and workload stress more than tripled in 2014.
For all of our setting higher standards, introducing new targets and adding more exams, we don’t really seem to be seeing much improvement. If anything, the overzealous push of the exam factory is serving only to make our children ill. A recent survey by the UK’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that three-quarters of the educators surveyed thought that the stress faced by students resulted in low self-esteem, while more than 60 per cent felt it contributed to problematic levels of anxiety, a lack of motivation and an inability to concentrate. Perhaps more worrying still, around 62 per cent thought that today’s students were under more pressure than they were just two years ago.
For Dr Al Karam and many others, the solution is that we must develop a culture of well-being and happiness within our schools. Cultivate joy and a joy of learning, and academic success becomes a natural by-product rather than an all-consuming goal.
Neuroscience and allied psychological interventions have made huge advances in understanding human emotion in the past few decades. There are now numerous techniques that have proven highly effective in terms of improving happiness and well-being. We also know that a key component of long-term happiness (frequently experiencing, and appreciating, positive emotional states) is the acceptance, if not the appreciation, of sadness (negative emotional states) too.
Teachable techniques exist that can simultaneously promote well-being and prevent psychological disorder. The question isn’t: “Can we teach happiness?” Rather, the question should be: “Why aren’t we?”
Justin Thomas is an associate professor of psychology at Zayed University and author of Psychological Well-Being in the Gulf States
On Twitter: @DrJustinThomas
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
Tu%20Jhoothi%20Main%20Makkaar%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ELuv%20Ranjan%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERanbir%20Kapoor%2C%20Shraddha%20Kapoor%2C%20Anubhav%20Singh%20Bassi%20and%20Dimple%20Kapadia%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Co%20Chocolat%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Iman%20and%20Luchie%20Suguitan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Food%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241%20million-plus%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Fahad%20bin%20Juma%2C%20self-funding%2C%20family%20and%20friends%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The biog
Age: 30
Position: Senior lab superintendent at Emirates Global Aluminium
Education: Bachelor of science in chemical engineering, post graduate degree in light metal reduction technology
Favourite part of job: The challenge, because it is challenging
Favourite quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” Gandi
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Sui Dhaaga: Made in India
Director: Sharat Katariya
Starring: Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Raghubir Yadav
3.5/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Landfill in numbers
• Landfill gas is composed of 50 per cent methane
• Methane is 28 times more harmful than Co2 in terms of global warming
• 11 million total tonnes of waste are being generated annually in Abu Dhabi
• 18,000 tonnes per year of hazardous and medical waste is produced in Abu Dhabi emirate per year
• 20,000 litres of cooking oil produced in Abu Dhabi’s cafeterias and restaurants every day is thrown away
• 50 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s waste is from construction and demolition
