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The National Cadet Corps (NCC) is unarguably the oldest uniformed youth organisation in India. Over the last 75 years it has acted as a critical bridge between the educational system and national safety, security and growth. This article aims to provide a comprehensive academic analysis of the growth of the NCC within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from its legislative inception in 1948 to the projected expansions by the year 2026. While assessing the compilation of historical enrolment data, this study critically examines the volatile compulsory training era of 1960s, the shift toward voluntarism, thereafter and the more recent “Gender Parity Initiative”, driven by the introduction of Mixed Units. A special focus is laid on the Certificate ‘C’ being the primary catalyst for enrolment while analysing its role in providing career incentives for jobs within the Armed Forces, paramilitary organisations as well as the civilian sector. Furthermore, the article explores the integration of the NCC pedagogy into the national curriculum under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, as it has been a fundamental tool for human capital development and nation-building. The research adopts a qualitative synthesis approach by collating data from contemporary print news media and analysis longitudinal enrolment statistics of the NCC’s Senior Division and Senior Wing. By integrating these records with an analysis of the broader national scenario, the paper attempts to interpret the organisational impact of NCC through the lens of enrolment record and historical event trends. This methodology declares that its findings are derived from a situational synthesis and detailed analysis of evolving societal patterns, thereby providing a fresh perspective to complement traditional empirical research.

Happiness consists of positive emotions, including joy and fulfillment. A significant portion of psychological studies has focused on understanding and addressing traumas, mental disorders, and the management of negative feelings. Consequently, it has overlooked the potentials that can be realized through leveraging our inherent strengths to enhance the quality of human life. Socio-economic status (SES) refers to the social and economic standing of an individual or group within society. It is usually assessed through a combination of factors such as income level, educational attainment, type of occupation, wealth accumulation, health quality, and access to social participation. Since school teachers are an integral part of India’s work force, therefore it was considered necessary to explore happiness across different socio-economic groups of school teachers. The present study used a descriptive survey research design. Respondents included 311 school teachers teaching at primary, secondary and senior secondary levels in government and private schools across six districts namely Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar and Gurdaspur of Punjab, India. The results suggest that there is a significant difference in the mean scores of happiness among school teachers on the basis of their socio-economic status. In particular, teachers from higher socio-economic backgrounds reported notably higher happiness scores.

Environmental degradation has heightened the need for educational frameworks that boost environmentally responsible behaviour. Ecopedagogy provides a transformative, sustainability-oriented approach to education that integrates ecological principles into educational practice (i.e. teaching) to encourage and increase students’ sustainable behaviours towards their environments. To achieve this, the paper addresses three main objectives: to provide an overview of how ecopedagogy is understood; to identify and analyse pedagogical approaches for fostering environmental awareness and responsible behaviours; and to propose strategies for educators and policymakers for incorporating ecopedagogy into schools’ curricula. This review paper is based on a qualitative synthesis of secondary data from sources including peer-reviewed journal articles, policy documents, and scholarly books about ecopedagogy, environmental education, and sustainable practices, which were critically analysed. Thematic analysis was employed to highlight recurring themes in conceptual frameworks and pedagogical strategies in ecopedagogy. Findings reveal ecopedagogy’s potential to nurture critical consciousness, environmental consciousness, ethical responsibility, and behavioural change/shift among learners. Effective pedagogical strategies include experiential or real-world experiences, teaching across multiple disciplines, dialogical learning, and promoting critical reflection. The study concludes that ecopedagogy offers a meaningful educational approach for strengthening environmental behaviour and encouraging the development of sustainability-oriented learning environments. The findings of this study have major implications for environmentally responsible practices within educational institutions. Also, it points to the need for sustained institutional and policy support for successfully integrating sustainability into education systems to assist with long-term behavioural change.

Mathematics anxiety is a feeling of fear, tension or worry when dealing with tasks related to mathematics such as solving problems, attending classes, taking tests, etc. The present study explored the levels of mathematics anxiety and its contributing factors among secondary school students in Serchhip, Mizoram. An explanatory mixed method research design was employed among 90 students selected across six different schools in Serchhip town of Mizoram, Northeast India. The findings indicated that majority of the students had average level of mathematics anxiety, implicating that mathematics anxiety exists at a moderate, common level among students, neither alarming nor negligible but still important to address. Further, it was found that several factors contributed to students’ mathematics anxiety. Among these, the most dominant factors were long answer type questions, performance pressure during examination, parental pressure and comparison with peers. These findings suggest that efforts need to be made to reduce mathematics anxiety among students so that mathematics can be learned joyfully and not seen as a burden by every student.

The use of mobile devices in the classroom has changed education in recent years by giving students more ways to access and interact with learning materials. This research focuses on mobile learning, often referred to as m-learning, which involves the use of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops to facilitate learning. The study investigates the level of mobile self-efficacy and the perception about mobile learning among engineering students in Mizoram. The study employs a quantitative research design, using a standardized tool and a self-constructed questionnaire to measure the levels of mobile self-efficacy and perception about mobile learning respectively. A stratified random sampling technique is used to collect data from two engineering institutions in Mizoram, viz., Mizoram University and NIT Mizoram. Findings reveal no significant difference in the levels of mobile self-efficacy and students’ perception about mobile learning with respect to gender and institution. The study shows that most engineering students have a high level of mobile self-efficacy and view mobile learning as a useful educational tool.

The rapid expansion of India’s digital infrastructure has transformed the means of acquiring, producing, and disseminating knowledge. However, the emergence of an increasingly artificial-intelligence-driven digital society has not bridged the rural-digital divide. The growing availability of smartphones, internet connectivity, and 5G networks has instead created an “access paradox.” This paper identifies digital inclusion in rural learning environments as a gradual and continuous process of infrastructural adaptation. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), National Digital Infrastructure Development and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 policy framework, first-tier barriers such as unreliable power, network instability, hardware limitations and affordability are largely directly related to second-tier barriers such as uneven digital skills and teacher training, pedagogic approaches, linguistic constraints, and differences in household and group-level digital literacy. This disparity is largely linked to linguistic, cultural, pedagogical and experiential knowledge systems, which create epistemological asymmetries. Such asymmetries are particularly significant in rural classrooms, where limited capacity to evaluate, adapt, produce and meaningfully use knowledge acquired through digital means can coexist. This paper explores the dual potential of GenAI. While technological, linguistic, algorithmic, and infrastructural barriers can reproduce inequality, GenAI can also enrich a platform for inclusive education through personalised learning, local language translation, knowledge mediation, heterogeneous instructional support, and teacher support. The paper emphasises that GenAI can never be a substitute for a teacher, primary education, or situational knowledge. However, it can serve as a tool for local identity formation and for expanding participation. Accordingly, the paper establishes a participatory and community-centred model of GenAI-enabled rural education with the goal of epistemological equity, social justice, and human empowerment.Keywords: AI-Integrated

AI integration has revolutionised all forms of education because it has the potential to affect teaching methods and evaluation techniques’, but presents both merits and demerits, also in the form of opportunities and challenges that need to be carefully examined. The current study aims to identify the key role of AI in teaching entrepreneurship education, along with the impact of AI on learning outcomes, opportunities for using AI in teaching entrepreneurship education and challenges of using AI in teaching entrepreneurship education. It presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) for which the researcher searched the Scopus database using keywords related to ‘artificial intelligence in entrepreneurship education’ and applied a defined set of selection criteria to identify relevant studies, resulting in a final sample of 23 articles. The review process followed the ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA)’ guidelines. The findings of the review are organised in four main themes and highlight the benefits of integrating AI-driven technology into entrepreneurship education, particularly its capacity to create immersive learning experiences that simulate real-life entrepreneurial scenarios. AI opens the door to shift traditional, lecture-based education towards problem-based education. By engaging with such technology, students can develop practical skills, foster environmental awareness and prepare themselves for evolving business landscapes in the future. It is recommended to manage the challenges of AI-Integration by coordinating academia, industry and policymakers and to partner with technology developers so that the tools being built reflect sound pedagogy