learn here, not taught”, responded an eleven-year-old child in the “Happiness” class of a Delhi government school when asked by a visitor what happens in this class. This response is significant because ever since India’s formal school system came into existence, the emphasis has been on teaching. The assumption was (and quite often still is,) that a child is an empty pot and the role of the school is to fill that pot with useful knowledge with the help of teachers and textbooks.
The fallout of this ‘empty pot’ assumption is that teaching-learning becomes transactional and, with outcomes measured through assessment tools like standardized exams.
To summarize this process, here is what happens. A child is enrolled in a class appropriate to his/her age. There is a prescribed syllabus for that class, an approved textbook for different subjects and a teacher teaching a subject. Teaching-learning is led by a teacher in class wherein they cover the chapters at a certain pace. There are periodic tests and term end exams to score learners. While this approach may ensure accountability in big education systems, the key question is whether such a process provides any scope for building a breadth of skills.
That brings us to the core component of this article—what is breadth of skills and why is it important for today’s learners?
The Happiness Curriculum and Breadth of Skills
“Breadth of skills” encompasses a range of skills covering cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioral dimensions. Flowing from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4—“to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning,” target 4.7 unpacks the idea of breadth of skills more clearly as “education for sustainable development and global citizenship.” It explains further that “all learners must acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, peace and non-violence, appreciation for cultural diversity among several other things”.
Clearly, in the prevailing education set up, there is very little scope to consciously enable learners to develop a breadth of skills. This is where Delhi’s Happiness Curriculum steps in. Apart from attaining its curricular goal, it also seeks to bridge the gap between prevailing practices and aspirations for the future.
Introduced in all Delhi government schools (also referred to as, ‘public schools’) in 2018, from kindergarten up until grade 8 covering learners in the age group of 3-14 years, the Happiness Curriculum works on the behavioral dimension. The goal of this curriculum is to promote the social-emotional wellbeing of learners through critical thinking and self-reflection.
Two critical approaches set the Happiness curriculum apart. First, the happiness class is placed equally among the academic subjects at par with other core subjects. Second, it consciously moves away from conventional methods of assessment.
At the beginning of the class, the teacher and learners open the day with five minutes of mindfulness meditation. This practice helps learners focus their attention to the present moment. Once a week, the entire period is devoted to mindful meditation practice.
In addition to mindful meditation, two other components of the Happiness Curriculum are stories and activities. The stories have been shortlisted keeping the context of the learners in mind. The teacher narrates a story, referring to the handbook. Thereafter, the floor is open for discussion.
There are two salient features of this process. First, every child gets a chance to express their views on the content and the role played by different characters in the story. Secondly, there is no right or wrong response. Teachers have been trained to refrain from trying to “correct” the learners. A similar process is adopted for activities as well where learners get to reflect upon their actions in real situations.
This class does not follow the conventional pen and paper assessment. Instead, the teachers make note of the change in the behavior of learners. It ranges from the level of participation of learners in class to how they change in their behavior toward peers, family, and others in school. Some of the key outcomes recorded by teachers show that there has been a decline in the practice of bullying, an increase in the ability to focus more in other classes and so on. This year, the government plans to introduce a set of formal indicators to evaluate the impact of the Happiness Curriculum among learners.
The experience of the last four years is convincing; the focus of learning needs to shift toward building a breadth of skills and values. With the introduction of two more curriculums—Entrepreneurship and Deshbhakti (citizenship), Delhi schools are now on the path to work on the mind set of learners to make learning more holistic and contemporary, encompassing the breadth of skills in a true sense and prepare learners for the emerging world.
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Unpacking India’s Happiness Curriculum
Photo by jaikishan patel via Unsplash.
September 11, 2022
Education often fails to enable learners with a breadth of skills. However, Delhi’s Happiness Curriculum works to make learning more holistic and contemporary, encompassing the breadth of skills in a true sense and better preparing learners for the emerging world, writes Shailendra Sharma.
I
learn here, not taught”, responded an eleven-year-old child in the “Happiness” class of a Delhi government school when asked by a visitor what happens in this class. This response is significant because ever since India’s formal school system came into existence, the emphasis has been on teaching. The assumption was (and quite often still is,) that a child is an empty pot and the role of the school is to fill that pot with useful knowledge with the help of teachers and textbooks.
The fallout of this ‘empty pot’ assumption is that teaching-learning becomes transactional and, with outcomes measured through assessment tools like standardized exams.
To summarize this process, here is what happens. A child is enrolled in a class appropriate to his/her age. There is a prescribed syllabus for that class, an approved textbook for different subjects and a teacher teaching a subject. Teaching-learning is led by a teacher in class wherein they cover the chapters at a certain pace. There are periodic tests and term end exams to score learners. While this approach may ensure accountability in big education systems, the key question is whether such a process provides any scope for building a breadth of skills.
That brings us to the core component of this article—what is breadth of skills and why is it important for today’s learners?
The Happiness Curriculum and Breadth of Skills
“Breadth of skills” encompasses a range of skills covering cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioral dimensions. Flowing from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4—“to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning,” target 4.7 unpacks the idea of breadth of skills more clearly as “education for sustainable development and global citizenship.” It explains further that “all learners must acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, peace and non-violence, appreciation for cultural diversity among several other things”.
Clearly, in the prevailing education set up, there is very little scope to consciously enable learners to develop a breadth of skills. This is where Delhi’s Happiness Curriculum steps in. Apart from attaining its curricular goal, it also seeks to bridge the gap between prevailing practices and aspirations for the future.
Introduced in all Delhi government schools (also referred to as, ‘public schools’) in 2018, from kindergarten up until grade 8 covering learners in the age group of 3-14 years, the Happiness Curriculum works on the behavioral dimension. The goal of this curriculum is to promote the social-emotional wellbeing of learners through critical thinking and self-reflection.
Two critical approaches set the Happiness curriculum apart. First, the happiness class is placed equally among the academic subjects at par with other core subjects. Second, it consciously moves away from conventional methods of assessment.
At the beginning of the class, the teacher and learners open the day with five minutes of mindfulness meditation. This practice helps learners focus their attention to the present moment. Once a week, the entire period is devoted to mindful meditation practice.
In addition to mindful meditation, two other components of the Happiness Curriculum are stories and activities. The stories have been shortlisted keeping the context of the learners in mind. The teacher narrates a story, referring to the handbook. Thereafter, the floor is open for discussion.
There are two salient features of this process. First, every child gets a chance to express their views on the content and the role played by different characters in the story. Secondly, there is no right or wrong response. Teachers have been trained to refrain from trying to “correct” the learners. A similar process is adopted for activities as well where learners get to reflect upon their actions in real situations.
This class does not follow the conventional pen and paper assessment. Instead, the teachers make note of the change in the behavior of learners. It ranges from the level of participation of learners in class to how they change in their behavior toward peers, family, and others in school. Some of the key outcomes recorded by teachers show that there has been a decline in the practice of bullying, an increase in the ability to focus more in other classes and so on. This year, the government plans to introduce a set of formal indicators to evaluate the impact of the Happiness Curriculum among learners.
The experience of the last four years is convincing; the focus of learning needs to shift toward building a breadth of skills and values. With the introduction of two more curriculums—Entrepreneurship and Deshbhakti (citizenship), Delhi schools are now on the path to work on the mind set of learners to make learning more holistic and contemporary, encompassing the breadth of skills in a true sense and prepare learners for the emerging world.
