Aliya Abreu
PANAJI
Sixty-six pre-primary and Standard I teachers from schools across Goa on Tuesday got a peek into the globally acclaimed innovation in education playing out in Delhi government schools with the introduction of the “happiness curriculum,” in an initiative piloted by the Nirmala Institute of Education (NIE) at Altinho.
Two mentor teachers from Delhi who were part of the team which formulated the happiness curriculum in Delhi -- Neeru Puri and Avinash Jha -- are conducting the two-day exercise where the attendee teachers are being given a lowdown on what the curriculum is all about, how it is put in practice in classrooms and the real-life impact it is having on the kids, teachers and the parents as well.
Impressed by the concept which she read about in detail in Delhi deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s book “Shiksha: My Experiments as an Education Minister”, director at NIE, Dr Rita Paes, wasted little time in arranging for the Delhi mentors to come down to Goa.
The Delhi government, had in 2018, introduced the curriculum, along with numerous other reforms in Delhi’s education sector. 45 minutes, or one class everyday is dedicated to make young minds focus on being happy and content through various activities and meditation.
At the Goa workshop for example, the room had two boards: one, a “happiness board” where attendee-teachers had put up post-its of whatever made them happy, and the second, a “gratitude board”, where attendee-teachers had started penning down the things they were grateful for. A similar exercise is carried out during the happiness hour in Delhi, where students do the same.
Around eight lakh students are benefiting from the happiness hour in Delhi, and Dr Paes’ vision is that students in Goa benefit in much the same manner.
The curriculum is based on human-centric education which includes meditation, value education and mental exercises.
The workshop has received fantastic response. “We intended to have the workshop for just 50 teachers, but schools were very enthusiastic about it, and some schools sent two or even three teachers, so 66 teachers participated in the workshop today,” Dr Paes told “The Goan.”
While Tuesday saw teachers from the lower classes participating in the workshop, Wednesday (today), will see teachers from the higher classes (Std II to VI) experience the happiness curriculum.
“We explained to the teachers the tools or pedagogies used in the curriculum,” said Puri, after the conclusion of Day 1. The mentors expressed that the happiness curriculum has been having tremendous results in Delhi, with students, teachers and parents. Said Puri, “One teacher actually told me that had it been any other class, she would have gotten angry with a student who, according to her, gave a silly answer. But since it was the happiness class, the teacher allowed the child to express herself without judgement, and came out happier.”
Jha in his turn explained that the point of the curriculum was not just to benefit the students but to benefit society at large. “We need more happy people going out into society. We all need it,” he said, expressing that parents had come forward and shared how their children had become happier at home too on account of the specially-desgined curriculum.
Meanwhile, NIE is already looking ahead to having master trainers of the curriculum in Goa itself. “The next step is in February. Instead of bringing resource persons from Delhi every time, we will train people from here so they can take forward the process of familiarising the concept to teachers in Goa in the long term,” Dr Paes said.
