MUKESH RANJAN
RANCHI: To provide social and emotional support to the children in government schools and develop their well-being, the state government has introduced the Harsh-Johar curriculum in 121 schools all over the State. The curriculum has been developed into two parts – one for class 1 to V and another for VI to X. It has initially been implemented in a total of 121 schools, including 80 excellent schools and Kasturba Schools, reports The New Indian Express.
Under this scheme, a special session of 20 minutes is held in schools under which children are made to attend different activities under different curricula like empathy and sympathy through those activities. Two teachers from each school have been trained for the purpose. Apart from that, other volunteers also visit schools every alternate day to support the teachers.
According to State Programme Officer (Quality Education) at Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC), Abhinav Kumar, the feedback is very encouraging as it has brought drastic change in the attitude and behavior of the children.
“One will have to ensure the socio-emotional learning quotient and provide social-emotional support in schools if we want to improve the learning outcome of the children,” said State Programme Officer (Quality Education) at Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC), Abhinav Kumar Primary objective is to develop overall well-being of the children, he added.
According to Kumar, life skills like developing emotional resilience, critical thinking skills, responsible decision making, self-awareness, self-esteem, growth-oriented mindset, establishing and maintaining positive relationships, empathy towards others will be developed among the children under this curriculum.
Harsh-Johar program is being carried out under Sampoorna Project, under which, life skills will be developed in children through social-emotional learning, activity-based learning, interactive sessions, safe space for learning, and several other activities in 121 schools of the state, he said.
Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Rahul Kumar Sinha also hailed the initiative saying that it is very important to provide children not only moral education but also how to study in a stress-free environment. “This will help children focus as now they will take studies as a game, instead of considering it as a burden,” said the DC.
Stress-free environment
Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Rahul Kumar Sinha hailed the initiative saying that it is very important to provide children not only moral education but also how to study in a stress-free environment. “This will help children focus as now they will take studies as a game and not as a burden,” he said.