Page 67 - EW February 2023

STUDENT ATTITUDES SURVEY

Citizenship
20% don't support national
River Pollution schemes Linguistic
Gender Caste Diversity 15% children
33% government school 24% disrespect national
students indifferent anthem in government
and private
15 % private school 21% damage public schools express
students indifferent monuments disparagement

Girls’ right to nutrition, Caste prejudice, exclusion, 32% government and
education, mobility and segregation and private school students
gender stereotypes discrimination don't trust students
39% government Civic 39% government school speaking other vernacular
school students highly Sense students prejudiced Citizenship languages Economically
discriminatory 26.8 % private school Backward
18% private school students prejudiced
students discriminatory

NB: Approximated over a range of values, refer to CASS 2022 for accurate values Source: CASS 2022

dren with the skills to develop into heightened awareness, but schools
resilient and socially responsible citi- and teachers are woefully under-pre-
zens,” says Manit Jain, the Harvard- pared to manage the country’s loom-
educated co-founder of The Heritage ing child mental health crisis. In this
Xperiential School (HXLS), Gurgaon. connection, it’s important to ensure
In the latest EW India School Rank- that teachers’ own social-emotional
ings 2022-23 HXLS is ranked India’s condition is stable, for them to be able
#2 co-ed day school and among the to nurture their students. For over two
Top 10 under the parameter of mental decades TTF has been adapting Brit-
and emotional well-being education. ish educator Jenny Mosley’s Whole
It’s not as though SEL skills devel- School Quality Circle model to
opment is a novel concept in Indian enable schools to develop SEL cur-
education. In 2012, the Bengaluru- riculums. In the post-pandemic era,
based The Teacher Foundation there is overdue awareness of the
(TTF, estb.2002) conducted a study prime importance of children’s mental
to investigate SEL skills being taught health and well-being. However, it’s
in K-12 education. The study surveyed important that SEL be integrated into
90 schools countrywide and found school curriculums and not taught
that while principals and teachers TTF's Menon: SEL integration demand separately,” advises Maya Menon,
agreed that teaching SEL skilling is founder-director of TTF, which has
important, they experience difficulty of-charge package can be downloaded trained over 93,000 teachers in 3,500
in integrating the subject into their from www.teacherfoundation.org. schools in nine countries worldwide.
curriculums. “Regrettably, only a small minor- Undoubtedly, over the past decade
The outcome of the survey is TTF’s ity of schools has created safe and and especially after the pandemic, the
Indian Social Emotional Learn- happy learning spaces for children by importance of equipping children with
ing Framework (ISELF) — an ed- adopting best SEL practices. TTF’s re- SEL skills has dawned upon educators
ucational resource to enable teachers search study indicates that while most and policy makers. The National Edu-
and counsellors to teach five vital SEL schools agree that SEL skilling plays cation Policy (NEP) 2020 repeatedly
competencies — self-awareness, self- an important role in children’s devel- emphasises the importance of holistic,
management, relationships manage- opment, they don’t have the expertise multidisciplinary education to devel-
ment, social awareness and decision to integrate them into their curricu- op not merely children’s intellectual
making — to children. The ISELF free- lums. The pandemic has generated capabilities, but also their SEL skills

FEBRUARY 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 67