‘Dream a Dream’ recommends curriculum on social wellbeing of students in Nagaland

Our Correspondent
Kohima | March 16

The need to promote students’ social well-being through curriculum has been recommended by Bangalore based ‘Dream A Dream’ team after conducting a study on social emotional well-being of students in Nagaland.

“Dream a Dream” is a no profit organization working towards transforming education for children in India. The objective of the study was to explore the social and emotional well-being of students in Nagaland government schools and the contextual factor that affect it and also to understand teachers and parents perspectives on the social and emotional skills set of students.

The sample study was carried out in four districts-Mon, Zunheboto, Mokokchung and Kohima during 2022.

Dr Sreehari Ravindranath and Dr Joseph Thomas from “Dream a Dream” today presented the findings and recommendations of the study during a state level “Workshop on social emotional well-being of students in Nagaland” (Findings of Need Assessment Study) at the Directorate of School Education, Kohima.

The findings stated that emotional well-being, personal well-being and resilience were the areas where the majority of students scored lower, indicating emerging concerns.

Among the sub skills of Social and Emotional Well-being, autonomy, coping with stress and emotional regulation were noted as areas with lower scores.

According to teachers, self-awareness, social awareness and emotional management are the areas of concern to be addressed.

Findings show that teachers reported regular incidences of unresolved anger outbursts among students. Majority of the teachers felt that the students displayed low or emerging self-awareness abilities (e.g. less confidence, less awareness of strength and limitations).

53.3% teachers felt that the students need to improve their relationships skills with peers and teachers in and outside the classroom.

Both Teachers and Parents highlighted that students hesitated to express doubts or engage in classroom interactions, making it challenging for teachers to assess comprehension.

Promoting emotional well-being was recommended to encourage student expression. This finding also showed that students lack a mentor figure in their lives and need support and motivation to study.

This study recommend for the capacity building of teachers to foster students social and emotional well-being, promote students’ well-being through curriculum.

It also made recommendation to create a safe learning space for students, upskill teachers with facilitation and classroom management skills, address substance abuse through life skills sessions, continuous professional development initiatives for teachers with special reference to students’ well- being and strategies for parent engagement for children’s holistic development.
School education dept endorse social well-being curriculum
Kevileno Angami, Commissioner & Secretary for School Education & SCERT, Nagaland acknowledged “Dream A Dream” team for coming forward to support the state and to come up with curriculum on social emotional well- being of students in Nagaland.
She said that National Education Policy 2020 talk about competency- based learning, experiential learning, critical thinking, building the capacity of children, life skills, vocational education etc.
National Education Policy also talks about integrating the curriculum with various aspects.
“We now have to shift to competency based learning,” she said and urged upon the teachers/educators and school managers to take note of it.
“If the children are not socially and emotionally strong, they land up into various problems,” she said
“We are living in a very complex modern society where things are happening very fast,” she said adding that children are now confused with new habits, new equipments and new devices being introduced in society.
“We also have children face with pressure from various angles to deal with emotion and therefore, the issue of substance abuse is evident and present in our society,” she said.
She expressed happiness to “Dream A Dream” team for being able to come up with curriculum and its ability to deal with the emotion.
Further, she called for creating an enabling environment and supportive ecosystem to help students to thrive and be successful.
Thavaseelan K, Principal Director, School Education Nagaland, said that social emotional learning is key component to make education inclusive and meaningful to build better relationships and thriving.
He also endorsed “Dream a Dream” proposal to develop curriculum on social well-being.
Sharique Mashhadi shared that Nagaland has made significant strides in addressing the holistic development of students by introducing social and emotional wellbeing components into its curriculum.
Varsha Pillai, Apoorva Bhatnagar, Kethoseno Rikha, Watimongla Jamir, actively supported the event.
Asano Sekhose, chairperson Nagaland Board of School Education, Temsunaro Aier-State Mission Director-Samagra Siksha-Nagaland and representatives from State Council of Educational Research and Training, Nagaland also present at the workshop.