NEW DELHI: Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday stated that the indicator of good education is not infrastructural development but the happiness a child gains from school.
“The ‘happiness curriculum’ initiative taken up by the state government in school has brought in changes in children’s approach; they are more calm and composed now. They have been found to be more focused on studies. And this has been told to me by teachers and parents. This is a big change,” said the deputy chief minister while addressing Delhi government school heads and inspectors at an administrative capacity building programme.
The ‘happiness curriculum’ launched by the AAP government for students up to Class 8 focuses on holistic education by including meditation, value education, and mental exercises in conventional education curriculum for a period of 45 minutes.
“Countries like Nepal and Afghanistan have started following the happiness curriculum. In India, states like Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh have also adopted it,” the minister added.The education minister also asserted that educators of Delhi government are committed to carrying out “surgical strikes” on hunger, unemployment, illiteracy, violence and hatred in society. “In newspapers we read headlines that make us sad. The army cannot do a surgical strike on it, you will have to do it,” he told the educators.
Highlighting the AAP government’s achievements, Sisodia laid emphasis on the “entrepreneurship mindset” launched in government schools in Delhi. “Entrepreneurship mindset curriculum is aimed at preparing job providers not job seekers,” he said referring to the curriculum for Class 9-12 students, launched on pilot basis in some of the city government schools.
The deputy CM asked education department officials to issue a circular on teacher innovation fund of R1.0-1.5 lakh per school which was announced in state government budget. Sisodia also promised that all the eligible vice principals will be promoted as principals if Delhi government is given power over services department.
He also said that the government has removed the income cap on scholarship for meritorious students so that most of them will be benefited by it.Sisodia highlighted human resource and infrastructure developments in the Education sector under the AAP government and overall improvement in results of Delhi schools in last 4.5 years. He claimed the education budget increased by 2.5 times from R6,600 crore in 2015 to R15,600 crore in 2019 and said by November this year 45,118 classrooms will be ready against 24,157 in 2015.