The process of education in Delhi and other states in India has undergone a sea change, all thanks to social media and the way authorities are making an effort to integrate it into everyday teaching.
For a long time now, government schools have been infamous for poor infrastructure, lackadaisical teaching staff and worrying drop-out rates. But that’s not the case in Delhi government schools, if one were to go by reports.
The teachers from Delhi government school are now spearheading a movement on social media, to get educators across the world involved in the process of sharing teaching methods and improve interaction among students.
The Happiness Curriculum
If education can’t make a person happy it’s of no use. This is the core principle that pushed educators to introduce a special period devoted to make students understand the importance of staying happy.
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For those unaware, ‘Happiness Curriculum’ was launched by the Delhi government for the students of nursery to Class 8 in government schools in July 2012.
The syllabus includes meditation, value education, and mental exercises, things that students need in this fast-paced, competition-driven world. The success of this curriculum prompted private schools in Delhi as well to introduce it.
Global Appeal Of Happiness Curriculum
According to an Indian Express report, a physics teacher in New York, Seth Guiñals-Kupperman, was so impressed with a Twitter thread on the Happiness Curriculum that he reached out to a Delhi government school teacher named Manu Gulati.
Manu Gulati is the 2019 winner of the Martha Farrell Award for Excellence in Women’s Empowerment. She is an English teacher at a school and is also working as a mentor teacher with Directorate of Education.
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Gulati now shares learnings from the Happiness Curriculum through Skype for students in Brooklyn, New York and helps them practice mindfulness — a key feature of the Happiness Curriculum, reports The Indian Express.
Apart from this, Gulati also collaborates with America India Foundation’s “Market Aligned Skills Training Program”, through which she facilitates training programs for beauticians, weavers, sales girls etc. in Jalandhar in Punjab, Betul in Madhya Pradesh and in Baramullah in Kashmir, states this report.
Gulati who has been a forerunner in transforming learning in government schools wrote in a tweet, ‘I see something phenomenal happening in #DelhiGovtSchool now. Students are making use of #Technology to give presentations. They dream, build & create. They learn, share & collaborate.’
Global Twitter Teaching Community
In the past four weeks, Manu Gulati along with Murari Jha another mentor teacher, started a Twitter community for teachers globally where in the conversations revolve around new teaching methods, cultural interaction among students and Class 12 results, reports The Indian Express.
The Twitter conversation that went by #LetsTalkEducation, got people talking about how education has transformed with the advent of social media.
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“Earlier, there was a narrative that government school teachers were lazy. These Twitter conversations, where we showcase our work, are helping dispel that myth,” Murari Jha told the Indian Express.
“We also get to build a community of teachers where each is seen as a resource one can learn from. While one talks about how to teach algebra better, another about the use of different software for an interactive classroom”, he adds.
It’s certainly a moment of pride for Delhi Government School to be capable to delivering an educational quality that world looks up to. With Twitter serving as a gateway for knowledge exchange among teachers and students, things are only going to get better in the coming years.