Ready for the World - Bringing social-emotional development into the classroom

Nazia, age 10, is a bright child. She shows responsible behaviour toward her teachers, but finds it tough to focus in class. She is often seen picking fights with her classmates. at the heart of her behaviour is her situation at home: a visually-challenged mother, numerous chores, and the responsibility of caring for her siblings, all of which have led to a sense of helplessness in Nazia. If this continues, it is likely that she will simply drop out of school, or if she graduates, find it very difficult to hold a job.

This is not just Nazia’s story, this is the story of millions of children from vulnerable backgrounds, all across India. They are at risk of not achieving equitable adulthood and life outcomes—what is generally understood as well-being—because of a lack of optimal social and emotional skills.

While the link between social-emotional development and academic achievement and workforce readiness is clearly established, the education system in India has no structured program on improving these skills in children.It is a critical need for children from vulnerable backgrounds, who are likely to fall into risky or harmful behaviour if they not access the skills at the right age.Compounding this is the state of teachers, who struggle with being able to engage with children and deal with issues such as aggression, stress and other high-risk behaviours.

We build life skills for 8-14-year old children in under-resourced schools by employing the approach of teacher development, providing detailed life-skills curriculum, toolkits, and scripted lesson plans for use in classrooms by the teachers.

We do this by developing teacher capability through regular workshops and teacher mentorship throughout the academic year, so that teachers become change agents in the classroom.

We also ensure that we document and evaluate the progress of teachers, children, and classrooms using established tools and frameworks.

In AY 2017-18, Learning Curve’s program reached schools directly and in partnership with Bhumi, for a total of 4747 children and 171 teachers. A dramatic increase in social-emotional skills was observed. Summary:- 88% of all children enrolled showed improvements in social and emotional skills scores.- An improvement of 34% in social-emotional profile scores was seen across all the grades.- A pilot study showed a correlation between social-emotional skills in the classroom and academic outcomes, with 17% and 19% improvements in English and Maths scores respectively (compared to 10% and 13% improvements in English and Maths scores in the control group).

In the current year, we are working with close to 40 schools (low-income plus Government) in Hyderabad, and close to 20 schools in Chennai through our partner Bhumi. This year, we are directly impacting over 11,000 children and close to 400 teachers through our program.