Happiness class extended to Class 9 too, 5 more 'Sarvodaya' schools soon

New Delhi: As the Directorate of Education (DoE) in Delhi prepares to start fully physical classes from April 1 for the first time since the Covid-19 outbreak, the Delhi government has now decided to extend its flagship Happiness Curriculum classes to students who

will be starting Standard 9 as well (in a first) and is also going ahead with its plans to strengthen primary and pre-primary school education

by adding new classes in existing schools.

Officials said that Class 9 has been included this time because these students will have had full online education for the last two years and it is important for them to attend these classes.

To begin with, the Delhi government will from the next academic session (2022-23) convert five more of its senior secondary schools into "Sarvodaya" schools - making space to accommodate lower classes as well. Of the over 1,000 Delhi government schools, 442 now have primary school education. With five more, this number will rise to 447 now.

This is in keeping with the government's action plan — 'Vision 2030' — which was issued in 2020, as per which the Department had set its goal to provide quality pre-primary education to children below 6 years of age and start the admission process in the nursery for all its 'Sarvodaya' schools.

Three of the five freshly converted schools will begin from nursery classes and two from Class 1. The schools have been asked to address issues relating to school furniture, water, sanitation and electricity with the department.

"The heads of schools of these five schools have been asked to set up classes and to use the existing school fund. The department will inspect once before the classes begin," a senior official said, adding that new teachers will also be hired to bridge the gap.

And even as the schools prepare for the big reopening on April 1, the DoE has scheduled a two-phase return to normalcy in classrooms across its schools, which officials say is to bridge the learning gap and rebuild foundational competencies of students in the new session.

Director Education Himanshu Gupta met with the DDEs and heads of schools and directed them to "exclusively focus on emotional wellbeing and foundational skills" in the first quarter of the session for Classes 3-9.

For this, Gupta said that the class-wise syllabus would be reduced, teachers will be specially trained to address learning-related issues of children in the new session and implement the two-phase plan in schools, and a weekly review will be held to assess the implementation of the plan.

In the first phase (from April 1 to April 10), the teachers will be given refresher training on Mission Buniyaad, a baseline assessment of students in Classes 3-9 will be done and a mega Parent-Teacher Meeting will also be held within the first week.

Importantly, the first 10 days of the new session will see the "entire school time" assigned to activities like Mission Buniyaad (for reading, writing and numeracy), Happiness classes, Revision of previous worksheets and library and reading period.

In the second phase (April 11 - June 15), the DoE has said that two hours of school time every day must be set aside for Happiness classes, Hindi reading and writing and basic mathematics. In addition to

this, the schools have been asked to hold regular "catch-up sessions" with students and make sure they assess the implementation of the new plan every Saturday.

The department has also issued orders for eight double-shift schools to start functioning as single-shift schools in 2022-23. Of this, the girls' schools will function in the morning shift and the boys' classes will be shifted to new buildings where they will function as general shift schools.