Date: 10/09/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to the development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, and Human Resources.

Key Phrases: Indian learning systems, Compassion and love, Cognitive development, Social, Emotional, and Ethical (SEE) Learning, teaching-learning methods, Literacy, Pro-social capabilities, Emotional resilience, Emotions, Demonstrate compassion, Sewa Bhaav, Compassion literacy, Education system.

Why in News?

• Social, emotional and compassion literacy is a key pathway for India’s development.

Context:

• Traditional Indian learning systems focused on creating well-rounded individuals by developing the heart (compassion and love) and mind (cognitive development).
• Sadly, literacy is now viewed largely as acquisition of language skills and numeracy, when in today’s strife-ridden world, values of compassion, empathy and love are urgencies to be developed at an early stage in learners who can contribute to the betterment of society.
• Re-imagining literacy as it existed in the traditional Indian learning system, in the context of today’s times, thus becomes imperative.

Social, Emotional, and Ethical (SEE) Learning:

• Social, Emotional, and Ethical (SEE) Learning is an innovative new-age literacy model involving teaching-learning methods that encourage the development of the heart (compassion and love) and mind (cognitive development) together.
• SEE Learning provides educators with the tools they need to foster the development of emotional, social, and ethical intelligence for students and themselves.
• SEE Learning represents the state of the art in education by enhancing SEL programming with key additional components, including:
  • attention training
  • compassion and ethical discernment
  • systems thinking
  • resilience and trauma-informed practice
• This program provides educators with a developmentally staged curriculum consisting of easy-to-implement lessons, the conceptual framework used to design the curriculum, and resources for educator preparation and development.
• SEE Learning empowers students to engage ethically as part of a global community and provides educators with the tools to support student well-being.

Why it is Important:

• Research has shown that teaching-learning methods based on common sense, experience and scientific findings can cultivate key values like compassion, love and empathy.
• It can inculcate pro-social capabilities, interpersonal abilities and emotional resilience in children in their early learning stages, all of which are powerful levers to create caring young individuals.
• This will enable them to manage their emotions, demonstrate compassion and empathy, form healthy relationships, navigate life situations and go on to become nation-builders.
• Additionally, ethical literacy can spark an inner recognition of the interdependence of life, integrity and humility, and of the fact that we exist in this world not only for ourselves but for others.
• This awakening of the self is ‘Sewa Bhaav’ in its purest form and will go a long way in making India a land of equal opportunity, harmony and peace.

Government Initiative:

• National Education Policy (NEP) 2020:
  • National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has recognized the pressing need of Social, Emotional, and Ethical (SEE) Learning.
  • It will create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st century education, including Sustainable Development Goal 4, while building upon India’s traditions and value systems.
  • The NEP lays particular emphasis on the development of the creative potential of each individual.
• State government Collaboration with University:
  • Through its collaboration with Emory University, Piramal Foundation has collaborated with the governments of Rajasthan and Odisha to implement compassion-based teaching-learning methods.
  • As a consortium partner of Project Sampoorna, it also supports the government of Jharkhand to implement this form of literacy.
  • The governments of Delhi and Uttarakhand are also implementing such methods, with encouraging outcomes. This testifies to the growing acceptance that a truly transformative change can be enabled by developing well rounded, compassionate individuals.

Way forward:

• The time has come for literacy re- imagined this way to find its rightful place in school education, as we move away from the standard narrative that equates literacy with language and numeracy to establish a counterfactual narrative that emphasises social, emotional and compassion literacy.
• This calls for all key players - governments, social sector organizations and corporate India - to help this new narrative take root. This will lead to lasting change, bringing us closer to our vision of the country and help achieve our Sustainable Development Goals.
• Nothing is more important in our education system than nurturing compassion-literate learners, imbued with Sewa Bhaav, who will evolve into leaders of tomorrow committed to the country’s development. Our future depends on them.

Sources: Live-Mint

Mains Question:

Q. “A transformed Bharat led by compassion-literate leaders is need of the current Indian society”. Discuss [250 Words].