||

Connecting Communities, One Page at a Time.

Classrooms of care: UNESCO, CBSE train school leaders to bring wellness in schools

The training program equips school leaders to support mental health, gender equality, nutrition, and safety, aiming to embed wellness into everyday learning for millions of CBSE students.

Pragya Kumari 28 July 2025 07:27

Classrooms of care: UNESCO, CBSE train school leaders to bring wellness in schools

Over 290 school leaders from across India took part in a training workshop in Delhi this week, organized by UNESCO, CBSE, and NCERT to strengthen health and wellness education in schools.

The program is part of the School Health and Wellness Programme (SHWP), which aims to reach around 15 million students in 30,000 CBSE-affiliated institutions with lessons on mental health, nutrition, gender equality, and emotional well-being.

Advertisement

Introduced under the Ayushman Bharat initiative in February 2020, SHWP focuses on preventive and inclusive health awareness among adolescents.

Through the training of principals, teachers, and school heads as master trainers, the program plans to embed wellness education into daily school life.

Participants in the June and July 2025 workshops came from 22 states and 5 union territories, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and Rajasthan.

“Educators are changemakers,” said Anandrao V Patil, additional secretary in the Ministry of Education, highlighting their role in shaping inclusive education in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

He highlighted that student health is essential to achieving broader learning goals.

NCERT Director Professor Dinesh Prasad Saklani stressed the importance of understanding student behavior in context.

“Many student issues stem from situations at home, which are often missed,” he said. “The training helps teachers notice these signs early and respond with care and understanding.”

Tim Curtis, Director of UNESCO South Asia, said, “Every wellness session, every teacher trained, every child heard, it’s a step toward systems that put learners at the center.”

To support SHWP implementation, NCERT and UNESCO have developed a 24-hour curriculum that includes training modules, guidebooks, and multimedia resources such as animated videos and comics.

The materials cover 11 wellness themes, including mental health, reproductive health, online safety, and gender sensitivity, and are available in English, Hindi, and nine regional languages.

Advertisement

Since 2022, NCERT has conducted eleven national-level workshops, producing 970 master trainers.

These trainers are now working through CBSE’s Centres of Excellence to expand the program. So far, over 40,000 teachers have been trained through 754 workshops.

The initiative aims to integrate wellness into the core of school education, preparing students not only academically but also emotionally and socially.

Also Read