Manish Sisodia (Dy. CM & Education Minsiter, Delhi‪)‬ Manish Sisodia

I talk to students everyday, on the purpose behind them coming to schools to study. Till today, I have not heard any student wanting to become a political leader. This episode is about conditioning our students to scale up the scope of our students' dreams to much beyond self.

Even after educating millions of young people every year, we are not able to provide an assurance that an educated person can live a happy life, rising above the evils of violence, animosity, greed, malice. We have made some efforts in this direction but the success we have achieved in academic subjects has not been achieved in this domain. Today, the greatest challenges facing humankind are to deal with conditions that are arising due to societal evils. Arrangements like the government machinery, judicial system, defence machinery, police administration which have been put in place to deal with such conditions and maintain decorum have their own limitations. Children enter the education system in kindergarten at around two and a half years of age and continue to spend nearly twenty years within the education system until they graduate. During this time, we are successful in making them good engineers, doctors, scientists, managers or other professionals, but do not ensure that they become honest and responsible human beings.

The Happiness Curriculum is a crucial first step in this direction. I hope that with this effort, we will be able to make the education system an enabler for the all-round development of humankind. Although this is just a humble beginning in the state of Delhi, it is my fervent hope that many such systemic efforts shall blossom in different parts of India and the world.

Today, throughout the world, we are able to make sure that our future generations become educated by acquiring the present knowledge available in mathematics, science, geography and language from the education system. We are also able to ensure that through continuous research and experimentation we keep opening new doors of knowledge in these areas. But it is also true that even after educating millions of young people every year, we are not able to provide an assurance that an educated person can live a life rising above the evils of violence, animosity, greed, malice. We have made some efforts in this direction but the success we have achieved in academic subjects has not been achieved in this domain. Today, the greatest challenges facing humankind are to deal with conditions that are arising due to societal evils. Arrangements like the government machinery, judicial system, defence machinery, police administration which have been put in place to deal with such conditions and maintain decorum have their own limitations. Children enter the education system in kindergarten at around two and a half years of age and continue to spend nearly twenty years within the education system until they graduate. During this time, we are successful in making them good engineers, doctors, scientists, managers or other professionals, but do not ensure that they become honest and responsible human beings. The Happiness Curriculum is a crucial first step in this direction. I hope that with this effort, we will be able to make the education system an enabler for the all-round development of humankind. Although this is just a humble beginning in the state of Delhi, it is my fervent hope that many such systemic efforts shall blossom in different parts of India and the world.

From a TedTalk on the much talked about transformation of Delhi govt. schools.

An interaction with educationists on how & why of innovation in school education.