Concept Note

Students’ well-being and their success in and outside school depends on their ability to use their competencies. Since well-being has many facets, improving students’ well-being in schools requires a whole-school approach, involving both teachers and parents. Schools should provide lessons focussed on the need to adopt a healthy lifestyle and how to prevent or cope with health problems, in collaboration with those involved, including health and social services, local authorities and civil society organisations.

The children today are exposed to an environment in which the presence and impact of harmful substances are increasing. The need to be not swayed away by the modern lifestyle from the traditional and healthier alternatives needs to be emphasized.

Well-being is the experience of health and happiness. It includes mental and physical health, physical and emotional safety, and a feeling of belongingness, sense of purpose, achievement and success. Well-being covers a range of psychological and physical abilities. The major types of well-being are:

Emotional well-being – the ability to be resilient, manage one’s emotions and generate thoughts that lead to good feelings
Physical well-being – the ability to improve the functioning of one’s body through healthy eating and good exercise habits
Social well-being – the ability to communicate, develop meaningful relationships with others and create one’s own emotional support network
Workplace well-being – the ability to pursue one’s own interests, beliefs and values in order to gain meaning and happiness in life and professional enrichment
Societal well-being – the ability to participate in an active community or culture.

Overall well-being depends on all these types of abilities integrated together.

Importance of Well-being in Schools:

Schools have an essential role to play in supporting students to make healthy lifestyle choices and understand the effects of their choices on their health and well-being. Childhood and adolescence is a critical period in the development of long-term attitudes towards personal well-being and lifestyle choices. The social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours that young people learn in the classroom help them build resilience and set the pattern for how they will manage their physical and mental health throughout their lives.

Schools are able to provide students with reliable information and deepen their understanding of the choices they make. They also provide students with the intellectual skills required to reflect critically on these choices and on the influences that society brings to bear on them, including through peer pressure, advertising, social media and family and cultural values.

There is a direct link between well-being and academic achievement and vice versa, i.e. well-being is a crucial prerequisite for achievement and achievement is essential for well-being. Strong, supportive relationships provide students with the emotional resources to step out of their intellectual ‘comfort zone’ and explore new ideas and ways of thinking, which is fundamental to educational achievement.

Key Activities for Schools:

Student well-being at school begins with helping students feel that they are understood and valued as an individual in their own right, and that school life has a meaning and purpose for them. This can be achieved in a variety of small ways, the cumulative effect of which can have a very powerful influence on students’ sense of well-being. These include:

developing a welcoming environment where everyone at school can feel supported and safe through access to meaningful activities, e.g. clubs, societies, interest groups and associations dealing with issues of concern to young people, including health;
using teaching methods that contribute to a positive classroom climate and well-being, e.g. cooperative learning, student-centered methods, self-organized time, outdoor activities;
finding curriculum opportunities to talk about well-being issues with students, e.g. healthy eating, exercise, substance abuse, positive relationships etc.
encouraging healthier eating by providing healthy options in the school canteen, e.g. avoiding high amounts of sugar, saturated fats and salt;
Working with parents to enhance students’ achievement and sense of purpose in school, e.g. on healthy food, safe internet use and home-school communication.
Various competitions like speech-making, poster-making, video-making, debates etc. could be organized by the clubs to advance the cause of health for society in a non-commercial manner.

Implementation of the Project:

Key tenets in the implementation of the project on “Establishing Social Health Clubs in Schools” run by NHPC, Schools around NHPC Locations and national level School conglomerates like Kendriya Vidyalayas, DAV School, Navodaya Vidyalaya, Eklavya Model Residential School etc. across other geographical locations:

The project “Establishing Social Health Club in Schools” is covered under item no. (i) of Schedule-VII of Section-135 of the Companies Act, 2013 relating to promotion of health care, including preventive health care and also has congruence with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The proposal is estimated to have a very vast outreach and has the potential to save numerous lives in the long run from lifestyle diseases.
The proposal has the potential to be replicable and sustainable in the long run.
The proposal has the capability to impact positively on a very large number of beneficiaries in the long run.
The social health club in Schools would be an association of students, teachers and parents. The body would be having the focus on the social aspects of health.
The clubs can decide on the activities it wants to take up to promote the cause of social health.
The Social health Clubs would interact and collaborate amongst themselves at the cluster, district, state and national levels through periodic conferences and social media groupings.
Competitions would be held amongst the health clubs in schools of regions, state, National level at cluster levels.
Continual support for the improvement of the clubs shall be sought from individuals, organisations, and Governments at all levels.

Importance of Well-being in Schools:

Key Activities for Schools:

Implementation of the Project:

Institutional Support by

Our Knowledge Partners