After happiness classes, Delhi government to have ‘entrepreneur’ classes

This is Delhi government’s first initiative to introduce “skill based” curriculum in schools. The curriculum will be based on a fourfold framework – inspire, educate, involve and facilitate.

After introducing “happiness classes” for children in its schools, the Delhi government is going to have “entrepreneurship curriculum” from the next academic session.

The idea behind the curriculum, which will be taught to students from classes 9 to 12, is to encourage students to become “job givers” and not “job seekers”.(HT File)

The idea behind the curriculum, which will be taught to students from classes 9 to 12, is to encourage students to become “job givers” and not “job seekers”.

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia announced this during the first convocation of the Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women on Tuesday.

“After at least 15 years of formal education, if a large number of youth is not confident of creating something innovative that can give them gainful returns and add value to the economy, then as a society, we are failing to nurture their potential. So, we need to instil confidence among our children right from the beginning of secondary education so that after completing their education, they aspire to become job givers and not job seekers,” he said.

Sisodia asked the secretary (higher education) to set up high level committee comprising senior faculty members from the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), District Institute for Education and Training (DIET), school principals and experts. “The SCERT will organise a conference in January and will invite organisations and individuals to present their ideas for the drawing up the entrepreneurship curriculum. Based on the inputs, the curriculum shall be rolled out from April 2019,” he said.

This is Delhi government’s first initiative to introduce “skill based” curriculum in schools. The curriculum will be based on a fourfold framework – inspire, educate, involve and facilitate. “Through this curriculum, the effort would be to raise the aspirations of children and build a mindset for problem solving and decision making. Emphasis would be on personality development, communication and planning,” the education minister said

“This trajectory is obsolete in today’s day and age when new ideas and technologies are driving our way of life. If our schools and colleges continue to churn out batches of students who are going to join the queue of job seekers, we will soon be left with a small number of job givers.

Earlier this year, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had introduced a “happiness curriculum” for students from nursery to Class 8. It comprises exercises such as storytelling, meditation and question-and-answer sessions.