Happiness classes are now a phone call away

NEW DELHI: At around 2pm Sunday, Rajni Kumar — mother to a class 7 student of a Delhi government school in Nand Nagri — received a text message from the state education department asking her to dial a number to learn about the “mindfulness” activity done during the Happiness Class at her son’s school.

The moment she called, an automated message played at the other end: “Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and focus on your breathing. Pay attention to the inhaling and exhaling process. Open your eyes after three minutes of doing so. Ask your children about the changes they feel in their body during breathing,” the instructions played out in the 55-second message.

“This is the first time my son and I meditated together,” said Kumar, whose son, 11-year-old Aditya Kumar, studies in the Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) in Nand Nagri. “Sending our children daily activities will ensure they have something to do with us.”

The move comes a day after the

Delhi government announced that beginning Sunday (April 12), it would send pre-recorded messages to parents of students in Delhi government schools up to class 8, to ensure they keep learning even during the lockdown.

Through text messages and interactive voice response (IVR) calls, the education department said it will guide parents on how to “become teachers” and carry out step-by-step activities to conduct Happiness Classes and Mission Buniyaad at home.

While Happiness Classes focus on helping build a student’s emotional quotient and honing their ability to deal with stress, the Mission Buniyaad initiative aims to improve learning levels of students studying in classes 3 to 9 in government schools .

“When we do mindfulness in school, our classmates know about it, mostly. At home, I had to explain it to my family. All of us participated in the morning and it made us feel peaceful,” said Aditi Negi, a class 7 student in RPVV Shalimar Bagh.

A senior Delhi government official said teachers and principals were being roped in to ensure the activities reach as many children as possible.