Self Esteem: Strengthening & Facilitating Self Esteem and Life skill education in75 districts of U.P

Quality education is more of an experience that supports the holistic development of children, providing them with the skills they need to participate in society and contribute to it. While acquiring basic literacy and numeracy is a milestone, being able to enjoy, participate and feel valued and included is yet another important aspect. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also highlights the importance of holistic development of children, focusing on building self-confidence, resilience, and a positive self-concept as essential components of education. The policy promotes experiential and inquiry-based learning approaches to help children develop confidence through hands-on experiences.

Incidents of students suicides in India has grown at an alarming annual rate, as per the report of NCRB 2024, the overall suicide numbers increased by 2% annually, and for students cases surged by 4% despite a likely “under reporting” of students cases. It has become a responsibility of the institutions and educators, to establish and maintain robust mechanisms for the children to cope with social stigma, nurture core competencies and ensure their well being.

Self-esteem, integral to the psychological and emotional quotient, has a direct impact on self-confidence and serves as a tool for understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, the incorporation of Self Esteem as a concept in education is intricately linked with progress of communication, problem solving and critical evaluation capabilities within a child. Also, it has been well established that life skills induce self-esteem, being intimately linked with the mental well-being and competence of growing children as they face the realities of life. It becomes imperative to intervene and inculcate these concepts at the school level.

In the year 2023 - 2024, Yeh Ek Soch Foundation partnered with UNICEF to support SmSA, School Education, U.P. to implement the self esteem curriculum in all 75 districts of U.P., focusing on 20 districts in the first year providing more intensive support supervision, with 13277 UPS and composite schools 223 KGBVs . The objective was to both expand and deepen the transaction of the self -esteem module in classrooms and provide both children and teachers with direct support.

The intervention aimed at enhancing the implementation of the Pragati ke pankh and self-esteem module in classrooms while providing hands-on support to both children and teachers. Despite being a novel concept for many, the initial rollout in 20 districts showcased remarkable progress, highlighting the transformative potential of the program.

1. In the focused districts, approximately 90% of schools successfully established Meena Manch groups, compared to just 43% in other districts following the training. Teacher reporting on Meena Manch activities also improved significantly, reaching around 60% in the focused districts, while remaining at an average of 20-25% in the others. Furthermore, over 47% of schools in the 20 districts reported conducting activities regularly with students.

2. Through the use of comic books, videos, and activities centered on self-esteem, children demonstrated increased participation in school, created peer-to-peer learning and sharing opportunities, and fostered a positive and empowering environment.

An integral part of the intervention was the social action projects, which were conceptualized, designed, and implemented by the children themselves at the block and district levels. These projects culminated in a state-level event, showcasing impactful initiatives aligned with the themes of self-esteem, further underlining the program’s potential to build the change in community through adolescent leadership.

Proposed Intervention

To ensure consistent capacity building and quality delivery across all districts, the next phase of the intervention proposes expanding efforts to an additional 35 districts while continuing monitoring and support in the initial 20 districts and the previously covered 20 districts. This phased strategy is designed to achieve comprehensive coverage and sustained impact across all 75 districts, enabling children and educators statewide to fully benefit from this transformative initiative.

In the next phase, teachers and students in the 35 new districts will undergo the same rigorous capacity-building processes and receive the supportive supervision provided during phase one, while the remaining districts are provided with lighter support. The 35 districts selected for the new phase were chosen based on criteria such as the establishment and reporting of Meena Manch activities, and the implementation of self-esteem comic books, videos, and activities targeting adolescent students in 19,762 upper primary schools and 284 KGBVs.

Among the selected 35 districts, an average of 30% of responses on monitoring tools indicates considerable potential for improvement with the introduction of enhanced supervision and support. Of these, 13 districts are categorized as good performers, consistently forming and reporting data through monitoring tools. Twelve districts fall under the moderate performance category, requiring targeted intervention to boost outcomes. The remaining eight districts are classified as low-performing, demonstrating minimal reporting and performance, and will therefore require focused and intensive support to bring them up to par.

This strategic and tiered approach aims to ensure that all districts receive tailored support, fostering equity and maximizing the impact of the intervention statewide. The larger objective of the intervention remains the same, with one more concept that will be completion of self esteem course by the power angel of the school , so that we can facilitate the activities more efficiently.

• Teacher Training Across 75 Districts: Equip teachers with training and mentoring model, master trainers providing hands-on guidance. Focus on consistent delivery of the Meena Manch curriculum and activities.

• Developing an annual calendar: Develop a comprehensive plan for conducting Meena Manch activities every Saturday.

• Monitoring and Evaluation: Design and disseminate robust tools for monitoring and evaluating activities. Ensure timely collection and analysis of data to track progress.

• Block-Level Activities: Conduct events focused on the six themes from the comic books and ten themes from the social behavior change curriculum.

• Learning Spaces for Adolescents: Establish engaging spaces to enhance learning and provide exposure to new opportunities at both districts and state level.

• Facilitating the community engagement: To ensure the holistic development of adolescents and reinforce the delivery of the self-esteem curriculum, block-level parent engagement meetings will be conducted. These meetings will serve as a platform to bridge the gap between schools and the community, enabling a supportive ecosystem for the curriculum's effective implementation.