Education reform must factor in well-being

We have spent decades asking what our children need to learn. Perhaps it is time to ask another question: what do they need in order to learn well?

Education in India has changed significantly. Curricula have become more progressive; technology has expanded access to knowledge and assessment is gradually moving beyond rote learning. These changes reflect a larger shift in how we think about preparing young people for an uncertain future. Yet one part of that preparation is still often treated as secondary: the emotional experience of learning.

A child does not leave their worries at the classroom door. Pressure to perform, fear of disappointing parents, friendship struggles, loneliness or uncertainty about the future can influence how they concentrate, participate and respond to challenges. If education is meant to prepare young people for life, then how they feel while learning cannot remain separate from what they learn.

This is why I believe the next chapter of education reform must place emotional wellbeing alongside academic development. Not instead of excellence, but as an essential part of enabling it.

The need is increasingly visible. An NCERT survey conducted in 2022, cited by UNICEF India, found that 11% of students reported anxiety, 14% experienced extreme emotions, and 43% reported mood swings. The importance of early intervention is equally clear: half of all mental health disorders begin by age 14, and 75% by the mid-20s.

These figures should prompt us to look beyond whether a child is keeping up academically and consider whether they are developing the emotional resources to cope with the demands placed upon them.

Emotional literacy is not a soft skill. It is a life skill. It begins with giving children the vocabulary to understand what they are experiencing. A child who can recognise frustration before it becomes anger, understand anxiety rather than simply fear it, or articulate that they need help is developing a capacity that will remain valuable far beyond school.

A psychologically safe classroom allows children to question, disagree, make mistakes and try again without feeling diminished. If children associate mistakes with embarrassment or failure with loss of worth, they may become more focused on avoiding errors than on discovering, experimenting and learning.

The role of the teacher is therefore changing too; not into that of a mental-health professional, but into that of an informed and observant adult within a child's support system.

A sudden withdrawal, behavioural change or disengagement can sometimes signal that a child is struggling. Teachers need not become mental-health professionals, but they do need the awareness to recognise such signs, respond with empathy and know when professional support may be required.

This also means rethinking how we interpret behaviour. Children facing mental-health concerns may be labelled "lazy", "hyperactive" or "naughty" when they may actually need understanding and support. In one school-based intervention, 95% of teachers reported a positive change in how they perceived students with mental-health concerns.

Student referrals offer another important insight: 20% were related to poor academic performance, while others involved aggressive behaviour. Such changes should not automatically be viewed as disciplinary issues; they can also signal that a child may be struggling emotionally.

But recognition is only the first step. Students must also have access to the right support, without placing the entire responsibility on teachers.

UNICEF India notes that India has only 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 people, with shortages extending to psychologists and psychiatric social workers. This is why strengthening mental wellbeing in education cannot mean placing another responsibility on teachers and schools without strengthening the wider support system.

Schools need clear pathways to professional care, while counselling must be normalized as a resource rather than viewed as a last resort. Equally important is bringing parents into the conversation and strengthening relationships between students, teachers and families.

Often, meaningful support begins with something simple: an adult who listens without immediately comparing, correcting or trying to solve everything.

The experience of implementing the curriculum demonstrates how strengthening emotional skills and relationships can create a school environment that is more conducive to learning, while also contributing to academic outcomes. Across all grade levels, students became better at managing their emotions and more willing to seek help when needed. Both coping skills and help-seeking behavior improved significantly from baseline to endline across every age group.

The impact was also visible beyond the classroom, with parents observing positive changes in how children handled everyday conflicts. When students are equipped to regulate emotions, seek help and build healthier relationships, classrooms can become more supportive spaces where both well-being and learning can thrive.

The approach must also recognise that wellbeing does not look the same for every young person. The pressures faced by a school student may differ from those experienced in university. Adolescence, young adulthood, family circumstances, social environments and individual experiences all shape how challenges are experienced.

A responsive approach to wellbeing must therefore be responsive rather than one-size-fits-all.

When a young person is unable to cope, the consequences can affect attendance, learning, educational progression and, later, employability and participation in the workforce. Supporting wellbeing early is therefore not merely an investment in individual children. It is an investment in the country's human potential.

A report card can tell us what a child has learnt. It cannot tell us whether they have developed confidence, empathy, adaptability or the ability to recover from disappointment. These qualities shape how young people navigate relationships, decisions, setbacks and opportunities.

That does not mean lowering academic expectations. Quite the opposite. We should want young people who can pursue excellence without tying their entire sense of worth to achievement; who can experience failure without seeing themselves as failures.

The next education reform, therefore, should not ask us to choose between achievement and wellbeing. It should recognise that the two are deeply connected.

Education has always been about preparing the mind for what lies ahead. The next step is to recognise the person behind that mind, their emotions, relationships, confidence, vulnerabilities and capacity to adapt.

Perhaps the question for the next education reform is no longer only what do we want our children to learn? It is also: what do we want them to be equipped to handle when the lesson ends?

If the answer includes uncertainty, failure, relationships, change and the inevitable challenges of life, then emotional wellbeing cannot remain at the margins of education.