Fostering global well-being : insights from India on learned happiness for administrators and education policy-makers

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Kumar, Sandeep and Kumar, Arvind (2025) Fostering global well-being : insights from India on learned happiness for administrators and education policy-makers. Journal of Public Affairs, 25 (3). e70059. ISSN 1472-3891 (https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.70059)

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Abstract

A nation can make great strides in progress when the happiness of all its residents is prioritized. This is because happiness is the driving force behind improved mental health, enhanced creativity, heightened awareness, and the development of strong social bonds. Consequently, it becomes crucial for a nation's harmonious growth to instill a sense of happiness in all its citizens from early childhood, allowing the positive effects of this knowledge to ripple throughout their lives. In this endeavor, schools play a pivotal role, and governments worldwide recognize and endorse the importance of schools in this regard. Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) has taken an innovative step in this direction to nurture the emotional well-being of teenagers by introducing a happiness curriculum in upper primary classes. While this initiative appears to be a significant grassroots effort in addressing the emotional competence and happiness of students, its actual impact is yet to be fully assessed. By surveying two hundred sixty-three students through systematic sampling, this study offers valuable insights to educators and policymakers around the world by revealing that the impact of the happiness curriculum on students' satisfaction with their basic psychological needs is substantially positive. Besides it, the study also suggest that the introduction of happiness curriculum influences the well-being of students at their core by uplifting their competence and social resilience.

ORCID iDs

Kumar, Sandeep and Kumar, Arvind ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9590-8438;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)