JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Happiness to be taught in schools

by

20131211

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has part­nered with US-based or­gan­i­sa­tion Project Hap­pi­ness to teach chil­dren to be hap­py.At a news con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh an­nounced plans to in­fuse "hap­pi­ness" in­to the cur­ricu­lum in pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools, us­ing the strate­gies de­vel­oped by Randy Taran, founder of Project Hap­pi­ness.The news con­fer­ence took place at the min­istry in St Clair.

Gopeesingh said Taran's team would as­sist his min­istry in widen­ing and deep­en­ing the emo­tion­al de­vel­op­ment of chil­dren in schools.Project Hap­pi­ness is a pro­gramme used by schools to teach hap­pi­ness and emo­tion­al re­silience to young peo­ple us­ing on­line re­sources, mul­ti­me­dia tech­niques and cur­ricu­lum work.Taran and her team will lead a two-day work­shop start­ing to­day with over 700 ed­u­ca­tors.

Gopeesingh said Taran's pro­gramme fell in line with the min­istry's ob­jec­tive to fo­cus on more than just aca­d­e­m­ic de­vel­op­ment.Taran told me­dia the idea of bring­ing Project Hap­pi­ness to T&T seemed ur­gent and time­ly, con­sid­er­ing re­cent news re­ports about vi­o­lence to­ward chil­dren.

"The is­sues be­ing seen in the news are not unique to T&T and are be­ing seen all over the world," said Taran. "The world is chang­ing. There is more stress and peo­ple need a dif­fer­ent set of skills in or­der to sur­vive. These skills need to be taught at a young age."Taran said these skills had to deal with peo­ple learn­ing to be emo­tion­al­ly re­silient and hap­py."Stress is a glob­al is­sue. The World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion pre­dicts that by 2020 de­pres­sion will be the great­est cause of hu­man suf­fer­ing," Taran said.

She said Project Hap­pi­ness could help chil­dren cre­ate a life that would ben­e­fit not on­ly them­selves but their com­mu­ni­ties as well."Giv­ing chil­dren these tools at a young age will give them the foun­da­tion to thrive as adults.""How can a stu­dent con­cen­trate on their learn­ing if their minds are full of con­flict and stress?"Taran said in­tro­duc­ing the con­cept of Project Hap­pi­ness in oth­er coun­tries had im­proved the so­cial and aca­d­e­m­ic lives of chil­dren.

"We need to help our young chil­dren. We need to give them tools for a bet­ter life and we can­not wait. If we do noth­ing, things will de­te­ri­o­rate."


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored