The Happy Schools Project
Executive Summary
With 1-in-5 children suffering from psychosocial problem, and mental illness projected as the second biggest health problem by 2020, Malaysia’s ability to meet the demands of a IR4.0-ready workforce – i.e. healthy, productive, with good social skills and ethics – is in jeopardy (1,2,3).
In 2019, The Minister of Education, The Prime Minister and The Agong’s daughter have highlighted the critical need to infuse social-emotional intelligence (SEI) and values in revamping our school system (4,5).
Happy Schools Project (HSP) is a 4-year Intervention Research pilot that will test a structured SEI curriculum that promote protective factors (positive competencies and people) and decrease psychosocial problems for students (6,7,8) and teachers (9,10) based on a prevention science framework (11).
This Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach (12, 13, 14) is expected to promote social, emotional and behavioral intelligence within the Education 4.0 framework (15) in the 4-Rs and CHAMPS – the cornerstones for value enhancement in shaping the future generation.
In 2019, The Minister of Education, The Prime Minister and The Agong’s daughter have highlighted the critical need to infuse social-emotional intelligence (SEI) and values in revamping our school system (4,5).
Happy Schools Project (HSP) is a 4-year Intervention Research pilot that will test a structured SEI curriculum that promote protective factors (positive competencies and people) and decrease psychosocial problems for students (6,7,8) and teachers (9,10) based on a prevention science framework (11).
This Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach (12, 13, 14) is expected to promote social, emotional and behavioral intelligence within the Education 4.0 framework (15) in the 4-Rs and CHAMPS – the cornerstones for value enhancement in shaping the future generation.
The original HSP proposal uses a whole-school approach (16) involving children, teachers and community stakeholders (incl. parents), and promotes school-community-university partnerships (17).
Deliverables and Output include: 1. An SEI Curriculum (with 10 modules) integrated with the new school curriculum 2. An Online Learning and Resource Platform for Students & Teachers A multidisciplinary team will be brought together, including expertise in psychology, human development, counseling, education, youth studies, social studies, and communication. |
Project Name
Social-Emotional Intelligence for Primary Schools in Malaysia (also known as The Happy Schools Project)
Project Leader
Dr Brendan J Gomez, Asian Research Center for Child & Adolescent Development (ARCCADE)
Social-Emotional Intelligence for Primary Schools in Malaysia (also known as The Happy Schools Project)
Project Leader
Dr Brendan J Gomez, Asian Research Center for Child & Adolescent Development (ARCCADE)
To contact the developers, email: A R C C A D E (at) G M A I L . C O M