Students gain focus, reduce anxiety, in Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools Social-Emotional Learning pilot with Persona Life Skills
Press Release
Bristol, UK, 3rd May 2023
Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools group in India has successfully completed a three month pilot with the Social-Emotional Learning platform Persona Life Skills. Following the pilot, students reported that their learning focus benefited, anxiety reduced, they gained confidence and learned how to manage themselves. Over 1,000 students completed 9,644 learning modules in the pilot, with 94% reporting they learnt how to improve the targeted life skills. 98% of teachers said Persona Life Skills improves students' employability, and 94% said it improves wellbeing.
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Image: Persona Education / Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools
Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools completes Persona Life Skills pilot
Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools group, one of India’s leading private school networks with 50 schools across 36 cities, has successfully completed a three month pilot with the popular Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) platform Persona Life Skills. The group has embraced SEL as a central element of its culture, complementing its corporate values of Empathy, Possibility, Collaboration, Integrity and Sustainability.
During the pilot over 1,000 students at 21 schools, and their teachers, experienced the full range of teacher-facilitated and self-directed learning modules in the platform. Enabled by Persona’s unique personality insights approach, the learning covered 22 life skills across six skillsets:
1. Being Realistic
2. Communication Skills
3. Open-mindedness
4. Problem Solving
5. Resilience
6. Self-control
Students completed 9,644 learning modules in total over the course of the pilot, with 94% reporting they learnt how to improve the targeted life skills – a very high level of success. At the end of the pilot students were awarded digital certificates, which can be shared with future education and training providers, and potential employers, as evidence of their skills development achievements. 90% of students surveyed said they value these certificates.
Importance of Social-Emotional Learning
Schools in India are now required to deliver Social-Emotional Learning by India's National Education Policy 2020. SEL helps to improve academic attainment, and develops capabilities that allow people to manage emotions, work with others, and achieve their goals. SEL involves the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes that empower learners to create positive relationships, build resilience and make decisions, considering not only their own needs, but also those of others.
SEL is especially important in high school and higher secondary, because social-emotional skill levels actually fall during teenage years – by 30% on average (source: OECD). SEL helps to improve wellbeing, much needed in India which falls in the bottom 10% of countries in the World Health Organisation’s wellbeing measures. These problems have been worsening due to societal pressures, social media and global issues. On top of that, COVID-19 has made the situation significantly more urgent.
In its National Education Policy 2020, the Indian government states an aim of becoming a skills beacon, stipulating that “Teachers will also focus on socio-emotional learning – a critical aspect of any student’s holistic development.”
Students and teachers report positive impact
98% of teachers involved in the pilot said Persona Life Skills improves students' employability. And 94% believe that it improves student wellbeing.
Alongside these impressive numbers, in the end-of-pilot survey, students were asked for their views on the value of the programme. Many reported that their learning benefited from Persona Life Skills, for example:
“It increases my focus level, and patience.”
“Persona Life Skills made my bad habits into good habits.”
“I learn to find new ways of thinking and problem solving.”
They also gained confidence and learned to manage themselves as a result of the programme:
“Persona helps me get over my anxiety and anger issues.”
“I learned to build up my self confidence and social Interactions.”
“Helps in many ways for my day to day life, dealing with my problems.”
Moreover, teachers involved in the pilot say they themselves benefitted through teaching the programme:
“I feel I am a better version of myself now, as I can tackle any situation in a better way.”
“A good medium to teach us how to take decisions in our lives.”
“Helps to understand about students’ feelings and thoughts.”
Support from company leaders
Arijit Ghosh, Assistant Vice President - Academics at Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools, said “SEL leads to increased academic achievement of 11-13% in summative assessments. SEL also leads to improved behaviour, a reduction in conflict. And there’s a strong return on investment with regards to the purpose of education and the future of lifelong learning. Persona’s unique personality insights approach helps individuals to reflect and become better versions of themselves.”
Pete Read, CEO & Co-founder of Persona Education, said “We are very proud to partner with the Seth M.R. Jaipuria Group. This fits very well with Persona Education’s vision of contributing to the progression of the Indian education system. With this partnership we are supporting the 2020 National Education Policy goals of up-skilling the labour force on areas such as growth mindset, communication and critical thinking.”
Persona Life Skills boosts teenager wellbeing and employability
Persona Life Skills was developed in response to widespread and deepening concern over teenager wellbeing and employability, with funding from Google and the UK government’s innovation arm UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
To date, over 400 schools in 41 countries have signed up to use the platform with 117,000 students, including thousands in India.
The platform offers a scaffolded, age-appropriate online learning curriculum for Grade 8-12 students, built around Persona’s personality insights framework rooted in behavioural science, and complementing existing school personal development, life skills, citizenship, careers and wellbeing curricula.
ENDS
About Persona Education Ltd
Persona Education is a UK based edtech company developing life skills solutions for secondary students and educational institutions. Its web and mobile online learning platforms are built around a scientifically proven personality insights framework, that is social, practical and memorable. For further information contact info@persona-life.com or +44 (0)117 313 2897.
About Persona Life Skills
Persona Life Skills is an online personal development platform with a unique personality insights framework at its heart, helping schools and colleges boost wellbeing and employability for students age 13 to 19. It is provided by the UK based edtech company Persona Education. The scaffolded, age-appropriate curriculum works equally well in the classroom or in blended learning, guiding young people to develop life skills for social, learning and work situations that map to popular benchmarks including India National Education Policy, CBSE, Cambridge iGCSE, International Baccalaureate (IB) Learner Profile, and more. For further information visit https://www.persona-life.com or contact info@persona-life.com or +44 (0)117 313 2897.
About Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools
Seth M. R. Jaipuria Schools has been at the forefront of education in India since the setup of Jaipuria College in Kolkata in 1945 which was inaugurated by India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. The trend of excellence in education continues through Seth M. R. Jaipuria Schools, with fifty schools pan-India across four states, including at Lucknow (8 schools), Kanpur (3 schools) Varanasi (2 schools), Hardoi, Bahraich, Fatehpur, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Lakhimpur Kheri, and Patna among others. Jaipuria has constantly been recognised as one of the best schools in the country with focus on holistic development of students, modern education seeped in Indian culture with additional focus on Sanskrit through our unique curriculum Devabhasha. Jaipuria has been bestowed with international acclaim from University of Berkeley at California, and also Best School Chain in India by Education World. In higher education too, Jaipuria Institute of Management campuses have been consistently recognised as centres of excellence and ranked amongst the top 30 private business schools in India by the Education Ministry. Presently, we have 40,000+ students studying under the Jaipuria banner, with over 2,200 educators associated with us. The Group also runs four management institutes at Lucknow, Noida, Jaipur and Indore. For further information visit https://www.jaipuriaschools.ac.in/.
