ADOLESCENT PEER EDUCATORS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM CONDUCTED BY CBSE & EXPRESSION INDIA 

UNDER MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

The Central Board of Secondary Education keeping in mind the National Education Policy 2020 aims to empower the learners and peer educators as stake holders of School health, safety, and wellbeing.

The online launch of the ‘Adolescent Peer Educators Leadership Program in Life Skills, Holistic Health and Wellbeing’ was held on 23rd November 2021 in the presence of Shri Manoj Ahuja, Chairman CBSE, Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academics) CBSE and Dr. Jitendra Nagpal (Program Director, Expressions India). Peer Educators from various schools expressed their views and supported the programme.

This Programme includes positive impact on the holistic development and upgrading from core life skills to 21st century skills. This will further amplify in building the student’s resilience, mental wellbeing, self-esteem, social sensitivity, better communication skills, enhanced ability, set goals and help them to lead a socially productive life.

More than 2600 CBSE schools across the country are enrolled for the initial phase of online orientation programmes. The ongoing training program is divided into batches with 8-hour training sessions spread over 4 days.

A dedicated web page on the CBSE website has the following materials for sharing good thoughts and good practices.

• Orientation Modules
• Interactive Chat Platform
• Short video contributed by students from across the country to provide peer support
• Modules of various aspects of Psychosocial and allied healthy behaviour in minimising the risk in Children and Adolescents

Peer Educators will play the role of Life Skill Ambassadors in creating a participatory climate for behavioural change and adaptation to strengthen the inclusive environment.

DAV Public School nominated Ms.Saraswathy alias Abirami and Ms.Nagasudaa.B as the Teacher Coordinators and Vaibhav Venkat of IX A, Shravya Sriram of IX C, Madhumitha Makesh of XI A and Pranav Padmanaban of XI D as the Peer Educators. The four day training platform held from 10^th -15^th January, 2022 brought together several Life Skill Ambassadors and equipped  them with 4 modules and 8 themes like building resilience, nutrition, hygiene, family bonding, dealing with emotions, impact of the digital world and effective career choices.

On 15.01.2022, the concluding day of the Webinar, the Peer Educators of our School were given 2 to 3 minutes to share their takeaways in the training session.

Our Peer Educators were appreciated by CBSE and were invited to give an Introductory Talk to motivate the next batch of Peer Educators who would be attending the next 4 days of the session from 18.01.2022.

Our Peer Educators’ express their views on the Programme :

	This training was an amazing platform for creating Happy Schools. The entire session was an eye-opener and was incredibly decorous. It was a wonderful opportunity to share my views on Life Skills. I thank our School Management and all my teachers for being a pillar of support and for giving me this opportunity.
	My school has motivated me and my grade mates to think  and implement all the Life Skill Values which are necessary for a good school, secondly at the level of society and then at the National level. I realised that my school and my peers have been given a lot of opportunities to explore and experience the different talents which eventually helped us to get exposed and open up to our Peers, friends, family and society.
	It is very important to note that Life Skills are an important factor that decides your employment apart from your academics. The more we develop Life Skills individually, the more this will benefit the world in which we live. I thank my Principal for giving me this opportunity to share my curiosity and express my views in this training.
	My takeaways from the program were that one must never give up on whatever dream or goal they are chasing, how anyone can understand their emotions, how we can deal with problems, and not see them as the impossible but take it as a challenge and triumph over it.

                                                      Digital Poster created by Madumitha Makesh during the training session                                                        

The Digital Poster created by Madumitha Makesh depicted  the role of 21st Century Life Skills in today’s time to the Peer Educators from various schools during the training session.

21^st Century skills like leadership, flexibility, productivity, initiative, and social skills play a paramount role in an adolescent’s holistic development. Through the Adolescent Peer Educators Leadership Program, our Peer Leaders gained a deeper understanding of the core life skills that every student must possess. Their takeaways from this program have been infinitely useful, and they will cascade the ideas to their peers and explore ways to solve problems to the best of their ability, and help in making the future a better place.