Anandam Pathyacharya Curriculum

The Anandam Pathyacharya happiness curriculum was developed by the Dream a Dream foundation in partnership with the government of Uttarakhand, India, and will be implemented in grades 1-8 across Uttarakhand public schools. The curriculum consists of daily happiness classes, where students engage in mindfulness, storytelling with open-ended discussions, and reflective conversations and activities designed to help students experience happiness. This study would be the first to evaluate the effectiveness of a happiness curriculum, exploring its impact on student mental health, wellness, and academic achievement. Further, this study will perform a cost-benefit analysis of the curriculum in comparison to the opportunity cost of less learning time, disentangle the mechanisms by which the curriculum adds value, and evaluate the impact and malleability of teacher buy-in. In this pilot, we plan to test surveys of student mental health, teacher and student buy-in, and assess the implementation of the curriculum.