Labhya

Labhya works with Indian state governments to add a daily wellbeing class to the public school day. Its starting point is that many children in India's classrooms are too stressed to learn. They come to school carrying uncertainty and stress from lives shaped by adversity, which makes it harder to focus and take part. Over time this widens learning gaps and keeps cycles of disadvantage going. Labhya's answer is a localised wellbeing class taught every day by public school teachers. The class is built to fit into existing education systems so that governments can run it themselves and at scale.

Major Areas of Work

• Daily wellbeing classes: Building a localised wellbeing class that runs every school day, not as occasional sessions.

• Government partnerships: Working with state governments so the programme is run by the government and becomes part of the public education system.

• Teacher-led delivery: Preparing public school teachers to deliver the classes, so the programme does not rely on outside facilitators.

• Evidence and research: Gathering evidence on children's wellbeing and learning from inside existing government structures.

• Cost-effective scale: Designing the programme to be cheap enough for governments to adopt and expand.

Impact

Labhya states that its programme has reached more than 2.4 million children and 150,000 teachers across 3 states. Its site cites learning gains of about one extra year per child, at a cost of less than 1% of the government's budget. It says its evidence draws on the world's largest randomised controlled trial on children's wellbeing.

Working at Labhya puts you inside government systems that reach millions of children every day. The work combines programme design, teacher training, government partnerships and large-scale evaluation. It suits people interested in education, child wellbeing and public systems, especially those who want to see an idea become part of how a state runs its schools.