Socio-Emotional Learning for Peacebuilding: Evidence from Project Sampoorna in Jharkhand, India

• In Event: Learning and pedagogical approaches across South Asia

Proposal

In a world where divisions and conflict increasingly mark everyday life, the role of education as a catalyst for peace has never been more urgent. This paper draws on the endline evaluation of Project Sampoorna in Jharkhand, India, to contribute to this global conversation. Situated in one of India’s most under-resourced tribal states, characterized by deep inequities of caste, gender, and tribal identity, Sampoorna was designed to embed socio-emotional learning (SEL) in government secondary schools as a strategy for whole child development and as a foundation for peaceful, inclusive education. Its evaluation offers some of the clearest empirical insights yet into whether SEL can generate sustainable, systemic change in contexts marked by scarcity and division.
Project Sampoorna was implemented between 2022 and 2025 in 80 Schools of Excellence (SoEs), and 41 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV, residential schools for girls) across 24 districts. At its heart lies the Harsh Johar curriculum, a structured SEL program focused on nine skills: growth mindset, empathy, self-awareness, positive relations, critical thinking, responsible decision-making, initiative-taking, self-respect, and emotional resilience. These skills were not treated as abstract competencies but as daily practices to be lived and enacted in classrooms and school routines. The intervention was multi-layered, combining curriculum delivery with teacher training, in-school mentoring, peer-support networks, and efforts to shift school climate. Crucially, it sought to anchor SEL in government systems by training nodal teachers, engaging headmasters, and creating monitoring structures at block, district, and state levels.
The evaluation of Sampoorna pursued three central questions. First, did students’ SEL skills improve between 2022 and 2024, and if so, how? Second, did teachers’ and headmasters’ mindsets and behaviours shift in ways that would sustain SEL? Third, which aspects of the program were most likely to endure within Jharkhand’s education system? These questions were framed within a broader inquiry about peace: in what ways could SEL create more trusting, empathetic, and inclusive relationships in schools that had long been characterized by hierarchy and distance?
The evaluation employed a mixed-methods design combining large-scale surveys with process tracing. Surveys covered over 3,200 students and 200 teachers, capturing SEL skills, attitudes, and classroom practices at both baseline and endline. Tools were adapted from international SEL instruments such as ISELA and the Life Skills Measurement Tool, contextualized linguistically and culturally for Jharkhand. Teacher and headmaster surveys were complemented by classroom observations, while focus groups with students provided qualitative texture. Process tracing was used to rigorously examine causality: rather than assuming any observed changes were attributable to Sampoorna, the evaluators tested whether the Harsh Johar curriculum, teacher behaviours, and school climate improvements provided sufficient and necessary evidence to explain outcomes. District and state sustainability were assessed using the Life Skills Collaborative Systems Assessment Tool alongside structured interviews with officials.
The findings offer both promise and caution. For students, SEL gains were evident but uneven. Among grades 8 and 9, significant improvements were observed in 5 (five) of the 9 (nine) targeted skills. Growth mindset increased by 17% and self-awareness by 10%, suggesting that younger adolescents were becoming more reflective and more likely to view intelligence and abilities as malleable. Initiative-taking, decision-making, and critical thinking also improved, enabling students to approach challenges with greater agency.
Equity patterns were striking. Gains were more pronounced among tribal and OBC students, and among girls in residential schools, pointing to SEL’s potential to counter structural inequities. Process tracing confirmed that these changes were plausibly linked to Sampoorna: SEL classes were delivered regularly, teachers employed facilitation techniques such as check-ins and group activities, and students engaged actively. Alternative explanations, such as media influence or parallel government programs, were insufficient to explain the magnitude or direction of observed changes.
Teachers and headmasters also demonstrated important shifts. Teachers increasingly recognized SEL as vital for student learning—up from 4% at baseline to 15% at endline—and nearly half acknowledged their own role in developing SEL skills, compared to just 29% in 2022. Students corroborated this shift, with 85% able to recall participating in SEL activities in the preceding month, and 90% of observed teachers using positive language in classrooms. Teachers also began to integrate SEL into collective spaces such as staff meetings and PTA discussions, suggesting a diffusion of practices beyond the classroom.
Mechanisms of change were clear. Teacher training was regular, participatory, and practice-oriented, with an average of 1.6 sessions attended per teacher. Nearly 70% of nodal teachers reported being adequately prepared to independently lead SEL classes. Support structures such as WhatsApp groups and district-level peer associates reinforced teacher confidence. 87% of teachers reported using the Harsh Johar booklet for lesson preparation. Headmasters, meanwhile, increasingly articulated SEL goals, with most reporting positive changes in students such as improved confidence, higher participation, and better attendance. Yet attribution remained partial: only some headmasters linked teacher behaviour change directly to Sampoorna, reflecting the challenges of building full system ownership.
At the systems level, there were encouraging signs of institutionalization. 83% of headmasters reported that SEL had been integrated into daily school routines, 71% of teachers had participated in an SEL class in the past week, and 88% of schools had active SEL corners. Non-nodal teachers, too, displayed awareness: over 90% received updates on SEL classes and 85% could articulate curriculum goals. District and state officials, many of whom joined their posts late in the project, expressed growing recognition of SEL as a priority, though monitoring and accountability structures remained weak. Sustainability potential appears strongest at the school level, with established routines, teacher ownership, and peer-support mechanisms, though translation into student peer culture and systemic governance is incomplete.
These findings show SEL’s potential as a peacebuilding mechanism in divided contexts. In Jharkhand, it created small but significant spaces of peace: students grew more reflective and empathetic, teachers shifted toward facilitation, and headmasters began to value SEL as a leadership practice. Declines in older adolescents’ resilience and self-respect reflect structural pressures that require systemic reform. Sustaining impact will depend on embedding SEL not only in classrooms but also in assemblies, governance bodies, and district monitoring.

Authors

• Abhidha Seth, PIRAMAL FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION LEADERSHIP

• MONAL JAYARAM PODUVAL, PIRAMAL FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION LEADERSHIP

• Anshu Dubey, PIRAMAL FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION LEADERSHIP