We have spent decades asking what our children need to learn. Perhaps it is time to ask another question: what do they need in order to learn well?

Education in India has changed significantly. Curricula have become more progressive; technology has expanded access to knowledge and assessment is gradually moving beyond rote learning. These changes reflect a larger shift in how we think about preparing young people for an uncertain future. Yet one part of that preparation is still often treated as secondary: the emotional experience of learning.

A child does not leave their worries at the classroom door. Pressure to perform, fear of disappointing parents, friendship struggles, loneliness or uncertainty about the future can influence how they concentrate, participate and respond to challenges. If education is meant to prepare young people for life, then how they feel while learning cannot remain separate from what they learn.

This is why I believe the next chapter of education reform must place emotional wellbeing alongside academic development. Not instead of excellence, but as an essential part of enabling it.

The need is increasingly visible. An NCERT survey conducted in 2022, cited by UNICEF India, found that 11% of students reported anxiety, 14% experienced extreme emotions, and 43% reported mood swings. The importance of early intervention is equally clear: half of all mental health disorders begin by age 14, and 75% by the mid-20s.

These figures should prompt us to look beyond whether a child is keeping up academically and consider whether they are developing the emotional resources to cope with the demands placed upon them.

Emotional literacy is not a soft skill. It is a life skill. It begins with giving children the vocabulary to........

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