Healthy school environment key to success in teaching and learning

Nairobi Gubernatorial aspirant Polycarp Igathe with pupils of Rock School Hazina, South B, Nairobi. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

I have recently taken up a teaching position in a top international school in south Asia. An IB world school. The first impression you get is that in a healthy school environment, everything else is secondary to well-being and happy relationships. Here, it is abundantly clear that learning goes beyond academics. That both a happy teacher, and a happy student, achieve the core mandate of teaching and learning.

Whereas back home we seem to be obsessed with syllabus coverage and assessments, here it's about establishing connections, fostering relationships and creating positive learning environments first before anything else. And it's amazing what this approach can achieve in terms of the overall atmosphere in the school and the environment in the classroom. The kind of psyche you see in students in terms of their dispositions and attitude.