The United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has signed an agreement with the Regional Institute of Education (RIE), Bhubaneswar, which is part of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), to include health and well-being in teacher education.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on October 14, 2025, in New Delhi.
The two-year partnership aims to make health education an important part of teacher training courses. These include the Integrated Bachelor of Science–Bachelor of Education (BSc-BEd), Integrated Bachelor of Arts–Bachelor of Education (BA-BEd), and the Bachelor of Education (BEd) programmes, UNESCO announced in its official blog.
The goal is to help trainee teachers create classrooms that support both learning and emotional well-being.
Tim Curtis, Director and Representative of the UNESCO Regional Office for South Asia, said the project will begin in Odisha and later expand to other states. “This collaboration marks a vital step in transforming teacher education to address learners’ health and well-being,” he added.
This new MoU builds on UNESCO’s earlier work with NCERT under the School Health and Wellness Programme (SHWP).
The SHWP has already reached more than three million students, trained 40,000 teachers, and involved 960 principals across 30,000 schools.
Key goals of the new partnership include:
Developing a handbook on health and well-being for teacher educators and trainees.
Holding training workshops in teacher education colleges across Odisha.
Adding health and well-being modules to the teacher education curriculum.
Reviewing and improving teaching materials with UNESCO’s guidance.
“This MoU marks a milestone in our shared vision to promote health and well-being as an integral part of education,” Prof PC Agarwal, Joint Director of NCERT, said about the agreement.
