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The 2021 ASEFClassNet School Collaboration project on “Well-being of Teachers and Students” engages secondary & vocational schoolteachers from ASEM Countries in a virtual peer-peer collaborative platform. The objective is to jointly create a “ASEFClassNet Handbook – Pedagogical Stories from ASEM Teachers”. The stories will illustrate how teachers across Asia and Europe cope within their different educational & cultural contexts and ensure a holistic learning environment and well-being of their students and themselves – despite the ongoing challenges in teaching and learning.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused severe disruptions in the education sector and heavily affected teachers, students and parents alike. School closures and the move to full home-based learning globally had far-reaching effects on the teaching & learning environment, ranging from challenges linked to curriculum development & delivery, access to technology to the lack of social engagement etc. This collaboration will focuses on the Wellbeing of teachers, students and parents at the secondary education level and includes 4 specific activity strands: (1) Wellbeing & Mental Health (2) Parent-Teacher Collaboration; (3) Pedagogical Knowledge & Digital Competences and (4) Intercultural Understanding & Exchange.

“Be the Change – An Effort” discussed the responsibility of everyone towards the environment and society. It gave students the opportunity to understand that community service is an essential part of life and prepares them to take responsibilities by inculcating in them the will to contribute positively to their societies. Following the strategy “Learning by doing,” students will be engaged in a plethora of activities online and on-site. During this School Collaboration, students tackled societal conditions in their countries – how societies are changing with time and formulate ways to bring positive changes. They also conducted research on the formulated laws and necessary frameworks by governments to create better and safer societies.

This School Collaboration combined various tasks and methods to equip students with practical life lessons “What makes a happy life”? In today’s work, individuals and societies often focus solely on success and money. In the school context, educators prepare students for exams and mainly teach them how to deal with professional problems. They often forget and underestimate the importance of teaching about values to build a happy life. Shouldn’t teachers also be guides for their students and help them stay happy and fulfilled? In this School Collaboration, teachers helped students explore questions about happiness and teach them necessary soft skills to improve their self-confidence.

“Healthy Living Phase 2” was the second phase of a previous School Collaboration that created intuitive awareness about healthy living, promoted physical exercises in day to day life, and meals. Students realised the significance of the choice of healthy foods and the importance of mental health. In this modern world, people, especially students and professionals are constantly engaged with disruptive social media and digital technologies, neglecting taking care of their health. Referring to Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3), students developed new ICT skills to interact with each other on online platforms and understand the importance of working in teams with others. Most importantly, students had ample opportunities to understand cultural diversity and values in Asia and Europe.

This School Collaboration focused created awareness among the students about healthy living, including daily physical exercise, the significance of healthy food and mental health. Participants also learnt appropriate ICT skills to interact with each other on online platforms on the topic and to collaborate in teams.

Students explored past and present uses of different plants and herbs in Asia and Europe, showing their findings through works of art.

Studying food health benefits and other countries’ cuisines, students made a recipe book and proposals for promoting healthy eating.

‘Senses’ revealed how and what students of different ages, contexts, knowledge, social and financial background, culture, and religion, taste, smell, hear, touch and see in their everyday social and school life.