Need for Integrating Life Skills in Academics

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From my lived experiences, I can strongly vouch that there is more to school education than studying for unit tests, preparing for board exams, and seeking admission at premier institutes. After all, an individual’s school life is a major phase of their lifetime, isn’t it? While knowledge acquisition is often prioritised, the need to develop a student to face practical situations in one’s life is disregarded. Moreover, the homogeneity that prevails in the faculty’s (and in turn the school’s) manner of assessing students, without acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of each individual, eventually results in a generalized attempt at personality development of these students through extracurricular activities.

This inability of an educational institution to conduct individual assessments as well as counseling sessions of students usually results in the latter’s lack of awareness about their own selves, their interests, their potentials, what they are good at, and so on. Thus, it is undoubtedly imperative to give primacy to the study of Life Skills at school, a subject (or a discipline, rather) that is often administered incorrectly by the school authorities and thus fail to address the final problem - the absence of practicality in education.

What are Life Skills?

The term “Life Skills” can be defined as an academic field which is not exactly academic in nature but does contribute significantly to the process of personality development within a child. Basically, the inclusion of Life Skills in the school curriculum helps students to identify, analyze and resolve practical problems in the real world. In other words, Life Skills often serve as a bridge that facilitates the interdisciplinary association of daily life activities with that of school education.

Speaking from my own experience and by comparing the inter-generational upbringing (that is, how I grew up in the 80's-90’s, and how my son is growing up now), I strongly feel that we naturally imbibed life skills as part of our growing-up process. We played on the streets, we made friends with kids across the socio-economic strata because we didn’t live in homogenized-gated communities; our schools were humbler, transportation to schools was either walking or travelling in public transport and getting scolding (also, occasional beating) from teachers was the norm.

We have robbed today’s school-going generation from these simple pleasures and experiences of life by over-protecting them, limiting their exposure within the posh-gated communities, and today’s school management and teachers will conduct themselves with the do’s and don’ts protocol.

Hence, I am a big proponent of the need for Life Skills as part of formal education, to equip the students to face the real world outside their comfort zone of the school campus and the home environment as well.

Life Skills in the School Curriculum

Life Skills as a field consists of 5 types, each of which focus on a different aspect of an individual’s personality development. These 5 sub-skills are not only beneficial to individuals as students, but also help them immensely in their adulthood, while making career choices as well as taking their own responsibilities as independent individuals. At the end, the very purpose of Life Skills is to provide the requisite practical knowledge to students so that they can take their decisions wisely;

• Academic and Research Skills

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Yes, most schools fail to inculcate the required academic and research skills among students to help them study with a holistic approach. Oftentimes, covering lessons becomes tedious for students, which results in rote learning, plagiarism, or cheating. While the choices of favourite subject(s) would influence the study method for each student, it is important that they are able to learn first. In short, a school should help students learn about the moot point or concept of a lesson, accompanied by its context and outcome. Learning without conceptual understanding is best depicted by the hit Bollywood song "All Is Well" from the movie 3 Idiots - "Confusion hi confusion hai, Solution kuch pata nahin/Solution jo mila toh sala, Question kya tha pata nahin" 🙂. Be it History, Physics or Literature, inculcating the basic skills of academic research would assist them in ways unimaginable. Be it through case studies in doctoral programs or investigations conducted for work, people would be able to process, understand and implement the information they receive in the most practical ways possible.

• Interpersonal Skills

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Language is key. “But for what?” you may wonder. Language is more than just talking to people. Language helps you articulate your thoughts, express yourself, as well read these words that are scattered across your screen (albeit in an orderly manner). But yes, the first two points I mentioned (talking to people and expressing yourself) are encapsulated within the term “Interpersonal Skills”. To be precise, interpersonal skills help individuals to communicate effectively with other people so that the transfer of information (instructions, ideas, or messages) is conducted successfully. With the increasing reliance on virtual interaction (with the cameras switched off), communication in the real-world scenarios have become more complex. Stammering out of hesitation, lack of foresight in speech, and the inability to articulate one’s thoughts clearly have become some of the major issues of underdeveloped language skills. And yes, these issues arise from both language fluency as well as social skills. Hence, the school authorities must consider organizing inter-school fests, team sports, community services and student-exchange programs so that pupils can get a firsthand experience of social interaction with people from different cultures and backgrounds.

• Emotional Quotient

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While interpersonal skills are a major part of social skills, the psychological aspect of it entails the next type of Life Skills - that is, developing the student’s Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient (EQ). An individual’s ability to perceive and manage one’s emotions in a said situation has a significant impact on how they react and respond to someone or something. Necessitating Emotional Development through curricular and extracurricular activities would contribute significantly to the wellbeing of an individual. In fact, having a positive degree of Emotional Intelligence would help individuals to tackle practical circumstances with the right reactions and/or responses. Today’s 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) work place is characterised by VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity). To succeed in this dynamic environment, high EQ (Emotional Quotient) is a much-needed life skill. This can be facilitated in the school environment by conducting counselling sessions on a regular basis. Besides, the teaching faculty should be mindful of the varying levels of emotional intelligence among students, and that each student should be given proper attention so that they are able to develop emotional resilience within their own selves and thus become prepared to face real-world scenarios with a more mature outlook.

• Financial Awareness

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From my lived experiences, I can say most of us are told to “study well, get good grades, so that you can get a good job and earn well”. Today in my mid-forties, I look back with a sarcastic smile and ask, “How come no one taught us what to do with the money we earn from our so-called good jobs?”. Through research and common sense, it is evident due to the lack of financial literacy, the majority of the population do not gain financial freedom despite being in high earning jobs throughout their working life. Handling finances should be a major part of the school curriculum. As a matter of fact, Financial Literacy barely gets any attention at all in the school curriculum since it is often considered unimportant to the student’s overall development. What is more unfortunate is that the Indian school system fails to recognise the need to educate the students regarding the management of personal finances. After all, the ability to measure expenses and earnings of an individual has long-term implications. Whether it is opening a bank account, investing in mutual funds or seeking loans, students should be taught to handle finances from an early age. While the school authorities can consider organizing Financial Literacy sessions in the campus, parents should encourage their children to look for gigs to earn their pocket money. At the same time, both educators and parents should also teach the students to monitor their own expenses and earnings. That way, students will be able to develop habits such as avoiding debt, saving up, and investing to build their financial resources.

• Career Skills

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With this, we come to the final type of Life Skills which does have intricate connections with academic accomplishments as well as soft skill training. As students eventually learn about their strengths and weaknesses, develop their interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, as well as educate themselves regarding wealth management at the individual level, it is highly imperative to include Career Skills as a major segment in Secondary and Higher Secondary Education system in India. In fact, Career Guidance and Career Education is part of the formal schooling systems in OECD member countries. By hosting career induction programs in the campus, students can be exposed to the huge array of career options that they can pursue on the basis of their potential and interests. However, the school has a bigger role to play in this case - helping students recognise their own capabilities. As students take part in curricular and cocurricular activities, they will be able to make better decisions with the passage of time, in terms of their own pursuits as well as that of the collective whole. And, in turn, students will also be able to learn about their abilities and limitations. With further assistance from the school and the parents, students will be able to make good choices not only regarding the right career path for themselves, but also the necessary professional knowledge and technical skills that they are acquainted with for the said job position.

The need to deem Life Skills as an indispensable element in academics should be recognised by educators and parents alike. The absence of dialogue among policymakers and educators (along with parents) can be viewed as one of the many reasons why Life Skills is misrepresented among students as just another school subject that is easy to study. By reducing an important academic element into an exam paper eventually culminates into the lack of emotional resilience, the inability to handle finances, tendency to make poor decisions in life, or even being unable to talk to other people fluently. The effect (or effects, in this case) are quite psychological, and thus the repercussions are equally difficult to cope with.

Hence, now more than ever, it is of utmost necessity to look at Life Skills as not only a compulsory feature in the school syllabus but should also be implemented with much precision and planning. Organizing workshops on Financial Literacy, collaborating with other schools to hold student-exchange events, as well as conduct counseling sessions on a regular basis can be viewed as some of the primary steps for educators to prioritize Life Skills at the school-level. At the same time, parents should also endeavor to provide the proper ambience and interact with their wards transparently so that they can become capable of taking their responsibilities and making their decisions as individuals. Most of all, Life Skills is a way for us to manifest the aspirations of a better world with the help of our future - our kids.

Blog Collaborator: Apurba Ganguly (she/her) is an English literature student, pursuing B. Ed (English). She has been eager to understand the intricacies of Memory Studies and Visual Narratives.