Special Report

Rising popularity of life skills education

Somewhat belatedly, educationists especially in urban schools across the subcontinent, have become acutely aware that teaching life/ soft skills for professional and personal success is as important as developing academic capability. Summiya Yasmeen reports

Defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as "abilities for positive and adaptive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and changes of everyday life", life skills such as problem solving, decision making, good manners, communication and interpersonal skills, are highly valued in the job marketplace of India’s rapidly globalising economy. Consequently surging demand for these taken-for-granted but conspicuously lacking soft skills has led to a sudden spurt in the promotion of a spate of life skills education firms which offer customised programmes to schools, colleges and corporates promising the vital X factor to round off the education of students and indeed, of corporate executives.

Ahmed (front) & team: vital X factor

According to Ahmed, a chemical engineer of Bangalore University, who started The Activity in 1997, the World Health Organisation (WHO) accepted the need for life skills education in 1998. WHO recommended a module comprising ten life skills — stress management, problem solving, communication skills, emotions management, creative thinking, self awareness, interpersonal skills, empathy, decision making, and critical thinking — to every school worldwide to incorporate into the mainstream academic curriculum.

The Activity offers these who mandated life skills, modified and adapted to the Indian context by its 30-strong team of educators and trainers, to 16,000 plus class V-X students in 21 schools in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Spread over the full academic year — 34 one-hour teaching periods — its life skills programme, priced between Rs.600-1,000 per student per year, is an integral part of the curriculum of contracted schools. A team of specially trained The Activity facilitators use a wide range of interactive teaching tools such as games, role plays, story-telling, theatre, art, group discussion and practical activities to deliver the ten WHO recommended life skills.

By introducing skills development training in secondary education progressive schools are doing corporates and industry a big service, sparing them weeks of on-the-job training. There’s no shortage of business case studies which establish the vital connection between workplace productivity and the essential soft skills of problem solving, social confidence and communication. Therefore latterly corporates are pulling out all the stops to develop these skills — hitherto ignored by schools and colleges — of their employees. In particular the sunrise information technology, business process outsourcing and biotechnology industries, which compete globally and appreciate quick decisions and customer satisfaction, prize soft skills on a par with technical capability.

Jetli: business success prerequisite

In Indian industry, business awareness of the importance of life skills education has been learnt the hard way. In corporate locker rooms and canteens there’s no shortage of anecdotes detailing how poor communication skills, boorishness and plain bad manners of managers have blown deals worth millions, and in some instances, lumbered high-profile companies with expensive lawsuits.

Unsurprisingly industry awareness of the importance of life skills, largely a post-liberalisation phenomenon, has provided impetus to the life skills education business. Until very recently soft skills training tended to be transmitted by a small number of enterprising educators offering personality development and public speaking programmes. The content of these learning programmes was largely home grown and the duration of training rarely extended beyond a day. However nowadays thanks to unprecedented demand from schools and other education institutions, life skills training has undergone a metamorphosis with specialist firms employing research teams to design innovative curriculums delivered by highly trained facilitators with impressive qualifications. The profile of promoters is also a far cry from their predecessors. These new gen edupreneurs are skilled professionals, many of whom have thrown over high-paying corporate jobs to enter the life skills education business.

iDiscoveri’s Rajpal (first left) & team: real-life skill sets

"The ever expanding demands of examination boards make it difficult for schools to complete their prescribed syllabuses. But the fact remains that much of what is taught in schools today is not applicable. Children need to be taught more real-life skill sets. Research and our experience in schools point in the same direction. An ability to sustain productive relationships at home and in the workplace is what young women and men need most. For that, one needs a sound relationship with oneself. This cannot be expected to happen automatically — it needs a particular type of education. That is what iQuest provides to children in partnership with parents and schools," says Rajpal of iDiscoveri, which employs 50 people across three cities in India.

Box 1

UNICEF life skills list

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), the Paris-based transnational organisation committed to children’s rights, survival, development and protection, has decreed life skills an integral component of quality education. At Unicef’s suggestion all 164 nations which signed the United Nations Millennium Development Goal charter of Education for All by 2015 have included ‘life skills’ as a basic learning need for all children and youth.

On its website (www.unicef.org/lifeskills) and in its printed promotional material, Unicef provides a universal definition of life skills, catalogues studies that have evaluated skills-based programmes, and provides practical tools and materials for schools to introduce life skills education into their curriculum. Excerpts:

Definition. Life skills refers to a large group of psycho-social and interpersonal skills which can help people make informed decisions, communicate effectively, and develop coping and self-management skills that may help them lead healthy and productive lives.

How life skills-based education (LSBE) contributes to the goal of quality education. LSBE strengthens educational processes by insisting on participatory and gender-sensitive teaching and learning methods. Participatory methods allow all participants (including the facilitator) equal opportunity to listen to, and learn from, each other and can appeal to different learning styles.

There is no definitive list of life skills, but the list below includes the psycho-social and interpersonal skills generally considered important.

Interpersonal communication skills. Verbal/ nonverbal communication; Active listening; Expressing feelings; giving feedback (without blaming) and receiving feedback

Negotiation/ refusal skills. Negotiation and conflict management; Assertiveness skills; Refusal skills

Empathy. Ability to listen and understand another’s needs and circumstances and express that understanding

Cooperation and teamwork. Expressing respect for others’ contributions and different styles; Assessing one’s own abilities and contributing to the group

Advocacy skills. Influencing skills & persuasion; Networking and motivation skills

Decision making/ problem solving skills. Information gathering; Evaluating future consequences of present actions for self and others; Determining alternative solutions to problems; Analysis skills regarding the influence of values and attitudes of self and others on motivation

Critical thinking skills. Analysing peer and media influences; Analysing attitudes, values, social norms and beliefs and factors affecting these; Identifying relevant information and information sources

Skills for increasing internal locus of control. Self esteem/ confidence building skills; Self awareness skills including awareness of rights, influences, values, attitudes, strengths and weaknesses; Goal setting; Self evaluation/ Self assessment/ Self-monitoring skills

Skills for managing feelings. Anger management; Dealing with grief and anxiety; Coping skills for dealing with loss, abuse, trauma

Skills for managing stress. Time management; Positive thinking; Relaxation techniques

Source: www.unicef.org/lifeskills

While pioneer life skills education firms such as The Activity and iDiscoveri have focused upon schools and corporates in the metros, new entrants into the business are active in the untapped smaller cities and towns of India, where the demand for self-improvement education is booming. Promoted in 2000, the Bangalore-based SmartKids Pvt. Ltd, has enrolled 22,000 students in 30 schools across B-class cities (Hubli, Dharwad, Karwar, Mangalore etc) in north Karnataka as also in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad in its life skills and leadership development programmes.

The SmartKids life skills curriculum, apart from the usual inter-personal relationships, critical thinking, decision-making module, also includes training and developing social skills such as table manners, telephone etiquette, home and school behaviour, public speaking, self-confidence, and ways and means to manage peer pressure and improve self-esteem. SmartKids charges schools Rs.30-100 per month per student for delivering its life skills training classes weekly.

SmartKids’ Abraham: small town focus

With upwardly mobile middle class parents cottoning on to the importance of life skills, the number of providers is multiplying. For instance the Bangalore-based Buoyancee in its 13 years of existence has conducted two-six day life-skills training workshops for over 250,000 school and college students. "Since we started in 1992 we have trained over 200,000 school, 50,000 college students and 10,000 corporate executives in Bangalore, Coorg, Manipal, Hubli, Vishakapatnam and Mumbai. Our training programmes are so popular that to meet the demand we had to construct our own 6,000 sq.ft training centre in Bangalore, where we conduct life skills and personality development courses on an every-day basis," says Ajit Kaikini, founder managing director of Bouyancee who threw over a job as chief pharmacist in Bangalore’s Manipal Hospital, to pursue his passion for working with children and youth.

A relatively new non-institutional development is the entry of educators who believe that life skills are best learnt outdoors in natural environments. They stress the importance of experiential education — learning by doing — and provide children opportunities to learn life skills in joyous, fun-filled, scenic environments through adventure sports. Among the reputable outdoor education providers are Born Free Tourism, Ibex Expeditions, Wilder Trails, iDiscoveri (mentioned earlier) and Outdoor Education Trust.

Tendle (right): experiential learning benefits

The response of private sector schools in particular to outdoor and classroom-based life skills programmes has been enthusiastic. With increasing pressure upon school managements to deliver academic excellence while striking a balance between curricular and extra-curricular education, school principals are happy to outsource life skills training, which is increasingly being expected by parent communities.

"I entirely welcome professionally managed companies offering life skills education in schools. Such suppleme-ntary education complements the academic curriculum and opens up minds to the world beyond mere academics to help develop intro-spection, self-analysis, communication, and critiquing skills," says Malini Khapri, project coordinator, life skills education and head of the English department of the high profile Modern School, Delhi, which has signed up for iDiscoveri’s iQuest programme.

Kaikini (centre): incremental demand

For instance the Mumbai-based Kangaroo Kids Education Pvt Ltd, which manages 49 schools (including Kangaroo Kids Preschools, Gymbaroo Toddlers Club and Billabong High primary schools from classes I-VIII) across 15 cities, has developed its own life skills curriculum for affiliated schools. Says Lina Ashar, a B.Ed from Victoria College, Melbourne who founded Kangaroo Kids in 1993 with one school and 25 students: "We have designed a comprehensive curriculum which reflects our education philosophy and is delivered in our schools by our teachers. By integrating life and social skills education with the curriculum we hope to produce students capable of dealing with dynamic and challenging situations in an increasingly competitive world."

Ashar & students: comprehensive curriculum

Nalini Ravindran, principal of the highly reputed CBSE-affiliated National Public School, Chennai offers an explanation. "School education in Chennai is of good quality but too academically oriented with all the emphasis on examination success. There are hardly any firms providing life skills education in Chennai mainly because of the high cost involved, which has to be borne by students. In Bangalore, which has a floating population and cosmopolitan Mumbai, people have the affordability and willingness to try out new ideas."

Certainly parents across the country have been quick to discern the utilitarian value of avant garde life skills education. Says home-maker Prem Batra whose son Kavya studies in class VIII in Delhi’s Laxman Public School: "It’s patent that there’s more to learning than thick textbooks. Learning is also about inculcating survival skills in children to face life’s challenges. I’m very happy that life skills are taught in my son’s school in a structured way — they are holistic and tackle everything from aesthetics to communication skills. I’ve already begun to see positive changes in my son’s attitude and behaviour."

Increased receptivity of parents and school managements to life skills education can be credited to Indian industry’s demand for professionals with attributes beyond academic capability. In the new era of intensifying global competition corporate warriors need to possess a multitude of complementary skills including communication savviness, on-the-run decision-making and off duty social skills and sensitivities which are the prerequisites of success in the new liberal global order.

Comments Aruna Newton, head of design and research at the Infosys Leadership Institute, Mysore a state-of-the-art training institute of the blue chip IT transnational Infosys Technologies (annual sales: Rs.6,859 crore): "At Infosys behavioural competency is an important job requirement. We have a well-structured on-going training schedule which focuses on developing a range of competencies, starting from analytical skills, relationship manage-ment, team work, and leadership, to communication skills. These life skills are crucial to the jobs they perform and ideally should be taught in schools, which need to ready pupils for the changing work environment."

With industry awareness of the critical importance of life skills education filtering down to schools, colleges and other education institutions, the boom in life skills education is here to stay. A development which is certain to be welcomed by all right thinking people within a nation which is in the vanguard of the contemporary world’s most gauche and boorish societies.

With Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai); Neeta Lal (Delhi) & Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)