Adults with good life skills are likely to be happier, more
successful, and enjoy a higher quality of life than those having less developed. While a good education is important, it is good life skills that
give an edge in the personnel and professional arena. This is why these
must be incorporated into the school curriculum.
School-going children today are rigorously taught subjects
in classrooms, yet what they learn is largely factual and doesn’t prepare them
for real-world challenges they will face as adults. In the real-world, decisions need to be made
every day using limited information. Often such decisions have a strong human
element. A fact-based education cannot prepare children to thrive in a world
where decisions involving people need to be constantly made; only like skills
can. Unfortunately, many school-going children are enrolled in a curriculum
that leaves them unprepared for challenges they will face as adults.
Why Life Skills must be taught to School Children
In every school today, students learn very little besides
reading, writing, and counting. Hence they face a skill gap when they venture
into the real-world because reading, writing, and counting can only take them
so far; beyond a point, it is life skills that give a decisive edge. The
earlier that life skills are taught, the better, because study after study has
shown the brain primarily hardwires itself between the ages of 6 to 16. Because
between these ages most children are in school it is an ideal period to learn
life skills. Children taught between these ages will grasp them
quickly and apply them appropriately when required.
Unlike facts that can be memorised and regurgitated, life
skills are coded into the brain and influence the overall behaviour of
individuals. This is why the earlier children are taught life skills the
better.
Open Up Tremendous Opportunities
Children who enter the real-world without life skills face obstacle after obstacle. As adults, they are not effective professionals, individuals, or even citizens. Life skills, being holistic, produce ideal citizens, exceptional professionals, and responsible and balanced individuals.
State of Schooling Today
Today in schools, children are immersed in subjects and extracurricular activities such as sports. Most never encounter life skills and those who do are taught them randomly and in an unstructured format. In short, life skills today are relegated to the background of school curricula even though they have the greatest potential to produce successful life outcomes.
Benefits of Life Skills
Because of the state of schooling today, students pass out without knowing how to manage themselves and the world around them. Life skills can teach them both by inculcating in them the ability to self manage and instilling in them leadership skills. Solid self-management skills are more essential than ever before because they help individuals tackle and overcome challenges. In the absence of solid self-management skills, students may waste time and be ineffective in following through with plans. Life skills also develop student’s leadership skills which benefit students professionally and create able leaders fit to lead companies and nations.
Life skills also teach teamwork, empathy, and ethics each of which is essential to make society more prosperous and equitable.
What Should Students be Taught in Schools?
In schools, students are prepared for their future roles in society. Schools prepare students to become individuals, professionals, social units, and in an increasingly globalized world, global citizens. Excelling in these roles demands excelling in real-life situations, and because most schools don’t teach students how to excel in real-life situations, they aren’t preparing them to become individuals, professionals, social units, or global citizens.
Life skills are unique in that they cannot be learned by memorization; rather only practice handling real-life situations teaches it. When children are taught life skills in schools while their brains are being hardwired, the skills they learn become ingrained. Therefore, a child who is taught economic skills is perfectly capable of accompanying his or her parents to the marketplace and becoming an active shopper instead of an observer. New age life skills teach children how to use social media to their advantage and how to be productive in the virtual world.
School curriculum has remained largely unchanged for nearly 5 centuries during which time the world has been transformed beyond recognition. For this reason, there is an urgent need to equip children with life skills as, without them, they will be unable to manage the complexity that awaits them in the years and decades ahead.