How an unspoken trust is transferred through nods and smiles, 

How they make us feel safe, 

How they mirror the sensation of looking into multiple mirrors, 

And who doesn’t enjoy gazing at their own reflections? 

Maybe they exist because we truly believe this is how the world is, 

A giant echo chamber of echo chambers. 

Maybe there’s a genuine value in seeking out

people who look, talk, and think like us. 

But what if we broke one open to experiment? 

What if we invited –

Someone we have never invited before, 

Someone who never got a seat at the table, 

Someone who might disagree with us, 

Someone who might not understand us, 

Someone who we might not understand? 

What would happen? 

Would we face breakdowns or breakthroughs? 

Could we have more meaningful conversations that don’t feel like monologues? 

Might we experience an epiphany of some sort?

What would it really take to allow people who aren’t alike, 

and maybe don’t even like each other, 

To get into a room, 

And start listening to one another, 

Rather than yearning to hear the echoes of their own voices… 

Have you ever noticed that the education space in our country is one of those giant echo chambers? The dominant voices rarely include the voices of young people or people with disabilities or any marginalised groups in their discourse and decision making.

Let me share a parallel from the field of deaf education, where I’ve spent the last decade understanding how these echo chambers often become mediums for injustice. In 1880, the International Convention of Educators of the Deaf (ICED) held a conference in Milan, Italy. Out of 164 delegates, only three were deaf. This conference declared the superiority of speech over sign language and passed a resolution to ban sign language. The welcome note for the 2025 ICED in Italy acknowledges that the banning of sign language in educational programs for deaf children led to widespread deprivation of quality education and equality for deaf individuals globally. (ICED 2025)  This serves as a stark reminder of how echo chambers can be extremely dangerous, especially when those within them hold enormous power to make decisions affecting the unrepresented communities. 

However, the truth about the devastating impact never really reached the hearing people like me until recently, because let’s face it, we live in completely different worlds. In 2011, I found myself clueless on how to communicate with three deaf kids at a home for street children where I was working. I started learning Indian Sign Language (ISL) , which allowed me to have in-depth conversations with deaf people who I would have never met otherwise. I was privileged to receive their unique insights based on their lived experience. This broke the echo-chamber I was in, and changed my worldview. It wasn’t a one time thing, it happened multiple times through dialogues, stories and experiences. I realised how the people in the system were completely oblivious to the abuse and oppression on the ground, just because they couldn’t listen to the deaf people themselves. 

Once I saw how damaging echo-chambers could be, I couldn’t unsee it. I just started seeing the parallels in education spaces, development spaces and even in disability spaces. This journey of going in and out of echo-chambers, challenging some of them, changing a few of them and just accepting the others. Sometimes all it took was a question or a comment, a slight nudge that made people think and take a step towards inclusion. At other times, it took years of advocacy especially when it came to changes in the system.

 This helped me reflect more deeply about how breaking the echo chambers is often the first step to inclusion. And it goes beyond just being in the same room or at the same table, it means sharing the power to shape the narratives. There’s a beautiful central idea to the disability justice movement ‘Nothing about us, without us’, which can be very well expanded to the inclusion of diverse voices. Today I try to intentionally include the voices of the young people in all decision making platforms, on how the education system needs to shift for them to thrive. We have been assuming that we know what’s best for them all along, but maybe we don’t. 

Could each of us create some inclusive spaces, where the representation goes beyond ticking boxes and involves a real shift in power, giving an actual say to all those affected? What a wonderful world we might create, if we truly shatter the echo-chambers in our minds, hearts and physical spaces to include the voices we have never heard before!

About the Author:

Pallavi Kulshrestha leads the National Partnerships at Dream A Dream. In her 15 years of experience, she has worked in diverse roles focusing on education, teacher training, child rights, policy, advocacy, and disability inclusive practices. Her educational background includes Engineering, Special Education, Psychology, and International Humanitarian Law. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Psychology.

The post The Echo Chambers appeared first on Dream a Dream.

Teachers use their position of power to maintain control and discipline in the classroom. Though it enables compliance amongst students but curtails their ability to be creative thinkers, take initiative and share opinions, all the essential skills that we need in our future generations. Are these lopsided power dynamics nurturing young people or preparing them for life? What are the gains and losses of holding power for adults? This power dynamics was challenged by a young person at a Dream Outdoor Experiential Camp in the outskirts of Bangalore I was facilitating. This camp was designed for 35 young people coming from vulnerable and socially-emotionally adverse circumstances to experience self-awareness and develop meaningful interpersonal relationships. While the facilitators were establishing the context of the camp, this young person, asked “Why are you calling us young people and yourself as adults, just because you are older in age?”. I marvelled at the courage he showed up in the room to exercise his agency to voice his opinions and it challenged our collective thought process. We changed the vocabulary we used by inviting everyone to find a common neutral names for all the participants of the camp (which essentially were the young people) and the volunteers of the camp (which were the adults). We mutually decided to address the participants as ‘Hohos’ and the volunteers/ facilitators as ‘Dodos’. This created trust in the group and made it safe to explore. I realised that there is a place that young people really strive to find – to feel equal and worthy of respect, away from hierarchy and power structures.

All of us have a valid desire to be seen, heard and wish to have a sense of autonomy and control over our lives. When we feel powerless or restricted, we try to reclaim some power and control. When classrooms do not provide a space for young people to feel respected as equals, they find different, sometimes disruptive ways to regain control. During the online classes held during the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers found it difficult to control the classroom. They felt helpless and often complained about being taken over and bullied by the students, who were more familiar with technology and had the upper hand. For the teachers, the tables had turned.

The need to redefine power structures in a classroom can only be realised when teachers see the immense potential of investing in sharing of power, and this is not about completely taking a back seat or accepting indiscipline. It requires facilitating the space in a way, that invites agency of young people’s voice to be accounted, seen and heard which is an act of justice against the power structures. This helps them feel equal in the room or space, despite the differences. Inviting them to make a choice, creating spaces for their opinions to be shared, creating opportunities to learn from them, co-designing the classroom space, co-creating and sharing the annual goals, creating spaces for disagreements, meeting them where they are, having open dialogues and unlocking student leadership contributes to them forming a healthy self-concept, which affirms that the adult around is reliable, and that they are worthy of respect, love and care, and so is the world. It develops their creative confidence to take on challenges in their own lives and be collaborative. It’s not the events or the opportunity alone but the experience of it, around feeling safe, significant, valued, cared for that gets embodied and acts as a point of reference for humans to keep coming back to and navigate through the difficulties in life. 

In the entire process of sharing power, it is possible that we, as adults, might feel challenged and confused around when to step in to exercise power and when to create opportunity and witness young people take lead. This brings us to reflect on the larger question of what makes us strive for power and maintain it at all costs. It is an overwhelming journey; the invitation is for us to pause, reflect, trust oneself, the young people in our life and our experiences. It is only when we feel empowered that we can create a space for young people to feel empowered. Next time while entering the classroom, believe that your voice matters and so does the voice of those growing up in front of us.  

About the Author: 

Tania is a trauma informed mental health practitioner and a context facilitator at Dream a Dream. She is intrigued by the intersections of social identities, education and mental health. She is on a journey to weave and facilitate spaces to make thriving possible for people across ages using creative, social, emotional and therapeutic approaches. 

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The post ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಬದಲಾವಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಯುವಪೀಳಿಗೆಯ ಪಾತ್ರ appeared first on Dream a Dream.

All of us went to school believing that it will positively impact us. Reflecting on my own learning, this system did not help me learn numeracy, literacy, basic life skills required to make decisions and didn’t prepare me for life’s innumerable challenges. I learnt English only when adults around me walked this journey with me and helped me pick up the basics of conversing in English. Today when we call young people who graduated from the Dream a Dream life skills programmes, they share how their diverse needs are not catered by the current education system. They share how finance and accountancy is taught by training young people to maintain account books, a practice that is no longer followed by even small businesses, who have already graduated to technology! The education system continues to focus on scoring marks and enabling young people to find the right opportunity in life. However, the real life opportunities are often beyond the six subjects taught in our schools. We need to fundamentally shift the way young people are taught. I have come to realise that the onus to change, learn and thrive often rests with the young people, where there is a lot of emphasis on them to work hard, be creative and resilient. The question to ask is have we done enough to help young people learn? The environment in which children learn, plays a pivotal role in broadening pathways for them to thrive. 

Success in education should not be solely measured by academic marks. Embracing an intersectional lens in education ensures that young people are equipped to navigate a diverse and interconnected world. It fosters collaboration, empathy and a deep understanding of equity. In my recent visit to Delhi schools, witnessing the effort to integrate children with disabilities in certain schools gave me goosebumps. It was heartening to see an education system not looking at learning in silos. All young people have the agency and support to make informed decisions and celebrate their strengths. By cultivating these values from a young age, they are embracing a mindset shift to explore possibilities and ensure that no one is left behind.

The mindset shift must extend to recognizing the necessity of adapting learning to meet the demands of the 21st century. This requires breaking away from traditional moulds and:

• Developing more inclusive, fun and adaptable learning methods and diverse learning spaces that work for children with different interests and abilities.
• Creating a holistic framework that follows the progress of each child, identifying the causes underlying learning gaps.
• Prioritising teacher wellbeing and building their agency to design and contextualise learning in their classrooms.

I believe this shift is possible, if we all come together. Shifting the narrative in education requires a collective effort from educators, policymakers, parents and society as a whole. This is not only our responsibility, but a necessity for fostering a generation of learners prepared to thrive in an ever-evolving world. We can’t fix each flower to bloom, but we can fix the environment in which every flower blooms.

About the Author:

Pavithra KL is the Associate Director, Direct Impact programmes at Dream a Dream and is making persistent efforts to reimagine learning for the past 15 years.

The post Let’s Reimagine the purpose of Education appeared first on Dream a Dream.

Attending the Dream a Dream experiential learning camp was an experience to understand our own self and an expression to elaborate what is unknown within oneself. The 5 day camp began on a high note by welcoming young people and adolescents with a special song, drum beating, and garlanding them with ribbons in a green space away from the hustle-bustle of Bangalore city. The enthusiasm and caring nature of the lead facilitators and the volunteers from Dream a Dream created a safe and comfortable space for the young people and adolescents to embark on a journey of self-acceptance and self-discovery by taking creative risks, identifying strengths in individuals and the group, and exploring their dreams through different activities. These life skills are fundamental to child/youth development and to the successful transition into adulthood and becoming fully functioning and productive members of our society. 

The notable nature of the camp was the inclusiveness where every young person and adolescent were seen and heard. It gave the opportunity for young people to believe in their own capabilities and their innate potential. Hence the most transformative aspect of the camp were the six parallel workshops facilitated by young and adolescent people which offered them the chance to run the sessions. The camp covered a wide range of topics like songwriting, jewelry making, boxing/self-defense, cotton painting, etc. The young people were innovative and confident. One of the participants who facilitated the cotton painting session, Jagadish, said, “I never imagined I could lead a session with such a large and wonderful group.”

Through a broad range of reflective and interactive activities young people learnt the skills of appreciating, mindfulness, being intentional, listening, empathy, kindness, leadership, learning from each other, among others. It was a fun-filled camp with dance, song, painting, theatre, open mic and group activities. There was a high level of self-esteem and aspiration to do better, which could be witnessed every day, which made the engagement of young people creative and meaningful. The young people celebrated the time spent and the experiences shared in the Open Mic. 

For us, the camp helped in unlearning the fear of vulnerability. Throughout the sessions, we were encouraged to openly express our emotions and share our experiences. Every feeling and story was valued and received genuine attention. It allowed us to be humane with unique/similar narratives and establish deep, meaningful connections. This camp created a secure and nurturing space, enabling participants to embrace vulnerability, communicate their emotions and narrate their stories free from fear of judgment – a significant challenge in today’s world. In addition, we were also given a space to step out of our comfort zones. Activities such as spontaneous dancing and facilitating sessions challenged us to embrace spontaneity, adaptability and leadership. 

The camp has been a source of joy for the young people. From the moment they arrived, the atmosphere was filled with laughter, and a sense of togetherness, and the goal of the camp was to have fun in all activities. The camp provided an invaluable lesson that joy can be found in the simplest moments, where activities like ‘Dream Trees’ (visual representation) show the strength of positive thinking and the courage to dream when one is supported by peers, families, and mentors. This hope can sustain us through challenges, reminding us that even in tough times, there’s a path forward to brighter days. 

Many young people had adverse experiences at a young age and started taking responsibility to look after their families and studying simultaneously. Availability of the adult support system in the Thriving Centre run by Dream a Dream has been instrumental in building their life skills and instilling a belief in themselves to be resilient. This camp has instilled in them joy, confidence and hope which will enable them to thrive despite the trials of life. The Dream a Dream idea of thriving among people was clearly demonstrated and evident in the camp via its facilitation of empowering young people by accepting them as they are as they embrace change in their life. 

About the Authors: Watimongla Jamir is a Programme Coordinator, System Demonstration- East Hub, Dream a Dream, Nagaland. 

Sharique Mashhadi is an Associate Director, Dream a Dream heading the East Hub state partnerships.

The post Reflections from a Five-day Outdoor Experiential Camp with young people appeared first on Dream a Dream.

Recently, a young person reluctantly came to the centre at the insistence of a friend. He had decided to attend only one life skills session and seemed disinterested. To create a safe space for him and noticing his deep interest in playing chess, we decided to have a chess match. It was the first time he found a challenge that intrigued him. During our conversations, he confided his struggle to manage his emotions to the point of even contemplating suicide. This alerted us that he needed support. Even when he lost the first chess match, he didn’t give up. He kept practising and kept coming back to play. Over time, he attended sessions daily, primarily to play chess and win matches. He began to reflect on himself and the challenges he was facing, realising that his biggest struggle was connecting with his father, who was always very  busy. He wanted to share his feelings with him and the growing gap between them was taking a toll on his emotional well-being. While sharing his challenges, he acknowledged that he needed to have an open and honest conversation. Once his feelings were validated, he went home and shared his feelings with his father, who reciprocated and the heartfelt conversation brought them closer and provided the young person tremendous relief. Social-emotional support can help quicken the process of academic skills development, improve career readiness, healthy relationships and also improve mental health for life. Within the thriving of every young person lies the true purpose of education.

As facilitators, we create free, non-judgemental space  for everyone to explore and participate. Life skills activities make young people overcome their inhibitions to participate and express themselves. To be a role model for young people, we have to start by connecting with them and understanding their stories. Facilitation makes us reflect within ourselves to recognise the bias and prejudices we hold and to be mindful of systems suppressing the thriving potential of our young people by perpetuating these biases. When young people share their problems and life stories in the hope that we will help them reflect, motivate and guide them; they wish the same from teachers in their schools. 

In the digital age where information is available at the tap of our finger-tips, teachers must redefine the teacher-student relationship. It can start with spending time with students to understand them, their difficulties or challenges in the class, by treating all students equally and encouraging students who are slow learners or less confident. Teachers as facilitators try to understand why young people are not learning, validate their lived experiences, connect with them and enable support systems around them to help them thrive. When we focus only on syllabus completion and judge one’s ability on the basis of marks scored or financial status, discriminating between students, labelling them as weak/ poor in studies/ good for nothing, they lose their confidence and start putting themselves down. Students who are not good at studies often have a different potential and if teachers give time to understand them and be friendly with them, all students can thrive. When teaching is simpler, made more interactive with experiential activities young people can connect more through their own stories and life experiences. Instead of punishing students in the class for their mistakes, making them reflect on their experiences and guiding them in a good way will help them to control negative emotions and reflect on the consequences of their behaviour.  

Teachers as facilitators will not hold onto a rigid curriculum, but would be a guiding compass, to help students navigate the sea of knowledge. They will instil not just knowledge but skills to lead life such as critical thinking, collaboration and adaptability. Facilitators create a safe space for curiosity and exploration. Rather than a bestower of facts, they ignite the spark of inquiry, nudging students to seek answers, analyse and synthesise information independently, empowering students to take charge of their learning, fostering a sense of responsibility and self-direction. By setting goals, monitoring progress and helping young people make choices, they enable students to discover the joy of learning. Teachers as facilitators can bring out the best in young people on their journey to become future role models and changemakers.

About the Authors:

Ameera is a Programme Facilitator in Dream A Dream. Being a facilitator connects with her personally and is her passion. 

Venkatesh is a dedicated Facilitator at the Dream a Dream Thriving Centre. His passion for working with young people and his unwavering compassion brings him immense joy.

The post Teachers as Facilitators are at the heart of education recovery appeared first on Dream a Dream.

Society is built out of human interactions. When we do not mingle and communicate, it leads to social fragmentation, seen clearly in the inequity and strife around us. Newspapers regularly report incidents of identity-based violence, some perpetrated in schools. Our education system has been focused on rote learning for so long that the social aspect of learning went missing. Under the garb of maintaining discipline, students are discouraged to bond with ‘them’, develop empathy and understanding or show respect for differences. Narratives of the marginalised are often ignored and if shared are told from the purview of a privileged lens. Discriminatory systems give rise to a sense of inferiority in the marginalised and a sense of entitlement in the privileged. When  5 year old Revanna entered a classroom for the first time, he was made to sit on the floor, while the upper caste students sat on benches. As a first generation learner, his inability to grasp lessons was met with regular beatings from teachers. Forced to sit and listen to the teacher all day, he understood that the education system was not for him; it could not teach him in a way which was easy for him to grasp or learn. While engaging in the only activity he truly enjoyed at school- sports, he was made to stand separately with other Dalit students. When gatekeepers of systems do not even allow marginalised communities to enter their spaces, inclusion remains a faraway reality. 

For an education system which idolises individual scores and achievements, it’s ironic that it forgets the individual context of students while creating a learning environment. The need to fit into a homogeneous mould of perfection creates a visible decline in students’ confidence with body image, satisfaction with personal and school life, availability of people to share feelings with and experiencing happiness as they grow older. Inclusion is not asking a person to be who they are not. It is consulting the people who are affected by a decision, before taking them. It is a celebration and not merely a tolerance of differences. It does not require lofty restructuring of the education system, instead requires us to connect with each other as humans. Inclusive education needs target achievement to move from curriculum completion to channelling the students ability to learn, contextualising the pedagogy to their needs. It requires schools to develop supportive peer structures and teacher-student relationships. Checking in the emotional state of students at the beginning of each class of any subject helps them feel that they matter. By including examples of people from alternative identities, different regions, culture, ethnicity etc. as leaders and successful people in textbooks, we gain diverse role models. Inclusion can start with the choice for students to change their name or choose the uniform they want to wear. 

While all the above is doable, the deeper question to ask is- are we ready? Can we make our homes more inclusive? Can we question stereotypical stories about groups and communities? Can we overcome our reluctance to share opportunities with those who have none? A society cannot progress if sections of it live invisible, fearful lives. Our success, when measured materially and individualistically, makes us compete with others for limited resources. Our success, when measured with the thriving of all, makes us work collectively towards a sustainable future. Let us be less lonely in our existence and choose a definition which includes us all. 

About the Author: Saba Ahmad is a copyeditor, with the Narrative Building team at Dream a Dream. She is grateful to Revanna Marilinga for sharing his school experience with her.

The post Othering in the Indian Education System appeared first on Dream a Dream.

The conventional top-down, outcome-based approach to curriculum in mainstream education has evolved over time. Remnants of a colonial form of learning that focused on textbook knowledge, are still the mainstay of the Indian Education system, even as this passive learning of concepts might very well subdue, or at its worst curb, creativity among learners and reinforce prejudices of caste, gender and class.  

For a truly transformative and holistic education system, we must consider factors like socioeconomic status, family background, cultural context, psychological well-being, and resource access. Research has provided evidence that childhood adversity including poverty, hostile community environments, as well as gender and caste-based inequalities can be linked with lower educational attainment, higher drop-out rates, lower enrolment,¹ and can also impact the physical, cognitive and language development of Indian children². This highlights the importance of understanding the context of young people and designing an education and curriculum in India that promotes their thriving. The idea of thriving is rooted in positive psychology which focuses on the need to develop a scientific understanding of positive human functioning and to attain desired outcomes that align with the success of individuals and their communities.³ 

The field of curriculum studies is observing a shift from development to understanding curriculum⁴ by examining the existing literature and acknowledging the systemic changes required to build a curriculum catering to a diverse population of learners. Beyond mainstream education, young people require life skills that influence their psychosocial, emotional and behavioural skill development, help them face everyday challenges with resilience and attain their desired goals. Thus, understanding and evaluating the life skills curriculum in India is essential to facilitate young individuals to realise their potential and enable them to define their success.  

Life Skills Education in India  

Over the past few decades, educational policies have attempted to introduce and implement life skills education in schools, specifically for adolescents. For example, the National Curriculum Framework (2005)⁵ recognised the importance of life skills such as critical thinking, interpersonal communication, decision-making, problem-solving, self-management and negotiation/refusal skills. It suggested incorporating these skills during Language, Maths and Science classes. Reproductive and health education were seen as other avenues for developing life skills. In terms of pedagogy, a handbook for teachers developed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (2005)⁶ emphasised participatory learning and a peer education approach. It also provided ideas for using creative techniques, reflection and feedback. However, gaps have been observed in how the vision has been translated into classroom activities through the syllabus and textbooks⁷. For instance, the burden of implementation has been laid upon the teachers and schools as they strive to align classroom instruction and assessments to the broader policy vision.⁸ Integrating life skills teaching into the academic activities demands well-designed and age-appropriate frameworks⁹, and appropriate teacher training programmes¹⁰. Studies have found that a lack of both can impact effective implementation¹¹. Additionally, the top-down approach to instruction in Indian classrooms often leaves little room for interaction or inquiry-based learning.¹²   

Unfortunately, life skills education has often been misunderstood as value education, vocational education, and even livelihood skills or functional self-help skills education. Teachers might view life skill training as a tool to improve children’s behaviours.¹³ Given these existing gaps and challenges, it has become crucial to not only understand but also to reimagine the life skills curriculum in India. 

Aligning with the NEP 2020 

The renewed National Education Policy, 2020 reaffirmed the importance of life skills in its vision of education, which is, to develop well-rounded individuals capable of rational thought and action, equipped with adequate knowledge, capacities and values. Although the National Curricular Framework for School Education (2023) has been drafted in accordance with the policy, the implementation at the foundation level requires reinforcements from a curriculum that addresses the issues identified in past constructions. It is in this vein that we see a need for a reimagined life skill curriculum and its pedagogy. 

Dream a Dream’s Life Skills Curriculum: Bridging the Gap  

Dream a Dream’s Life Skills Curriculum is based on its 20 years of experience in creating and facilitating life skills programmes across different settings with young people coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. Past interventions¹⁴ have demonstrated the impact of having a learner-centred approach that allows facilitators to accommodate the felt needs of individual learners through structured and unstructured sessions. Studies have shown that it is possible to create flexible, inclusive and scalable programmes, which can positively impact the life skills of young people coming from adverse circumstances.¹⁵ At the same time, it has been found that there is a need for an age and grade-specific curriculum, which could address the changing needs of the learners as they experience life skills.¹⁶    

The above insights have contributed to the development of the Life Skills Curriculum that has the following features: 

• The activities have been developed using the ‘Arc of Transformation’ framework¹⁷, which is a process by which a facilitator holds the space and enables transformation in the participants / learners. Irrespective of the duration of the sessions, a facilitator can easily create this space. 

• After an orientation in facilitation skills, teachers in any school in India can collaborate to contextualise the base curriculum for their own learners.  
• The activities are age and grade-specific keeping in mind the varying developmental needs of the learners. For instance, both the curricula for Nursery to Grade 2nd and Grades 3rd to 5th support learning about self. However, the former focuses more on play-based methods, while the latter adds a layer of rhymes and stories and some group-based activities.   
• The facilitator’s manual provides explicit instructions and resources, however is not prescriptive for anyone in the school system (including teachers) to facilitate the curriculum.  
• The activities have been designed to provide experiences, through creative or expressive arts. The experiential life skill sessions focus on the process of learning rather than a singular outcome.  
• A combination of structured and unstructured approach to life skills sessions allows facilitators to focus on the learners’ needs.   

• The curriculum helps facilitators create a space that is learner-centric, non-judgement and inclusive. 

The Life Skills Curriculum and Facilitator’s Handbook is our attempt to reimagine life skills education in a way that is inclusive and transformative. It supports teachers and schools in facilitating safe and experiential environments, where learners of all age groups and from all backgrounds can nurture their strengths and foster the life skills to thrive.  

We invite educators and other school stakeholders to explore the curriculum. While the curriculum is designed to be self-explanatory, we recommend investing some amount of time in training to understand our approach and pedagogy. To access the curriculum, please visit: https://staging.dreamadream.org/life-skills-curriculum/

Author Profiles: 

Shilpi Saini is a Research and Impact Intern at Dream a Dream, Bangalore. Her interest areas include social and emotional learning, and role of parental training in education. Shilpi is currently pursuing MSc Educational Psychology at Christ University and aspires to enable quality education for students through her research and practice.  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shilpi-saini1991 

Sudeshna Roychoudhury is a Research and Impact Intern at Dream a Dream, Bangalore. She is currently pursuing MSc Educational Psychology at Christ University. Her research interests are social-emotional learning, anthropology of education and postcolonial education.  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudeshna-roychoudhury/ 

Aakanksha Agrawal is an Associate Manager for Research and Impact at Dream a Dream, Bangalore. Prior to this, she was a Teach for India fellow and holds a master’s degree in psychology of education from the University of Manchester. Her research interests are social and emotional learning, psychology of education, and well-being. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aakanksha-agrawal-04916313b/ 

Twitter: @aakanksha_sel 

Sreehari Ravindranath is the Associate Director for research and impact at Dream a Dream, Bangalore. He is a passionate researcher and educator with a mission to re-imagine education in India. He specialises in social and emotional learning and well-being. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreehari-ravindranath/   

Twitter: @sreehariRavind3 

The post The 21st Century Call: A New Vision for Life Skills Curriculum appeared first on Dream a Dream.

With India’s young population (age 15- 29 years) projected to be 345 million by 2036, we have an opportunity to enable our future generation to be brilliantly creative people, problem solvers, changemakers with empathy for self, others and nature to know how their solutions affect others and the planet. Empathy is the ability to try to put oneself in another’s place and experience their feelings. Discovery of mirror neurons in Neuroscience has proven the existence of empathy in human beings. Yet when a 2022 study, published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, assessing MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) students for empathy and interpersonal reactivity for two years found a significant decline in empathy for all students, irrespective of gender, it points to an unaddressed problem, correlating this decline with psychological stress. When we force fit naturally empathic students into an education system, plagued with colonial legacy, glorifying scores over values, one-upmanship over collaboration, individual success over collective growth, we push them to look at others as the ‘enemy’, creating conflict and a fractured unsustainable world. When we ask young people to toughen up and not show vulnerability, we are asking them to wear a mask of invincibility. When empathy for self dies out, this mask starts wearing off showing signs of trauma and repression. 

The World Youth Skills Day 2023 recognises the essential role of teachers, trainers and educators in “providing skills for youth to transition to the labour market and to actively engage in their communities and societies”. These skills cannot be limited to vocational or hard skills. With the COVID-19 accentuated inequalities affecting long-term livelihoods and decent work for all, vocational training alone is not sufficient for a young person who lacks access to opportunities, choices, employment and a life of dignity because of their ascribed identity. The OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 report highlights that social and emotional skills including empathy are essential to be part of an ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse global workforce. Empathy is a transferable skill that can be applied in different situations to ensure peace and prosperity. When billions share a planet and its resources, education needs to be a lens for us to see our interconnectedness to other living beings and the planet, else our fears and anxieties become amplified in systems that celebrate comparative ‘success’. 

Let us not push our young people to excel without any compassion. It is pivotal to create systems which allow them to identify and accept their own and others emotions.  Empathy enables us to question the assumptions we make about what learning should look like for young people, without asking them. It invites us to understand the context of those living in adversity without judging them as ‘lazy’, ‘unambitious’ or ‘irresponsible’. It is time to bring empathy into our relationships, replace the ‘I’ with ‘we’, to co-create what makes us truly happy and thrive! Let us design systems which celebrate the unique strength of every young person and provide a safe space for them to share authentically, as vulnerability arouses empathy and kindness. 

Contrary to the “outside-in” approach of skill building, programmes to channelise empathy need to be experiential learning opportunities built around young people’s innate capacities for self-awareness and reciprocity. When we encounter kindness, it impacts how we feel about ourselves, about each other and we start caring about how healthy our relationships and communities are. It is time to align what young people define as success and how we measure success. Systems need to address existing and anticipated skill gaps and protect the most vulnerable by increasing access to opportunities for inclusive growth, enabling youth agency and bridging divides. We need empathy – for self, for fellow living beings, for our planet and natural resources to reconnect, act with compassion and co-create a sustainable world to thrive as a planet. This World Youth Skills Day, it is perhaps the larger ecosystem that needs to upskill themselves with what is needed most today- Empathy!

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Back in 2003, I was a rookie reporter and it had barely been a couple of months since I had begun working at a news agency in Mumbai. One of those days when you do not realize that something pivotal was about to occur and it would take close to a decade for you to be able to process it. That day the Bureau head was travelling out of the city, and I was in the office when the call came in from the Head Office to file a report on the Twin Blasts (Zaveri Bazaar and Gateway of India) that had occurred in Mumbai. I remember it being ironic that we got the information on the blast from our Delhi HO when we were right in the city of Mumbai! Along with my cameraperson we rushed to the blast site, which was then cordoned off by the police authorities.

As we walked to the bomb blast site, I remember seeing shards of broken glass lying everyone around, police and other people moving around collecting evidence. The injured people were taken to the hospital. Suddenly out of nowhere a man appeared before me, and since I was walking with a cameraperson, he knew that I was a media person, and he shoved a steel tray in front of me and said “Yeh lo iska bhi shooting karo (here film this as well)!” Flummoxed I stared at the tray and what looked like a blood covered part of the human brain! The man had been collecting human remains from the blast site. It took me around 10 minutes to process this scene and only when my cameraman pulled my hand asking me to move, I realized that I had been rooted to the spot without any movement. I remember feeling as if I had in that moment in some way failed the profession and had berated myself because I had let go of what I was trained at my university to stay objective and not react.

Later, I reacted as I had been trained to react – be objective, not allow the external to affect the internal and filed the story as I was supposed to, listing the number of dead and injured people. It had been a mechanical process I recall when I had proceeded to file my story and had gone home without really processing what those moments meant to me. As communications professionals, we have been trained to be objective to the point of being stoic and not letting our emotions get the better of us, and while that may be required in diverse kinds of settings, I realized that I also needed to acknowledge that it was ok to be human and respond emotionally. It was also ok to be sensitive and respond from a space of empathy in the way I reported. Often, we forget that our reporting from the field has in many ways helped us grow and has allowed us to seek answers for ourselves around our own perspectives on the vagaries of life.

For me, this unlearning of an old narrative and the building of a new one had taken time to come. The relearning of a new narrative meant that it was ok to be present for the moment and required me to know that sometimes responding can be a slow process and that was also ok. I had to in many ways look at being present in the moment with my whole being and experience these pauses and how they can help me. Building a new narrative and moving to a newer one requires one to move from an earlier held belief/ thought to a new, more compelling one and we move we are willing to move or have experienced why it is imperative to move. Taking a pause when action has been your constant response may not be easy and certainly was not easy for me. Sometimes it may mean taking a breather and responding from a space of wanting to know more or from a space of empathy and not always from a space of wanting to fix things. For me it meant that I needed to listen to my own instincts deeply and be aware of making space for me to pause and then respond. I have in many ways moved from a solutions-oriented approach to an approach that focused on building an understanding around a sustainable solution; which can seem cumbersome however I have found it helped me ground myself better.

It has been an evolving journey for me, not been easy to let go of that veneer of self-preservation and I also acknowledge that there may be moments when this unlearning will slacken, however it is a journey that I have embarked upon, and I hope to relearn-learn all that will help me be better every day.

Dr Varsha Pillai is the Associate Director of Narrative Building and Communications at Dream a Dream.

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