As the world embarks towards educational inclusivity, the importance of a reimagined life skills curriculum is becoming evident. This thought piece articulates the need for a fresh perspective on life skills curriculum in India and forwards a potential framework.
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