Scope and role of Life Skills Based Education
“Life Skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.” (WHO) The effective and appropriate utilization of life skills can influence the way one feels about oneself and others and can enhance one’s productivity, efficacy, self-esteem and self- confidence. In particular, life skills are a group of psychosocial competencies and interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build relationships, empathies with others, and cope with and manage their lives in a healthy and productive manner.
Life Skills are generic skills, relevant to many diverse experiences throughout life, and they should be taught as such, to gain maximum impact. However, for an effective contribution to any particular domain of prevention, Life Skills should also be applied in the context of typical risk situations. Life Skills may be directed toward personal actions or actions toward others, as well as actions to change the surrounding environment to make it conducive to healthy and joyous living. Life Skills are needed for creating a demand and effectively utilizing the existing education, health and other services. Life Skills are individual skills/abilities that each one of us possess and yet, need to enhance in order to meet the challenges of life.
Life Skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life (WHO definition). In particular, Life Skills are a group of psycho-social competencies and interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, communicate effectively, and develop coping and self- management skills to lead a healthy and productive life. Life Skills may be directed toward personal actions or actions toward others, as well as to actions to change the surrounding environment to make it conducive to health.
A significant body of theory and research provides a rationale for the benefits and uses of Life Skills Education. Behavioural science, and the disciplines of education and child development, placed in the context of human rights principles, constitute a primary source of these foundation theories and principles. Those who work in these disciplines have provided insights – acquired through decades of research and experience – into the way human beings, specifically children and adolescents, grow and learn; acquire knowledge, attitudes, and skills; and behave. Research and experience have also revealed the many spheres of influence that affect the way children and adolescents grow in diverse settings, from family and peer groups to school and community.
(1) In the school setting, late childhood and early adolescence are critical moments of opportunity for building skills and positive habits. During this time, children are developing the ability to think abstractly, to understand consequences, to relate to their peers in new ways, and to solve problems as they experience more independence from parents and develop greater control over their own lives.
(2) The wider social context of early and middle adolescence provides varied situations in which to practice new skills and develop positive habits with peers and other individuals outside the family.
(3) Developing attitudes, values, skills, and competencies is recognised as critical to the development of a child’s sense of self as an autonomous individual and to the overall learning process in school.
(4) Within this age span, the skills of young people of the same age and different ages can vary dramatically. Activities need to be developmentally appropriate.
There is a growing body of research focusing on determinants and factors that influence a person’s choices that form her or his behaviour. Some determinants have a promotive effect (’protective’ factors) whereas others enhance the vulnerability (’risk’ factors) of children. Life Skills Education (LSE) is designed, in addition to other things, to promote ‘protective’ factors and reduce the impact of ‘risk’ factors. It facilitate the practice and reinforcement of psychosocial skills in a culturally and developmentally appropriate way. By improving decision making and focusing on appropriate choices, it contributes to the promotion of personal and social development, the prevention of health and social problems, and the protection of human rights.
As health education and Life Skills have evolved during the past decade, there is growing recognition and evidence that as young people grow from their earliest years through childhood, adolescence, and into young adulthood, developing psycho-social and interpersonal skills can build competencies to adopt positive behaviors, protect them from health threats, and foster healthy relationships. The Skills Based Health Education approach states that LSE helps children and adolescents learn how to deal with the difficulties of daily life, growing-up and deal with risk situations. Life Skills have been tied to specific health choices, such as choosing not to use tobacco, eating a healthy diet, or making safer choices about relationships.
A well-designed and implemented LSE curriculum addresses diverse needs and problems through learning and application. Life Skills Education is an essential component of promoting healthy and socially accepted individuals. Experiences from the world over show that the LSE approach has shown gains in the following areas:
useful in the promotion of healthy child and adolescent development;
® LSE provides inner power and strength to deal with daily life.
® Life Skills put children in a better position to translate their dreams and values into constructive actions.
® LSE helps preparing young people for changing social circumstances.
® Life Skills are effective tools to empower young people to act, take initiative and take control/charge of their lives.
® Skills process transfers knowledge, skills, attitudes that one has acquired into application/strategies for a Life healthy life.
® Life Skills lay the foundations for good health and mental well-being.
® also impacts on adults (trainers, teachers, administrators and health professionals) -when they improve their Life Skills.
® Skills Education contributes to: basic education; gender equality; democracy; good citizenship; child care Life and protection; quality and efficiency of the education system; the promotion of lifelong learning; quality of life; the promotion of peace, and the utilization of appropriate health services by young people.
Life Skills Education can….
® in development of coping skills that are essential components for healthy development in Assist childhood and adolescence and needed for making a successful transition from childhood to adulthood.
® Specifically address the needs of children growing up in disadvantaged environments who may otherwise lack opportunities to develop these skills.
® social competence and problem-solving skills which are among the characteristics that promote Develop resiliency, positive development and effective ways of coping.
® “emotional intelligence” and skills for managing emotions and interpersonal relationships. Develop
® Be more effective than programs that focus only on transferring information. Positively influence the mediators of problem behaviors
® an impact on multiple adolescent health and development needs Have
® schools address multiple demands for prevention education curricula by presenting a comprehensive, Help unified approach to meeting many needs
® communication skills, decision-making skills, critical thinking skills, and negotiation skills needed for Promote healthy development and are also skills that are valued by employees in the workplace
® Promote positive social norms that can impact the broader environment of adolescent health services, schools, staff and families
® Teachers, students, and their families much more than didactic approaches because of the focus on Engage participation and relevance for the program participants
® Be more exciting and rewarding for Teachers and students because the content tends to be more realistic and the methods more fun and effective than traditional (didactic) approaches
® to achieve the Education For All goal of developing Life Skills, along with literacy and numeracy Help among all children and young people Initiatives to develop and implement Life Skills Education in schools have been undertaken in many countries around the world. The need for Life Skills Education is highlighted, directly and indirectly in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and a number of international recommendations. Life Skills Education is aimed at facilitating the development of psychosocial skills that are required to deal with the demands and challenges of everyday life. It includes the application of Life Skills in the context of specific risk situations and in situations where children need to be empowered to promote and protect their rights.
Many countries have incorporated the development of Life Skills Education in response to the need to reform ‘traditional’ education systems, which appear to be out of step with the realities of modern social and economic life. Problems such as violence in schools, student drop-out, peer pressure, media influences and disruptions in the family system are crippling the ability of school systems to achieve their goals. Furthermore, in addition to its wide-ranging applications in primary prevention and the advantages that it can bring for education systems, Life Skills Education lays the foundation for learning skills that are in great demand in today’s job markets.
Following the study of many different Life Skills programmes, the WHO Department of Mental Health identified five basic areas of Life Skills that are relevant across cultures incorporating ten Life Skills:
lAwareness and Empathy;
Self Creative Thinking and Critical Thinking;
Decision Making and Problem Solving;
Effective Communication and Interpersonal Skills;
Coping with Emotions and Coping with Stress
