Education should prepare students for a prospective future. However, in today’s educational environment, there is a mismatch between what is learned in the classroom and what the real world demands. Far too often, the things that the students acquire from the school education do not meet the needs placed on them in the real world. This is because most of the schools intend to give students a decent grasp of English grammar, a reasonably broad vocabulary, and train them to successfully face board exams. But there may be something missing at the school education that is actually required for the students to enable them to cope with the increasing pace of modern life. It’s the transferable life skills.
In today’s constantly changing work environment, having life skills is essential for everyone to meet the everyday challenges and show off their potential in the wider world. This is what makes necessary for the schools to indeed consider providing students the kind of flexible and transferable life skills that are essentially needed to take true advantage of their language and academic knowledge that they’ve acquired.
What are Life Skills?
Life skills are not just something about learning finances, cooking or doing laundry. It is indeed much more than that. Life skills education goes deeper than what is actually known. Life skills are the abilities that enable individuals to deal effectively with their everyday life demands and challenges, be it either at school, in personal lives or at the workplace, through adaptive and positive behavior. Generally, life skills include social, emotional, and thinking skills, viz. critical thinking, self-awareness, empathy, decision-making and coping with stress.
Life skills are categorized according to their purpose and often relate to or overlap with one or more categories as below:
Job-related skills include decision making, creative/lateral thinking, perspicacity, effective communication skills, interpersonal relationship skills, self-awareness and more.
Everyday living skills include managing finances, practicing good and healthy habits, time management, cooking and cleaning.
Self-development skills involve self-reflection/understanding, stress management, adaptability, goal setting and coping with emotions.
Social Skills involve teamwork, communication, listening, empathizing and conflict resolution.
Why are Life Skills Important?
Children generally do not know how to deal with real-life situations and are left untrained to life experiences. When life skills are taught to younger children, they can help them transit successfully from childhood to adulthood. Indeed, life skills promote the development of positive self-esteem and a greater sense of self-awareness among children that help them to mature into individuals having the ability to self-manage and solve problems.
Life skills enable children to communicate effectively, make informed decisions and develop a set of healthy social and emotional skills. It helps them develop social competence and coping and self-management skills to lead a healthy and productive life with agility and adaptability.
How to Teach Life Skills to Students?
There are a number of transferable skills that every student need to use in his/her academic, professional and social lives. It is important to equip children with the right set of life skills that turn them into successful and effective professionals in future.
Since learning begins from home, it is ideal that parents take up the responsibility of teaching their kids the basic life skills right from an early age. This can be done by following simple practices. Take them to grocery shops and let them shop so that they can learn money management. Tell them about healthy food choices and let them choose it. Teach teenagers about using bank account and maintaining credit cards to know the advantages and the downside. Talk to them about the happenings in the community and get their opinion to make a situation better. All these will help them learn and practice certain life skills.
Similarly, since schools are the place where children mingle with their same age-group, it would help them learn teamwork, collaboration and communication skills. Encouraging students to work together in groups or teams for projects or any creative task allows them to understand working in teams and reflect on what it is meant to be a part of a group. With enough group activities in the school days, students acquire the potential to face the collaborative and connected world outside.
Role of KRMS in Life Skills Development in Children:
K.R. Mangalam School is a renowned institution in Delhi, known for serving quality education right since its inception. We, at KRMS, hold a strong emphasis on holistic learning and education that is focused towards producing geniuses of tomorrow. We understand that a strong foundation level education makes all the difference in setting the tone for the student’s bright future.
K.R. Mangalam School is apprehensive of how important these life skills are to a child’s future growth. Through the innovative learning environment and value-based grooming, we integrate life skills development into our teaching. Our innovative educational system relies not only on academic learning but also ensures an all-round development of the students. The teachers at K.R. Mangalam School are keen on creating a generation that is equipped with so many skills, beyond filling them with vocabulary and rules. We aim to develop and instill in our students various life skills, such as communication skills, team player, leadership, and social skills, appropriate to their age. Our students are taught to express their feelings and emotions in a way that it enhances their communication skills. They are taught to be assertive and confident enough to talk their mind out and express opinions. We maintain an environment that helps students develop life skills is transforming their potential for better. We, at KRMS, aims to transform lives of children by nurturing and rewarding them with the essential life skills, along with academic knowledge, so that our children are well-equipped to get ready for the outside world.
K.R. Mangalam World School
Greater Noida
Plot No. F-2, Pocket P-5, Builder Area
(Near AWHO Apartments) Greater NOIDA
Best School in Greater Noida
Phone Number- 8750793999
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