Schools should emphasise life skills

The current trends in education show that many schools concentrate more on making students pass the examinations than helping them to develop life skills that are equally important to the young people’s lives. Many students leave high school with good grades but when their morals are not well developed. They can hardly communicate in public and they cannot easily connect with other people. There is need for schools to strike a balance between producing students who are academically sound and morally upright. Traditionally, parents used to have ample time to groom their children to the desired levels but the challenges of the modern world keep them too busy to shape the morals of the children. The children are left with maids some of whom have weird behaviour. At school, their teachers concentrate more on helping them to pass the examinations rather than guiding them to develop life skills. Teachers are not to blame for this because school administrators exert a lot of pressure on them to produce good academic results. This creates a moral vacuum in the minds of students. Knowledge acquisition does not automatically lead to positive changes in attitudes and behaviour. Students grow up when they do not know who they are and what they are capable of doing in life. Many schools face challenges in dealing with students who are stressed due to social problems. Such fellows have negative attitudes towards studies and they do not relate well with the school authorities, teachers and some of their peers. Some of them engage themselves in irresponsible sexual relationships which put them at a risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Others resort to taking drugs at school and when they are discovered, they are expelled. Many of them are immune to punishments. All these challenges can be minimised if life skills are adequately developed in the students. Schools should put in place mechanisms that develop the minds of learners so that they are able to manage their lives. According to Tacade( United Kingdom), life skills are personal and social skills required for young people to function confidently and competently with themselves, with other people, and with the wider community. Ironically, a big number of young people do not know their self-worth and they are not assertive. Consequently, they become vulnerable to dangers that ruin their lives. As children grow up, they need to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to handle themselves and their environment successfully. Schools should prioritise life skills in order to empower young people and to safeguard their lives. Emphasis should be put on developing life skills during lessons, school assemblies, club activities, class meetings, career sessions, prayer services, community service in and outside school, peer education, drama shows, inter-school debates and sports competitions among others. Learners should be guided on self awareness so that they understand themselves, their potentialities, feelings and emotions, their strengths and weaknesses, their culture and their position in society. The more an individual is aware of his own capabilities, the better they become at making choices which are consistent with their abilities. Self awareness leads to self esteem which enables the individual to become assertive. Young people should also be helped to cope with emotions of fear, love, anger, disgust and shyness. They should also be able to cope with stress which occurs as a result of family problems, examination pressures, broken relationships and death of dear ones. They should be able to develop good interpersonal skills that help them to relate well with their parents, siblings, teachers and schoolmates among others. Critical thinking, decision making, and non-violent conflict resolution skills should also be inculcated in the minds of the students. Once all these aspects are adequately catered for, schools will be able to produce learners who are very useful to the society. The writer is a teacher at Riviera High School.