Why Life-relevant Education Matters

Education is the key to overall human development, ensuring a happy and healthier life. What intrigued me to ponder on this subject is that, in the name of the modern education system, students are struggling to balance their academic, family, and social lives. They have been taught in a way that has placed them in unhealthy competition and stressed environments, and they are victims of parental and teacher expectations to perform the assigned tasks like robots without being guided properly. This may certainly not prepare the students to face life’s examinations and leave them to suffer from mental health issues. As we are social beings, we need to be educated in a way that may develop our character, moral values, social values, emotional well-being, and spiritual growth.

There is an urgency to prepare the students in a way where they can balance their academic, personal, and social goals in a calm and composed way. Today’s education system should incorporate practical-based skills development classes that may help students rationally solve the riddles of life. Inclusion of different soft skills like communication skills, presentation skills, public speaking skills, active listening skills, critical and creative thinking skills, time-management skills, friendship skills, co-operation skills, positive affirmation skills, leadership skills, emotional intelligence skills, problem-solving skills and analytical skills may help the students to adjust in their life whereby they may like to balance their personal, family, social and professional life. Life-relevant skills make one to think abstractly and approach problems from different angles to come up with practical solutions.

Practical concerns

Education is not limited to academic and professional achievements; the real meaning of education is revealed when one can cope with future challenges and adversity effectively. Therefore, today’s education system should prepare students as a rational and capable being. In other words, education should focus on teaching the art of living. Apart from teaching students about related curricula, they should also be taught everyday survival skills. Life is not always a bed of roses and this is felt by those intellectual aspirants who always revolve around academic degrees ignoring the practical concerns. 

The education system a country introduces should take care of the needs of the self, family, community and nation as a whole. Education based on knowledge has its own value but skills-based education is more important since it prepares students to face the riddles that the future has planned for them. Life-relevant skills–based education is a form of education that focuses on cultivating personal life skills of students such as self-reflection, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Therefore, vocational skills needed to be integrated and encouraged in curricula. Students must be encouraged more to focus on critical and creative thinking with a proper guidance of educators.

Education should educate us to solve the riddles of life, guide us to discover our identity as a civilised and responsible citizen of the family, community, and nation. Integration of soft skills in the education system may solve social contradictions as well. According to Rabindranath Tagore, the highest education is that which not only provides us with information but also brings our lives into harmony with all of existence. This attainment is possible if life-relevant education becomes a part of the education system, and educators impart knowledge accordingly. Life skills are the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enables human to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. 

Skills based education plays a crucial role for enhancing students’ independent thinking capability whereby they may unlikely become victim in the hand of indoctrination. Life skills are the building blocks that allow students to apply their theoretical knowledge into practice. This may help students solve real-life problems with solutions. The education system should make students aware of life-relevant skills. Learning these skills may develop one’s level of consciousness, confidence, creativity, empathetic values, and ability to cope with stress and emotions. One of the key objectives of life skills-based education is health education that make students aware of good health and safety. In addition, it enables students to avoid risky behaviours.

Lifelong learning

Lifelong learning skills can teach one to be a part of a global citizen. S/he may know how to connect with the world around us. The pedagogy has to be practical and based on field visits, e-learning, digital or video inputs, and so on. Such skills-based education should be taught from the seventh standard.  There have been numerous instances where a student is compelled into a particular field due to parental/peer pressure and realises his /her passion at a later stage in life. 

Introduction to skill training at a young age will by all means allow the student to explore various options and accordingly choose his/her subject of interest. In addition, the educators should help students in discovering their real talent and encourage them to choose the subject of their interest for further studies. The government, NGOs and INGOs working in the field of education ought to take a lead to focus on life-relevant education to develop healthy, capable, happy and responsible citizens.

 (The author is an assistant professor at Kathmandu School of Law)