“Tackle life with all your skills, Overcome each and every hill
If you persist with all your will, you will enjoy life’s thrills.”
Life skills are the positive and adaptive behaviour that enable individuals to live an effective and smooth life. In today’s environment, there is a mismatch between what is learnt in the classroom and what the real-world demands. We at DPS Indirapuram believes in the holistic development of students therefore our prestigious institution focuses on integrated life skills education in the regular school curriculum.
In recent years there has been an increasing acknowledgement of the important role played by life skills in developing emotional and mental wellbeing of adolescents. Good mental health improves the overall quality of life. There are ten Basic life skills given by WHO for a healthy life: Decision making skills, effective communication, empathy, managing emotions, coping with stress, critical thinking, interpersonal relationship etc. According to national mental health survey, it has been found that close to 14 per cent of India’s population required active mental health interventions. Every year, about 2,00,000 Indians take their lives. People have become increasingly conscious of their physical well-being. However, mental health maintenance remains ignored to a great extent.
With the fast-pacing life and advent of technology, today’s youth are witnessing a rapid change in social, moral and religious values around them. The impact of small-nuclear family system and cognitive driven curriculum increases the stress of an adolescent. Therefore, synthesizes life skills at the school level and in school curriculum can be one of the first step in making our young adult as an emotionally and mentally healthy. Like for physical health, we give healthy and nutritious diet to our children in their growing up years so that they have a healthy body in future. In the same way, life skills are like mental nutrition ingrowing up years to prepare our children to navigate through present day challenges of life. In the past ten years, particularly technological sea-change, there has been growing awareness among school, college and also at the corporate level that examination success does not necessarily translate into workplace success. It requires something more than mugging up textbooks to be a successful doctor, engineer, manager or entrepreneur. And that vital missing link in the education process is the acquisition of life skills.
DPS INDIRAPURAM, amongst top 10 CBSE affiliated schools in Ghaziabad, clearly understands the importance of life skills and believes in inculcating the following must life skills in our students:
Time management
Building positive self esteem
Empathy skills
Showing gratitude
Handling peer pressure
Developing positive attitude and positive thinking
Handling Failures and rejections in life
Effective communication
The staff at DPS Indirapuram, is trained and groomed in such a way that they understand that the primary aim of education is holistic development of students and not just imparting theoretical knowledge. Here at School, we create such an environment where students can express and communicate their ideas and thoughts freely.
In life skills education, children are actively involved in a dynamic teaching and learning process. The methods used to facilitate this active involvement include working in small groups and pairs, brainstorming, role play, games and debate. Under the expert guidance of our DPS teaching staff, children at secondary level are actively engaged in teaching learning process. The methods used to facilitate this active involvement includes making them work and brainstorm in small groups on various topics such as substance abuse, handling peer pressure that encourages their problem solving and decision-making skills, role plays to enhance empathy skills and to handle emotions in a difficult situation, debates to enhance critical thinking and so on. So, in life its not the situation but it’s the response to the situation that affects your life.
“You can’t always control the wind, but you can control the sails.”
Blog by : Ms. Sakshi Khanna PGT Psychology