Central Square Foundation

Life Skills Education in India

Life Skills in India

An Overview of Evidence and Current
Practices in our Education System

Authors: Bikkrama Daulet Singh and Rashmi Menon

Background paper prepared for the Roundtable on Life Skills in December 2015

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Contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1. Defining Life Skills ................................................................................................................... 3
1.2. Categorising Life Skills ............................................................................................................ 3
2. The Case for Life Skills Education in India ...................................................................................... 5
3. Life Skills Education Policies in India ............................................................................................... 7
4. Mechanisms to build Life Skills ...................................................................................................... 10
5. Intervention Models ...................................................................................................................... 12
5.1. Out-of-School Programmes .................................................................................................. 12
5.1.1. In-formal Programmes................................................................................................. 13
5.1.2. School-linked Programmes ........................................................................................... 13
5.2. Formal In-school Models ...................................................................................................... 13
5.2.1. Stand-Alone Subject ...................................................................................................... 13
5.2.2. Curriculum-Integrated .................................................................................................. 14
6. Teacher Development .................................................................................................................. 16
7. Measuring Life Skills ...................................................................................................................... 17
8. Challenges ..................................................................................................................................... 20
9. Potential Opportunities ................................................................................................................ 22
Annexure .............................................................................................................................................. 23
CASEL Guide for Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs .............................................. 23
UNICEF Quality Standards for Life Skills Education ........................................................................ 24

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LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION IN INDIA

1. Introduction
The goals of education, and of a school, indisputably include building cognitive abilities such as
reading and math. Increasingly, however, it also implies that children should be equipped with
other abilities that allow them to succeed in and contribute to the society they live in. We will
broadly call such traits – such as communication, critical thinking, creativity, self-management,
decision-making, perseverance - life skills.

This note aims to synthesise and contribute to the growing discussion around the development
of life skills education in India. We propose that life skills should be explicitly woven into school
education by exploring evidence on why such skills matter and which skills are important for
learning and future outcomes. The following sections then review how these skills are typically
nurtured in or out of schools and how feasible these interventions may be. We conclude by
analysing present opportunities for building the scope of life skills education in policy and
practice in India.

1.1. Defining Life Skills

Life skills may be viewed as a range of psycho-social and cognitive abilities that equip children
to make informed decisions and choices, manage their emotional well-being and communicate
effectively.

Efforts to address the achievement gap have typically focused on core subjects such as Maths
and English. A common belief is that life skills are optional and secondary to achieving basic
literacy and numeracy only if resources are available. Research, however, unequivocally shows
that students who develop social-emotional skills and academic mindsets are better equipped to
succeed in school and are able to transfer theoretical concepts to real-life situations early on.1
We will explore evidence on this need for life skills education in more detail in section 2.

1.2. Categorising Life Skills

Life skills encompass a wide-ranging and often unstructured set of skills and attitudes that is
difficult to rigidly define and that has not been officially codified or categorised.2 A number of
related terms are used in this context; some of these include:
 Life skills
 21st century skills
 Non-cognitive skills
 Non-academic skills
 Character skills
 Soft skills
 Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

1 Carneiro, Crawford and Goodman, The Impact of Early Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills on Later Outcomes (2007).
2 Ben-Arieh, and Frones, ‘Indicators of Cahildren’s Well-being: What should be Measured and Why’ (2007).

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While these terms are not synonymous, they do typically encompass the general skills, mindsets
and abilities referred to.

Table 1 takes a look at how life skills have been defined and categorised in different contexts.
The comprehensive Hilton Pellegrino framework has categorised 21st century competencies
into three domains, with the hypothesis that these three areas are essential for youth to be
successful in education, the workplace, in health and in civic participation.3

Table 1: Life skills as defined by different organisations

Hilton-Pellegrino World Health Collaborative for Character Partnership for 21st
framework Organisation Academic, Social and Lab Century Skills
(WHO)4 Emotional Learning
(CASEL)5
 Cognitive  Decision-  Self-awareness:  Curiosity  Learning Skills:
Competencies: making accurately assessing  Gratitude  Critical
 Cognitive  Problem-solving one’s feelings,  Zest Thinking
Processes interests, values and
 Creative  Optimism  Creative
 Knowledge
thinking strengths  Social Thinking
 Creativity and
Innovation  Critical thinking  Self-management: Intelligence  Collaborating
 Intra-personal  Communication regulating one’s  Self-  Communicating
Competencies:  Interpersonal emotions to handle Control  Literacy Skills:
 Work Ethic skills stress, and controlling  Grit  Information
 Positive Self-  Self-awareness impulses Literacy
Evaluation  Social awareness:
 Empathy  Media Literacy
 Intellectual being able to take the
Openness  Coping with  Technology
emotions perspective of and Literacy
 Inter-personal
empathise with others
Competencies:  Coping with  Life Skills:
 Teamwork and  Relationship skills:
stress  Flexibility
Collaboration establishing and
 Initiative
 Leadership maintaining healthy
 Social Skills
and rewarding
 Productivity
relationships, resisting
 Leadership
inappropriate social
pressure, resolving
conflict
 Responsible
decision-making:
Making decisions,
respect for others,
applying decision-
making skills to
academic and social
situations

3 James W. Pellegrino and Margaret L. Hilton, (Editors), Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable
Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century, (Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2012).
4 Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) follows the same set of skills in its Continuous and Comprehensive

Evaluation (CCE) curriculum.

5 The Ministry of Education, Singapore also follows the same set of core competencies defined by CASEL.

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2. The Case for Life Skills Education in India

Discourse around education quality has typically been limited to educational attainment and
improvements in test scores. A critical question, however, is what learning outcomes are truly
relevant for children to succeed in the 21st century. In the section below, we outline the case for
emphasising on competencies additional to reading, math and subject knowledge.

 Academic Achievement: That learning outcomes in India remain abysmally low is no longer
a debate, with the rate of progress over the years appearing to be negative.6 Student learning,
however, is now commendably beginning to move to the forefront of the government’s
agenda. Cognitive achievement and life skills are strongly interdependent, with academic
achievement relying heavily on abilities like self-discipline and motivation.7 Whether self-
esteem and sense of agency (Krishnan et al, 2009), self-control or diligence (Duckworth,
Seligman, 2005), academic tenacity (Dweck, 2012) - there are several behaviours, skills,
attitudes, and strategies - beyond content knowledge and academic skill - necessary for
sustained and significant improvements in learning outcomes.8 The role of non-cognitive
factors in improving school performance remains a critical and relatively unexplored area in
India.

 Employment Outcomes: There is also preliminary evidence that differences in such skills
explain variation in education and employment outcomes that are not explained by cognitive
skill differences.9 Research has consistently found that cognitive abilities explain only a
fraction of variance in wages, finding that other, non-academic skills play a complimentary
role in shaping longer-term outcomes.10 Evidence from the GED testing programme in the
U.S. is significant where, on the surface, the programme appears successful in terms of test
scores, yet in terms of later life outcomes including labour market success, GED recipients lag
far behind.

 Workforce Readiness: We face a growing abilities gap – the youth segment of our
population (15-34 years) is projected to peak at 484.86 million in 2030; this has important
implications for the labour market. Functional literacy does not translate into being work
ready, with nearly 75% of youth entering the workforce every year considered unemployable
or not job-ready.11 Job skill demands have undergone major changes over the last few
decades - tasks demanding routine manual input and routine cognitive input have declined
steadily between 1960 and 2000, while those requiring non-routine analytic and non-routine

6 ASER, Annual Status of Learning Report (2014).

7 Angela L. Duckworth and Martin E.P. Seligman, Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of
Adolescents (2005); Giorgio Brunello, Martin Schlotter, Non Cognitive Skills and Personality Traits: Labour Market
Relevance and their Development in Education and Training Systems (2011).
8 Camille Farrington et al, Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping

School Performance (University of Chicago, 2011).

9 Heckman, Stixrud and Urzua, The Effects of Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and

Social Behavior (2006); Christopher Jencks, Who Gets Ahead: The Determinants of Economic Success in America (1979).
10 Carneiro, Heckman and Vytlacil, Estimating Marginal Returns to Education (2010); Heckman and Rubinstein, The

Importance of Non-Cognitive Skills: Lessons from the GED Testing Programme (2001).
11 India Skills Report 2015

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interactive skills have grown significantly.12 Employment potential today depends upon not
only technical skills, but also the social ability to work effectively, and interpersonal,
cooperation, communication and creative skills.

 Adulthood Outcomes: Social and emotional competencies do not just raise academic
achievement and educational attainment, but have also demonstrated strong correlations
with personal satisfaction and growth, citizenship, and reduced risky behaviours like
violence and drug use.13 Literature on character skills makes it clear that such skills are a
vital determinant of future outcomes, not only in terms of employment. Such mindsets and
abilities have direct effects on crime, smoking, teenage pregnancy, and an individual’s
capacity to lead a responsible and productive life in society.

 Return on Investment: Predictive power of life skill development has been found to be
equivalent to or exceeding that of cognitive skills.14 Research has highlighted that
interventions focusing on social and emotional learning show measurable benefits that
exceed its costs, often by significant amounts. A recent evaluation of such interventions
found a positive return on investments for all with a return of eleven dollars on average, for
every dollar invested equally across six SEL interventions, a substantial economic gain.15

Addressing tangible learning outcomes is often seen as a greater need than investing in life
skills education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, there is a strong
evidence base demonstrating that cognitive skills and life skills are complementary in affecting
socio-economic outcomes, and that building character skills can be life-changing for children
from such backgrounds.16 It is evident that psycho-social competencies, such as resilience, self-
esteem and problem solving are vital in helping children move up and out of poverty.

12 R. Autor, F. Levy, R. Murnane, The Skill Content of Recent Technical Change: An Empirical Exploration (2003),
(updated by R. Murnane in 2010); Casner-Lotto and L. Barrington, Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’
Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce (2006).
13 Currie, Early Childhood Intervention Programmes: What Do We Know? (2001); Borghans et al. 2008; Bowles, Gintis,

and Osborne 2001a; Duckworth and Seligman 2005; 2006

14 Kautz, Heckman, Diris, Tir Weel, Borghans, Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-cognitive

Skills to Promote Lifetime Success, 2014.

15 Belfield et al., The Economic Value of Social and Emotional Learning (Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education,

Teachers College, Columbia University, 2015).

16 Flavio Cunha, James Heckman, Susanne Schennach, Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill

Formation (2010); Pramila Krishnan and Sofya Krutikova, Non-cognitive Skill Formation in Poor Neighbourhoods of
Urban India (2009).

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3. Life Skills Education Policies in India

An effective life skills approach is driven by multiple aspects:
 Programme content: Developing relevant information, attitudes, and skills
 Mechanisms: Implementing participatory teaching practices, modeling of skills and
reinforcement
 Teacher training: Building teacher’s belief the potential of life skills education and their
capacity to impart such skills
 Commitment: Advocating for the integration of life skills education in school curriculum

Table 2 below applies UNICEF’s framework for national life skills delivery, allowing us to
analyse the status of life skills education policy and practice in India.

Table 2: UNICEF analytical framework for national life skills delivery

Question How to Know What to do
Are life skills included in  Curriculum documents  Design curriculum emphasis with
the curriculum (formal, clearly articulate life life skills
informal)? skills
Is life skills education  Training of head  Integration with school
delivered as a whole- teachers environment and culture
school approach?  Combination of strategies (at a district level, if
classroom & extra- feasible)
curricular activities  Enhancing support and training for
 School based assessment head teachers
 Identifying and developing tools
for school-based assessments
Does the life-skills  Formative and  Support to the integration of life
programme/curriculum summative skills education into supervision
include relevant  Classroom and school- and inspection systems
assessment strategies? based  Support relevant forms of
assessment for knowledge
Is there publically  National data sets  Conduct a baseline
available data about the  Baseline data sets
relevant behaviours
(national/regional data)?
Are there criteria for  Identified qualities and  Work with partners to identify
selecting life skills professional needs and characteristics required and
teachers / facilitators? experience for life skills develop job descriptions where
education appropriate
Do teachers have  Systems for mentoring,  Support the integration of life
adequate support? supervision, etc. skills education into supervision
 In-service training and inspection systems
 School head teachers  Integrate life skills education into
have a role in support career structures and support
 In-service training systems
 School head teachers  Review the effectiveness of
have a role in support + existing in-service and pre-service

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systems for mentoring training provision against the

needs of life skills education
teachers
Are resources needed in  Schools have materials  Develop capacity of national
place? to teach life skills partners in life skills education
education material development
 Factual references  Support resource budgets for life
 Activity modules, etc. skills education
Does it address pre-  Any life skills education  Work with providers and pre-
service teacher in pre-service teacher service curriculum
education for all training
teachers?
Source: Indicative questions adapted from UNICEF, Global Evaluation of Life Skills Education Programmes (2012)

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 has emphasised on constructive learning
experiences, and on the development of an inquiry-based approach, work-related knowledge
and broader life skills. Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), in 2005, introduced life
skills education as an integral part of the curricula through Continuous and Comprehensive
Evaluation (CCE) for classes 6 to 10 and has developed life skills manuals for teachers teaching
classes 6, 7 and 8. These manuals provide teachers broad guidelines for each of the ten core life
skills identified by WHO. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) also has, under its agenda, life skills
training focusing on upper primary girls.
While there have been dispersed efforts around life skills17, focus on curriculum integration and
teacher development remains poor.18 Most of these efforts take a general approach to ‘life skills
information delivery’ (sometimes more as moral/values education) without a particular
context.

There are certain difficulties in successfully integrating life skills in Indian school education
without systemic reform:
 Moving life skills from the margins (i.e. extracurricular or as passive ‘values education’) to
the centre of schooling and creating multiple learning opportunities or reinforcement within
schools
 Introducing a learner-centric pedagogy, not solely reliant on rote learning or exam-based
assessment
 Building a school culture toward life-skills based education
 Improving the capacity and motivation of teachers to develop and integrate such life skills
into their classroom practice

Life skills education in schools clearly needs to take place in the context of broader education
system reforms. To be effective, life skills ultimately need to be age-aligned, and inculcated in
schools that are inclusive, with trained and motivated teachers who can employ participatory
and experiential teaching practices.

17 For example, in 2013, as part of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), UNFPA partnered with the MHRD
to launch teacher training videos for the integration of life skills education into the curriculum.
18 Teacher Education, Department of School Education and Literacy, MHRD India, “Non-Cognitive Areas of Learning”,

http://www.teindia.nic.in/mhrd/50yrsedu/r/2S/99/2S990601.htm (accessed June 16, 2015).

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Table 3: Current Status of Life Skills Education in India

Enabling Context/System Alignment Absent Emerging Established Advanced
(no or limited (on way to (acceptable
progress) meeting minimum
minimum standard)
standard)
Policies
(System-level documents that
provide guidelines for life skills education)
Curriculum
(Curricular modules designed and developed for
teacher, teacher educator, student use)

Learning/quality goals
(Mechanisms in place to ensure the quality of
life skills delivery)
Contextual evidence body
(Evidence base on impact of life skills education
interventions in Indian context)
Funding
(Funding allocated for life skills education
purposes)
Pre-service + in-service teacher training
(Provision of preparatory and on-going
professional development to teachers to ensure
that teachers develop skills and expertise in life
skills education)

Source: Adapted from World Bank’s SABER and UNICEF

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4. Mechanisms to build Life Skills

Various mediums have been employed to inculcate life skills or 21st century skills such as sport,
drama and fine arts, storytelling, experiential workshops, mentoring initiatives, interactive
classroom learning and discussion. There have been multiple innovations in the delivery of life
skills in recent times, through games and simulations, experiential activities, and technology.

Box 1: Examples
Global Stanford PERTS
Stanford University’s Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) has focused on mindset
interventions, with programmes targeting academic tenacity or growth mindsets and measuring how they affect
academic performance. In addition to developing resources and practices for educators and parents to foster
learning mindsets, PERTS has undertaken a study on online learning environments with Khan Academy to gauge
whether developing a growth mindset in children with fixed perceptions would help them perform better.

Global Socialdrome
In Singapore, researchers from National Institute of Education and Nanyang Technological University recently
developed a computer game to build students’ social problem-solving skills. The game, Socialdrome, targets 9-12
year olds and has been rolled out in some schools. Learning objectives include recognising and managing
emotions, co-operating with others, and handling difficult situations.

Global Studio Schools

A Studio School is a type of secondary school in the U.K. offering both academic and vocational qualifications,
created with the goal of actively equipping 14-19 year old students with skills needed to succeed in life and
work. 21st century skills are embedded throughout all school activities using the CREATE employability skills
framework.

In India and globally, many approaches to deliver life skills education have also been
incorporated within other skill development activities. A collaborative approach of this nature
can often secure greater buy-in from different stakeholders, from policy makers to funders, as it
may be viewed as producing more tangible outcomes. Some of these include:

 Life skills and employment: Life skills are imparted as part of training programmes
building secondary school students’ employability skills. Along with investing in technical
skills, such programmes address skills and mindsets such as taking responsibility,
adaptability, entrepreneurship, effective communication, decision-making, leadership and
teamwork. The aim is to equip children with technical knowledge as well as the soft skills
required to succeed in the workplace, thereby directly translating their education into a
source of livelihood. Examples in India include InOpen (life skills education as part of
computer literacy programmes), IGNIS Careers (English language learning), Medha (soft
skills for the workplace), and Lend A Hand India (vocational education).

 Life skills and values education: Existing policy in India, by a large measure, tends to focus
on inculcating such skills through values-based education. However, unless well
implemented, such approaches may be very prescriptive in nature and seen as an add-on to
existing syllabus pressure. Examples of schools that have integrated holistic development as
part of their pedagogy include the Don Bosco school network.

 Early childhood education: Early childhood interventions lay strong foundations for
children during the most critical development phase of their lives, i.e., from ages 3 to 6 years.
Such interventions explicitly target a wide range of cognitive, language, emotional and social

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skills, from communication, self-regulation, conflict resolution skills, etc. Examples include
Sesame Workshop India and Bodh.

 Life skills and child rights: Within India, there are several interventions that work on
building life skills as part of a larger programme of child rights and empowerment. Such
organisations address target mindsets and abilities such as self-awareness, leadership, and
social influence, through their broader goals of tackling gender disparity, violence, health,
etc. Examples in India include Educate Girls, Sanlaap, Ibtada and Shaishav.

 Higher order thinking skills: Many life skills programmes (of which a large number are for-
profit providers) are increasingly catering to imparting 21st century skills. Such programmes,
which have accelerated in light of increasing advocacy for a shift from rote learning, support
inquiry-based learning by building critical thinking and creative problem solving skills.
Examples in India include Creya and THOTS Labs.

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5. Intervention Models
Life skills programmes for children have adopted different intervention models as seen in figure
2. Such interventions may often move from an out-of-school approach to an approach integrated
into whole-school practice, though this path need not be linear.

Figure 2: Different Life Skills Intervention Models

5.1. Out-of-School Programmes

A majority of life skills intervention models provide students with hands-on, after-school
experiences focusing on social and emotional skill development. While this is distinct from
school learning, there are growing attempts to align such programmes with curriculum to
ensure that such skills are reinforced for children. A recent convening of life skills researchers
and educators by Bridgespan emphasised the potential in aligning such out-of-school efforts
with in-school initiatives to achieve effective learning at greater scale.19 These after-school
programmes may be school-linked or delivered informally by NGOs.

Pros Cons
 Provides for development of knowledge, skills  As the programme is distinct from what is
and attitudes beyond classroom walls taught in school, there may be a disconnect
in learning and a lack of reinforcement
 Learning experiences in such programmes
may be more multi-dimensional and also allow
for reinforcement of learning  Attrition in such programmes tends to be
high
 Facilitator quality and motivation typically
higher  Such programmes are often very hands-on
and resource-intensive, facing challenges in
 Class usually comprises of a diverse set of
scaling up
children in terms of background, experiences,
age

 Such programmes may also reach potentially

out-of-school children/youth

19 Lija Farnham, Gihani Fernando, Mike Perigo, & Colleen Brosman, with Paul Tough “Rethinking how Children
Succeed”, Stanford Social Innovation Review (February, 2015)
http://www.ssireview.org/up_for_debate/article/rethinking_how_students_succeed (accessed June 21, 2015).

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5.1.1. In-formal Programmes

The in-formal life skills model is characterised by programmes that are implemented by NGOs
within community settings. These typically adopt a variety of delivery mechanisms (such as
mentoring, theatre, sports, discussions), and are led by dedicated and trained facilitators.

5.1.2. School-linked Programmes

School-linked programmes are extra-curricular life skills activities that may be affiliated with
schools but not necessarily delivered in or by schools. Here children participating may be
reached through schools, and school resources and facilities are often used. Such programmes
are typically facilitated by somebody trained in content and delivery of such skills (e.g. peer
educators, guidance counsellors, social workers).

Box 2: Examples
Global WINGS For Kids
WINGS for Kids is an after-school programme in the U.S. imparting social and emotional learning skills to
K-6 students. Each session involves direct SEL instruction by facilitators, followed by reinforcement with
teachable moments. WINGS focuses on 30 SEL skills, which fall under the five core competencies of
CASEL: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision
making. The programme also attempts to link student’s in-school and out-of-school learning by
collaborating with school principals and teachers. WINGS also assesses students’ growth through a series
of behavioural assessment scales.

India Khel Planet

Khel Planet is an out-of-school programme focusing on life skills through play, i.e., through contextualised
games and activities. Incubated at Harvard Innovation Lab, the six core life skills sets targeted are
emotional skills, leadership skills, collaboration skills, creativity skills, cognitive skills, and social and civic
engagement skills. Workshops and products designed around these skill sets are currently being piloted in
low-income private schools in Lucknow and Mumbai.

5.2. Formal In-school Models

The formal model of teaching life skills is characterised by a school-based programme with an
explicit curriculum that is designed to be delivered as a stand-alone subject or integrated into a
core subject.

5.2.1. Stand-Alone Subject

In this curriculum model, life skills are taught as a separate scheduled subject in a week. Here,
content to be taught may be selected according to pre-determined objectives, as well as teaching
methods to meet the needs of learners and the capabilities of teachers. This is a model that has
been widely used in India, with time designated in the schedule for ‘life skills’ education and
may or may not be assessed.

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Pros Cons
 As a stand-alone subject as part of the  No reinforcement of skills/attitudes: May
curriculum, this is a systematic and result in an overly prescriptive attitude
transparent approach of teaching life skills towards the learning outcomes; i.e., more
towards ‘moral education’ rather than the
 Likely to have teachers who are focused on development of actual skills and abilities
the issues, and more likely to be specifically
trained (but not guaranteed);  The subject may be given very low priority
and not seen by teachers as important,
especially if teachers choose to focus only on
‘exam content’

 Requires additional time to be found in an

already overloaded curriculum

Box 3: Examples
Global Educate! Uganda
Educate! is a Uganda-based organisation working on building entrepreneurship abilities, critical thinking,
team work, citizenship in secondary school students, a year before students give their A-levels. The
programme aims to address the gap between what skills students possess and what skills they require in
a workplace or to have a livelihood. Youth entrepreneurs (alumni) facilitate workshops; the programme
consists of 80-minute sessions over the course of the 15 months. The course comprises of different
interactive activities and also includes a practical skill building component. Students are expected to form
small businesses, and the15-month programme ends with a business competition.

India Going To School

Going To School uses design-driven inspiring stories with relatable heroes to develop entrepreneurship
skills in children. GTS partners with state governments to train government school teachers in delivering
their content alongside the existing curriculum in class 9. Books are printed and distributed in the
schools, one book per child; 10 books are taught in each school year. Every Saturday, teachers conduct a
two-hour lesson, in which they read one skill book and play a skills game. Over the weekend, children
are instructed to create a skills action project in their community, based on the skill they learnt. GTS
collects the projects, grades and returns them to the schools; an online monitoring system is used to
track learning outcomes.

5.2.2. Curriculum-Integrated
An integrated approach infuses life skills across the curriculum or teaches specific skills and
abilities through subjects, such as science, civics, physical education. This approach blends
academic knowledge (e.g. geography) with life skills (e.g. problem-solving, negotiation,
advocacy), thereby allowing children to practically apply knowledge and develop abilities
necessary for real life.

This approach is, of course, far more aligned with the aims of life skills education, however in
terms of curriculum design and delivery it is challenging, especially in developing countries with
limited resources and professional capacity of teachers and school leaders. As an example, after

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years of promoting the integration of social and emotional learning and soft skills into core
subjects, UNICEF found that many teachers were still not using manuals in classrooms as they
were too complex for the average teacher to use.

Pros Cons
 A whole-school approach can be taken  Teachers may not have the capacity and
 High potential for reinforcement and actual know-how to integrate life skills into their
building of student abilities subject lesson plans
 Utilises school structures that are already in  Access all teachers, and influence all
place curriculum can be resource-intensive and
 Many teachers involved — even those not time consuming
normally involved in the issue  Some teachers may not see the relevance of
the issue to their subject
Source: UNICEF, Life Skills Implementation

Box 4: Examples
Global Character Lab
Founded by Angela Duckworth, Dominic Randolph and Dave Levin, Character Lab is a team of
researchers, designers and educators developing research-based character development activities (teaching
tools and practices) for teachers and schools. Character Lab aims to help teachers systematically integrate
such practices into their lesson plans and daily interactions with students. An example of this is the
Character Growth Card, which teachers can use to help students reflect on their own strengths and areas
for growth, and to have a formative, rather than summative, conversation with the student about areas
they can focus on. In India, Report Bee has recently collaborated with Character Lab to begin piloting the
Character Growth Card in some schools in Chennai.

India The Akanksha Foundation

The Akanksha Foundation has focused on life skills (including self-esteem, sense of agency, aspirations)
integrated into core curriculum subjects and by supporting teachers and school leaders across their 15
schools in Mumbai and Pune. Akanksha works to support teachers and school leaders in making the
teaching of such skills into daily practice. The aim is to ensure the integration of such skills in school
environment, class culture, teacher practice and curriculum. Akanksha has also initiated a Service Learning
Programme (SLP) to empower students to develop leadership skills and understand how they can
contribute to the community they live in.

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6. Teacher Development
The efficacy of a life skills intervention is heavily driven by the capabilities and attitudes of the
teacher implementing it. Ensuring adequate training for teachers and other educators is,
therefore, a key factor contributing to the effectiveness of life skills education.

Certain factors must be considered in the design of training programmes that help teachers
incorporate soft skills into practice. Such capacity-building should explicitly provide
opportunities for teachers to self-assess their own attitudes, values, and life skills proficiency,
which strongly influence how they teach such skills to children. Teacher development has to
allow for the practice and internalisation of these skills, without which there will be a natural
tendency to fall back upon familiar information-delivery teaching methods. In addition to
content knowledge, training must help build confidence and allow teachers to become more
comfortable with life skills and build better relationships with their students.

Given several challenges in our education system, it is still worth noting that teachers may be
trained faster than systems can be reformed. A trained teacher can still play a positive role and
embed soft skills into their daily teaching practice, particularly when education systems are
weak. Addressing teacher capacity can involve the development of life skills courses or modules
in pre-service teacher training, on-going and sustained block- or district-level in-service support
systems, and teacher self-assessment tools.

Box 5: Examples
Global UChicago 8/9 Teacher Network
In 2015, a paper published by Camille Farrington at the University of Chicago highlighted the significance of
noncognitive factors and the role of mindsets, perseverance, social skills and learning strategies in academic
performance. The 8/9 Teacher Network (89TN) was a consequential ‘research/practice project’ to
support a number of public school teachers apply the findings and strategies from the paper into their
teaching, thereby creating replicable professional development model to help teachers teach students how
to become effective learners. 89TN focused on building teachers' mindsets and sense of self-efficacy, and
incorporating such practices into their teaching.

India Dream a Dream

Dream a Dream’s Teacher Development Programme has evolved from its life skills intervention with
children through the organisation’s own staff and volunteers. Aiming to reach a larger number of children,
the programme aims to train a wide range of teachers and community workers to facilitate the
development of life skills among children in their own schools. The approach has been adapted from the
Creative Community Model developed by Partners for Youth Empowerment (PYE Global). Today, the
Dream Teacher Development Programme is delivered through a series of four life skills facilitation
workshops spread over half a year, and uses experiential methods and play to develop various skills in
teachers, such as expanding their own creativity, listening and validation skills, and learning tools to
meaningfully engage children.

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7. Measuring Life Skills

While programmes targeting life skills have evolved significantly in India, such skills remain
abstract and difficult to measure. The measurement of outcomes from life skills programmes
may be seen as three-fold:
 Measurement of immediate-term outcomes: Understanding the immediate benefit of an
intervention, perhaps occurring while the intervention is taking place, on students’
behaviour, mindsets and abilities, typically through a self-report questionnaire or sometimes
through observational tools used by facilitators.
 Measurement of short-term outcomes: Understanding the short-term outcomes of an
intervention, which may occur post the intervention but while children are still in school.
Examples of these include behavioural measures as well as academic performance, school
dropouts.
 Measurement of long-term adulthood outcomes: Understanding the impact of a life skills
intervention on students’ longer-term life outcomes. These may include educational
attainment through school and college, earnings, juvenile crime rate, other risk behaviours
such as smoking, etc.

Given that momentum among life skills practitioners is still building, the measurement of
immediate-term outcomes from such programmes should be a key area of focus. Knowledge of
measuring these skills, however, is still under-developed, and approaches are characterised by a
lack of consistency and comparability.

Life skills measurement tools typically include three broad categories:

 Self-Rating Scales: These are the most commonly used means of tracking progress, with
students self-reporting on a range of their behavioural characteristics and attitudes. For
instance, in the well-established Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the statements refer to one’s
beliefs about being able to influence outcomes, cope with stress, and attain goals as well as
pride in oneself, one’s achievements and background; the responses indicate the degree of
agreement with the statements. Other scales employed for the assessment of specific
mindsets and abilities include Rotter’s Locus of Control Questionnaire, Cantril’s Self-
Anchoring Scale. Labour market research relies has heavily on the Rosenberg and Rotter
scales.20 A clear limitation, however, is that these are subject to social desirability bias (i.e.
the potential for students to fake or exaggerate answers) and even memory recall
limitations.21 This issue could become more significant if measures of students’ non-
academic ability are incorporated into teacher and school accountability and evaluation
systems.

 Teacher Rating Reports: Here, the teacher or facilitators rate students on target skills,
competencies and attitudes based on observations during the programme. For instance,
Dream a Dream has developed a simple observational tool with the support of clinical
psychologists to allow facilitators to measure development of five critical life skills
(interaction, problem solving, taking initiative, managing conflict, understanding and
following instructions) on a Likert scale. While these may also be cheap and easy to

20 BC, Columbia
21 Martin R. West, The Limitations of Self-Report Measures of Non-Cognitive Skills (2014).

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administer, they also involve the possibility that the way teachers rate may be confounded by
student-specific factors such as demographic characteristics.22

 Behavioural Measure Activities: These are research-based experiential activities designed

to gauge students’ target skills. While behavioural tasks may be slower and more resource-
intensive to administer, they are often relatively more reliable and unbiased than teacher
ratings or self-rating scales particularly when students are unwilling or unable to accurately
report or rate some things. For instance, a typical measure of perseverance is an unsolvable
anagram measure. There are similar examples of simulated activities designed for delayed
gratification (Delayed Payment Choice Task23) and diligence (Academic Diligence Task24).

Another major factor to consider, in addition to the limitations outlined above, is reference bias,
i.e. respondents (e.g., a teacher rating a student, a student rating self) will compare the target
rating to some implicit standard, and standards may vary from respondent to respondent. For
instance, two students answering the statement “I think of myself as a hard worker” may have
different standards of hard work. An interesting example is recent research that found students
in ‘no-excuses’ charter schools in the United States rating themselves lower on diligence, grit
and self-control, compared students in public schools. 25 This was attributed to reference bias
from differences in school climate between district and charter schools as perceived by the
students.

Moving forward, more research is clearly needed to develop and test new measures of life skills
ability so that practitioners can access an entire toolbox of measures.26 Furthermore, outcomes
from life skills interventions are rarely measured consistently or in a comparable manner, with
variation in how many domains are measured and what scales are used for measurement.
Evaluation designs and measurements (if and when implemented) are also, very often, not of
consistent quality. The challenge is to assess skills that are important to and for children, in a
way is as authentic as possible.

22 Ronald Ehrenberg et al, Do Teachers’ Race, Gender, and Ethnicity matter? Evidence from the National Education
Longitudinal Study of 1988 (1995); Amine Ouazad, Assessed by a Teacher Like Me: Race and Teacher Assessments
(2014).
23 Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999; Vohs et al., 2008

24 Galla, Plummer, White, Mello, Meketer, Duckworth, The Academic Diligence Task (ADT): Assessing Individual

Differences in Effort on Tedious but Important Schoolwork (2014).

25 Martin R. West, The Limitations of Self-Report Measures of Non-cognitive Skills (December, 2014).

26 Patrick C. Kyllonen, The Case for Non-Cognitive Assessments (ETS, 2005).

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Box 6: Examples
Global Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
In order to inform policy and practice around social and emotional learning in the U.S., CASEL has
developed a systematic framework used for identifying and evaluating the quality of classroom-based social
and emotional learning interventions. CASEL reviews SEL programs annually to identify effective SEL
programs that promote student self-awareness, self-control, social awareness, relationship building, and
problem solving. The criteria for the review are that the programs: are well-designed and classroom based;
must provide repeated opportunities for students to practice new skills and behaviors; must offer training
and implementation support; must be evidence-based. These indicators have been widely used to inform
educators and policymakers on how to select and implement life skills programmes, with CASEL
advocating for every state to develop and implement high-quality standards for SEL, preschool through high
school.

India The Teacher Foundation

While CBSE has identified core life skills as a part of CCE and has produced life skills manuals, there are no
learning standards for social and emotional development nor are teachers equipped to teach for such
standards. The Teacher Foundation (TTF) is currently undertaking a 2.5 year study to understand the
status of social and emotional learning in Indian schools and its global prevalence. The study looks to
ultimately design and develop age-appropriate SEL standards for children in the area of social and
emotional learning, define performance indicators for each of these skills, and help establish a framework
to enable teachers to assess outcomes against pre-defined standards.

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8. Challenges

 Definition and understanding of life skills: A more effective approach towards life skills
first requires understanding and articulating them better. Life skills, as a concept, can be
broad and multifaceted, and life skills initiatives can therefore include a wide range of goals,
content and approaches. Life skills, as defined by WHO, are “innumerable, and the nature and
definition of life skills are likely to differ across cultures and settings”. This broad definition
is, however, insufficient for practical applications or for effective policy-making.

To our knowledge, a list of life skills that is age-level appropriate and practically applicable
has not been developed. This ambiguity hinders the both the effective design of life skills
interventions, and the development of metrics to measure them. It is challenging for a life
skills intervention to identify which skills to target, which age group to target and which
activities/delivery models might be optimal.

 Limited life skills evidence in developing countries’ context: While there is plenty of
evidence on the effectiveness of interventions aiming to improve school-based academic
skills, there is much less documentation and research on sustained life skills interventions,
especially in India and other developing countries.

 Evaluation of impact: The assessment of life skills remains a huge challenge. Even globally,
there is little clear guidance as to if and how life skills assessments can be integrated
systematically into national assessment systems (including school-based assessments), in
line with the increasing integration of life skills education into national curriculum
frameworks and education systems. This absence of a common language to gauge success
makes it difficult to develop applicable classroom life skills practices, attract funders, and
understand which interventions are relatively more effective.

 Prescriptive approach: Life skills education in India is often confused with values
education. Most schools have values education as part of the curriculum, being one of the
requirements of the NCF. This approach, however, is typically very prescriptive and
information-driven instead of practical building of targeted skills, attitudes and knowledge in
children.

 Teacher mindset and professional development: Given the traditional approach to

teaching and learning in the country, the pedagogy required for effective life skills education
(integrated into regular curriculum) is difficult for individual teachers to develop and apply
in their practice. In the teaching of life skills, there is a risk that teachers in the country are
inadequately equipped in their own knowledge, attitudes and skills to teach effectively and
with confidence. Today, teacher training does not place adequate emphasis on non-academic
factors, and supportive professional development opportunities are limited.27 A clearer and
more focused pedagogical framework for life skills can therefore be the starting point, with

27Lija Farnham, Gihani Fernando, Mike Perigo, & Colleen Brosman, with Paul Tough “Rethinking how Children
Succeed”, Stanford Social Innovation Review (February, 2015)
http://www.ssireview.org/up_for_debate/article/rethinking_how_students_succeed (accessed June 21, 2015).

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clarity about which skills should be taught as life skills, why these skills are chosen, and how
they should be taught.28

 Scale and quality dilution: Given the importance of the teacher or facilitator in any effective
life skills education intervention, any attempt to scale such a programme can result in a
dilution of quality in the absence of effectively trained teachers. Moreover, most life skills
models we have analysed in India are very hands-on and resource-intensive (e.g. with
mentors and in group sizes of around 25 children for activities and games) and typically
reach smaller numbers of children. Effectively taking such models to more children will
prove challenging.

28 Robin Alexander, Education For All, the Quality Imperative and the Problem of Pedagogy (2008).

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9. Potential Opportunities

 Identifying and funding innovations: With life skills education in India gaining traction,
numerous entrepreneurs are innovating and developing their own approaches to life skills
delivery. This provides funders an opportunity to understand development of an effective life
skills approach and how it can potentially mature and scale-up from an informal after-school
programme to school-linked out-of-school programme, to a formal in-school model and
teacher training.

 Promote development of an evidence base for life skills education in India: Evidence on
the effectiveness of life skills approaches in India and their future impact is minimal. A few
studies in India include evaluations undertaken of Going To School, The Akanksha
Foundation, Dream a Dream and Expressions India programmes. Further research is needed
to build the case for life skills education and teacher training in the country.

 Convene entrepreneurs and practitioners: Bringing together innovators, researchers and

policy-makers can help develop a common language and discuss best practices with respect
to intervention models, delivery mechanisms (such as technology-enabled delivery), etc. For
example, stakeholders can work towards defining a more focused pedagogical framework for
life skills, with clarity about which skills should be taught as life skills, why these skills are
chosen, and how they should be taught.

 Promote research on the measurement of life skills: There is a lack of consensus on

common metrics used to evaluate life skills. Outcomes from such interventions, if at all
measured, are rarely measured consistently or in a comparable manner. A sharper definition
of life skills and the use of more reliable assessment tools to measure such skills would help
inform policy and practice in India.

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Annexure
CASEL Guide for Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs29
 Grade-by-grade sequence: Every student should receive planned, on-going, systematic SEL
education every year from preschool through elementary school.
 Average number of sessions per year: Programs vary in terms of the amount of class time
they provide or require, ranging from 8 to 140 sessions annually. Some programs do not
have a defined set of lessons, and instead enhance teacher practices and methods generally.
For those approaches, number of sessions or length is not applicable, since the program is
designed to change the overall climate and culture through on-going classroom instruction.
These programs receive a “not applicable” (n/a) rating for this element.
 Classroom approaches to teaching SEL
 Explicit Skills Instruction: Some programs provide explicit lesson plans with content
and instruction designed specifically to promote social and emotional skills. A program
was considered an “explicit skills instruction” approach when it contained lesson plans
and when coders could identify specific examples of where and how social and emotional
competencies were explicitly taught
 Integration with Academic Curriculum Areas: A program was considered “integrating
with academics” when it had lessons that covered core academic content while also
developing social and emotional competencies. For these, the core academic subject area
is noted.
 Teacher Instructional Practices: A program was considered to promote “teacher
instructional practices” when it focused primarily on creating a positive classroom
experience through pedagogical methods or classroom routines. These practices (e.g.,
authentic praise, involving students in decision making) support positive relationships
among teachers and students and foster conditions for learning.
 Opportunities to Practice Social and Emotional Skills: Practice beyond the program
lessons includes applications of social and emotional skills to real-life situations, such as
using self-calming or problem-solving skills during classroom or playground conflicts.
 Contexts that Promote and Reinforce SEL
 Classroom-wide: Examples of practices that extend program concepts beyond the
lessons include morning meetings, peace centres, and daily check-ins. These routines
support SEL throughout the day in the classroom, particularly for those programs that
contain explicit lessons conducted only at specific times in the day. Examples of practices
that extend program concepts
 School-wide: Examples of school-wide practices include creating a process that promotes
collaboration among and between different classrooms, grade levels, or through engaging
nonteaching personnel in activities to promote students’ social and emotional
competencies throughout the day.
 Family: A program received credit for extending into the family if it provided routine
“homework” assignments to be completed with family members, offered SEL workshops
with training for parents about social and emotional learning, or other activities designed
to involve families

29The CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs, http://www.casel.org/library/2013-casel-
guide (accessed July 2, 2015).

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 Community: A program received credit for promoting SEL in the community if it

provided opportunities for personal contacts, ongoing relationships, or interactive
involvement of students and community members.
 Assessment Tools for Monitoring Implementation: Programs sometimes offer tools to
monitor implementation, either through teacher self-report measures or assessments
completed by observers. There may also be tools that can be used to assess the program’s
impact on student behaviour.

UNICEF Quality Standards for Life Skills Education

Quality Standards for Life Skills Education
Standard 1: Life skills education is needs-based (that is, child-centred)
Outcomes
Standard 2: Life skills learning is results-based
Assessment
Standard 3: Life skills learning is knowledge, attitudes and skills-based
Activities
Standard 4: Teachers are trained on methods and psychosocial support
Teaching
Standard 5: Life skills education is provided in protective and enabling
Learning environments with access to community services
Environment

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April 2016
www.centralsquarefoundation.org
Contact us: [email protected] 25
April 2016
www.centralsquarefoundation.org
Contact us: [email protected]