Life skill education- challenges of teachers

Life skill education- challenges of teachers

Everywhere, Education is seen as the main way of enabling individuals andnations alike to meet the ever increasing economic, technological, social and personalchallenges. We expect education to prepare young people for the world of work and foreconomic independence; to enable them to live constructively in responsiblecommunities; and to enable them to live in a tolerant, culturally diverse and rapidlychanging society. Perhaps above all, we expect education to help young people tobuild lives that have meaning and purpose in a future we can scarcely predict.

Between November 2010 and October 2011 the UNICEF Evaluation Department commissioned Education for Change Ltd to conduct a Global Evaluation of Life Skills Education. UNICEF has had a significant role in Life Skills Education (LSE) development and initiatives at both national and international levels.  over the past two decades  LSE has come to be seen as integral to preparing young people to negotiate and mediate everyday challenges and risks and enable productive participation in society.

Teachers play an extremely important role as facilitators of learning; they are important actors in the environments of young learners, as role models and to encourage and empower students. Teachers of LSE must therefore be equipped with (or able to develop) and demonstrate the same range of life skills as their students are intended to learn, be able to withhold judgement and listen to different opinions, gain the trust of their students so that they feel comfortable expressing themselves and know that what they discuss remains confidential. Teachers should also continue to re-examine their own attitudes and values, developing an awareness and objectivity of life issues in their socio-cultural contexts. Empathy with children, classroom management for collaborative learning, and understanding of children’s psychology and development are all personal and professional attributes which are difficult to develop through existing systems of teacher selection and training.

Concept of Life  Skills Education

Life skills mean those essential skills developed through a higher order thinking, that

enable a person to perform effectively in his or her life, and thus become a socially

acceptable and successful person.

Life skills include psychosocial competencies and interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build healthy relationships, empathize with others, and cope with managing their lives in a healthy and productive manner.

Role of Teachers inculcating Life Skills Education

§Promote a conducive learner empowering environment.

§Recognize individuals as unique and yet social beings.

§Relate strengths and weaknesses to self-awareness.

§Encourage social cohesion by engaging students from different tribes / clans to mix in class.

§Relate life skills to learner’s familiar life experiences.

§Avoid too much knowledge and be more practical.

§Encourage small group discussions – free space for their voices.

§Use learner discussion stimulation – debates, talk shows.

§Encourage story telling, poetry and drama.

Challenges face by the Teachers in Life Skills Education.

1.Huge Syllabus of School Curriculum: Curriculum of school is too lengthy.Different activities are  included in  school curriculum.students are interested to participate in respective activities. Expectation of parents is high. Syllabus of to be complete is vast. Each and every subjects are important to study.Soto full fill the curriculum as well as completing the syllabus with life skills education is challenging for teachers.

2.Classroom Management:Classroommanagement is closely linked to issues of motivation, discipline and respect. Methodologies remain a matter of passionate debate amongst teachers; approaches vary depending on the beliefs a teacher holds regarding educational psychology. A large part of traditional classroom management involves behavior modification, although many teachers see using behavioral approaches alone as overly simplistic. Many teachers establish rules and procedures at the beginning of the school yearClassroom management is a challenging part of teachers job..most of students are  not familiar with life skills education.They do not want to listen more about behaviour, discipline & moral value. So to impart  the life skills education among the students are very difficult for teachers.

3.High Expectation of Society:Level of the students are different in the school .their interest are not similar but expectation of parents are mostly common.Parents can not differenciatesbetween level of children. They did not think about the interest of their children they just want to keep their views only.So co-ordinatingparents & students ideas an oppinnionare challenging as well as a source of pressure for the teacher.

4.Challenging with Differently abled Children: As per rule of governmentdifferently abled children can study with normal children.Different mechanism to provide life skills education to same teacher to handle all types of students will be a tough job.So adjustment of different categories of students  is challenging of teachers.

5.Lack of incentives –As we know that money is important part to run the better life. Proper salary and other facilities are not provided by Government. So social life of teacher is very difficult.Now a days, Teachers have lot of pressure in their life.

6.Poor management of Government schools.-Management is important factor to run a better school.Lack of proper infrastructure inSpecially Government’s school.Proper management and co-ordination is not there.

7.Lack of proper training -  All over  development of students are required to organize the proper workshop, seminar etc. All these are lack part in government’s school, college and other educational institute.

8. Develop the Major Skills and sub skills- The students develop different majorskills likeCommunication skills, information gathering skills, critical thinking, creativity and empathy. Sub skills are effective speaking, active listening, observation, understanding body language, giving and receiving feedback, assertion skills, emotional control, self awareness, analysis, synthesis, challenging facts, assessing information and consequences of actions, awareness about one’s strengths and weaknesses, developing cause and effect relationship, anti-stereotyping, imagination, positive thinking skills, conflict management skills, managing peer pressure, tolerance, identification of, and acting on rights, justice and responsibilities, generating alternatives, asking questions, reading, memory.All major skills and sub skills are to be develop  in children is already lengthy.So to develop all these skills major skills and sub skills with life skills education are challenging for teachers.

Conclusions

Life skills education has become an amorphous concept that suffers not having a clear, shared understanding of what it entails and how it should be delivered or assessed. Part of this is to do with the difficulties inherent in the behavioural change and psycho-social skills that lie at the core of the LSE concept. However, much more work is required to develop understandings of what LSE involves, ensuring that wider psycho-social skills are not lost within content-specific approaches, and including clearer articulation of learning outcomes and intended impacts for LSE.

Many of the challenges facing LSE replicate those in the education sector as a whole, particularly around resource constraints in the delivery of participatory and child-centred learning methodologies which have become intricately linked to the development of psycho-social skills. Planning for LSE needs to assess and acknowledge these constraints, and set realistic, sustainable objectives; LSE cannot be an island of practice within the school and as such needs to be considered integral to a whole school approach to children’s development. Maximising linkages with other education initiatives (CFS, whole school approaches and quality reforms) will help to meet this challenge.

More focus is required on teachers as a central element of the process: teachers have the power to significantly strengthen or undermine LSE content, delivery and the environment that can constrain or support students’ attempts to convert knowledge and skills into attitudes and  behaviours. where there are systemic shortcomings in teacher management, qualification and professionalism, LSE is making huge demands. The selection, preparation and deployment of suitable teachers is a challenge for all systems, but the impact on LSE, which seeks to establish new teaching paradigms around new (often sensitive) content, is particularly acute and risks the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of LSE interventions if left unaddressed.

Being a teacher we face lot of challenges  when teach to children about developing the skills in .We know that when challenge comes pressure increases a lot on teachers.So as a teacherwe have to face all types of challenges with pressure and finally reach to the goal.