Youth skills in focus – tackling poverty in India through social and emotional learning

Life Skills Collaborative (India)
By Nita Aggarwal, Programme Manager, Porticus  

 

Doctor. Lawyer. Engineer.

Professional titles such as these have been status symbols and pinnacles of success for generations in Indian society. But these traditional labels are shifting as young people want to define success on their own terms and not be confined by societal expectations and norms.

“A life where I don’t have to compromise anything that’s important to me. Be it work, family, friends, hobbies and passions. I don’t need to be ‘the best’ in my career because that alone does not define me. There are so many components that make me who I am.’’ This is Vishruth’s definition of success. In a recent ‘life skills and learners’ conversation with high school students hosted by Life Skills Collaborative in India, he acknowledged that although he aspires to be a scientist, this alone will not define his success.

By focusing on the whole child, we can change the narrative. We can set a new trajectory where they can thrive, despite the odds, and in turn help their communities and wider society.

This is why we partner with Life Skills Collaborative in India to build Whole Child Development (WCD) through social and emotional learning to build future generations. Their goal is to transform learning. They want to achieve this through life skills in public education systems for young people aged 11-18 in schools across the country. The goal is to increase their chances of success in life and create a better future for all. The Collaborative was founded in 2020 to tackle the challenge of integrating life skills into mainstream education.

We have the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in young people’s lives. To build future generations where people can flourish. We see social and emotional learning as the conduit of this, and believe that it should be a core part of educational curricula – in tandem with the hard skills we have traditionally been taught. We believe integrating socio-emotional learning holds the key to this.

But in a country deemed by the 2022 World Inequality Report as one of the most unequal, there are challenges.

There is currently no consistent understanding of WCD and how social and emotional learning can be applied in local settings in India. Frameworks can’t simply be exported from one part of the world to another. Global models lack local context. This issue is compounded by a shortage of reliable and relevant mechanisms for assessing existing WCD programmes. Generating conclusive evidence of local impact is therefore difficult. This is why collaboration and partnerships are so important, and why we are a Life Skills Collaborative partner. Our partnership forms part of our strategy to enable changemakers to create societies and systems that work for everyone.

Life skills, including socio-emotional skills, ‘21st century’ and foundational skills, are gaining momentum as political will increases. The Indian government is starting to prioritise WCD in the National Education Policy and state governments are looking to implement life skills programmes locally.

This enables the Indian education system to deliver high quality social and emotional learning, and other life skills through an integrated WCD approach. Importantly, the approach will not be one size fits all. Curricula will be customised to reflect each state’s contexts and emerging socio-economic trends.

Current investment into systemic implementation across selected Indian states are siloed. We want to bring the various stakeholders together to work towards our common goals. Which is why we are advocating for NGOs to collaborate, share learnings and best practice to ensure we can have a lasting impact in achieving our shared vision.

* Source: UNICEF Report “Adolescence - an age of opportunity” – 2011