LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION: NEEDS AND STRATEGIES

The education, today, needs to enable a child to deal effectively with the environment, make maximum use of resources, discern available opportunities and face the challenges of society. To enable these behavioural transformations in the child, the system needs to enrich the school curriculum with a highly researched and effective life skills training programme. Life skills are essentially those abilities that help promoting mental well being and competence in young people as they face the realities of life. Life skills education is an effective tool for empowering the youth to act responsibly, take initiative and control over stress and emotions. It is based on the assumption that when young people are able to rise above emotional impasses arising from daily conflicts, entangled relationships and peer pressure, they are less likely to resort to anti social or high risk behaviours such as alcoholism, drug abuse and casual relationships.. In this paper the the need of life skill education has been discussed and some activities are suggested to to develop the life skills among students.