In accordance with the National Education Policy 2020, which emphasises the importance of life skill education as an essential component of the school curriculum, the School Education Department is implementing ‘Sankalpam’, a project to develop core life skills in students in government schools.
The initiative is being implemented in 1,300 schools in the State (50 per district), covering students from Classes 6 to 8.
The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) of the Department of School Education is implementing the project in collaboration with the NGO Magic Bus India Foundation. Over the next two years, the department intends to expand the initiative to cover all government schools, ultimately reaching 1.3 million adolescents.
The Magic Bus India Foundation has trained 130 master trainers to facilitate the smooth implementation of the project. These master trainers comprise the State Resource Group (SRGs). They include 26 faculty members from the SCERT, 52 DIET faculties and 52 Physical Education Teachers (PETs) from 26 districts.
The SRGs have trained 2,600 teachers (District Resource Groups), who also serve as the District Monitoring Team to oversee the project implementation.
“The skills we are imparting are crucial for holistic development and overall well-being of the students,” said Commissioner, School Education, S. Suresh Kumar.
Speaking to The Hindu, he said the project is being implemented in phases. “In the first phase, 1,011 schools across 26 districts were covered. Of them, 1,001 schools have completed 14 sessions,” he said.
In the second phase, the department reached out to children in 289 schools in December 2023, and as of now, all these schools have completed six sessions, informed Mr. Suresh Kumar. He said the trained teachers and the DRGs are mentoring the children in their adolescence to help them apply these activity-based life skills to enhance their living standards. “The idea is to enable them to take charge of their lives,” he added.
