Attitude of Teachers towards the Need for Developing Life Skills among Secondary School Students

Abstract

The term, “Life Skills” refers to a group of interpersonal skills, which can help an individual to make important decisions in life. Beyond reading, writing and arithmetic, a child needs to develop a broad set of competencies - cognitive, social and practical skills to face the challenges of the competitive world confidently.  Life skills are the abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified a core set of life skills such as Self-awareness, Empathy, Problem solving, Decision making, Goal setting, Critical thinking, Creative thinking, Effective communication, Assertiveness, Coping with stress and emotions. These skills are pivotal to lead a healthy and peaceful life. They help people develop the right attitude to think smartly, act wisely and live consciously.  As teachers are the key functionaries of the educational process, there is an urgent need to develop in them a positive attitude and right perceptions towards life skills education. They are required to develop necessary competencies in developing life skills among their students.  The present study is an attempt to explore the attitude of teachers towards developing 21^st century life skills among secondary school students.  The present study used Descriptive survey method of research. The investigator used a well prepared and standardized questionnaire with 40 items as the tool for collection of data from a sample of 500 teachers (80 Headmasters and 420 School Assistants) working in 80 selected secondary schools located in the rural as well as urban areas in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh using Stratified Random Sampling method.  Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis of data. The findings of the study revealed that Gender, Marital status, Age, Designation, Experience, Type of school management have no influence on the attitude of teachers towards developing life skills among secondary school students.  However, teachers’ professional qualifications and location of the school have a significant positive influence on their attitude. The study suggested that in-service training should be provided for school teachers on life skills education.