Life Skills-Based Education for Girls

The new academic year has come with the scent of a freshly minted program. The Life Skills based Education (LSBE) program is ready and rolled out in various classes at our public schools starting this academic year.

After careful planning and preparations, the newly curated LSBE Curriculum has been implemented at Grades 1 and 2. While it is currently being piloted at the remaining grades form 3-8.

Zindagi Trust takes pride in the recently developed comprehensive curriculum. This curriculum has come about after a comparative analysis between the LSBE curriculums of some south Asian countries such as Bhutan, India, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The new curriculum plans to broaden the scope of the program at our schools and provide more practical implications of the life skills taught.

Zindagi Trust has been committed to LSBE since 2010. The need for revising the coursework comes with the changing needs of the times our students live in. In order to revamp our pedagogical approach, in-depth diagnostic evaluations were conducted at both schools. These evaluation were two part, acquiring qualitative and quantitative data via focus group discussions and surveys with the students. Through this process, we were able to gauge the existing LSBE knowledge of our students, understand implementation, relevance and need of the curriculum. This bought forth our new holistic Life skills based curriculum aimed to prepare dynamic individuals for modern day challenges by providing them with the tools they need to navigate complex environments and achieve their goals.

Our Life Skills Based Education focuses on 6 key themes. These include;

1. Knowing Myself and Personal Development

2. Life and Livelihood

3. Emotional Wellbeing

4. Physical Wellbeing

5. Digital Literacy

6. Civic Understanding

This curriculum is based on key takeaways from the national curriculum template provided by the Government of Pakistan. Our LSBE coursework is centred on a user friendly approach that engages the students in classroom methodologies, assessments and the teachers during their trainings. We also value an interdisciplinary approach while teaching the subject. Students learn best by connecting knowledge and skills from various subject areas which allows them to bridge the gaps between different disciplines. This interconnectedness of different topics also helps them to understand how they relate to real-life situations.

The classes remain lively and fun, as our well trained teachers integrate various activities into their lessons. The students have often labelled their LSBE lessons as engaging and interactive classes. Some of the classroom activities teaches have been using with students in Grade 1 and 2 are storytelling, art and creativity, role-playing, interactive games, journaling and reflection, guided discovery learning, story sequencing, show and tell, nature explorations, group storytelling and playwriting. This ensures student learning in a friendly and appealing environment; giving them lessons that are sure to last a lifetime.

Right To Play, an international non-profit organization, collaborated with Zindagi Trust to teach LSBE via play based learning. They have conducted exciting activities and sport festivals at our schools these past months. In October they conducted a sports event at Girls Public School, SMB Fatima Jinnah, dedicated to empowering students by competitive games. 280 students participated in different fun physical activities like relay race, singing, lemon race, tug of war. It helped in boasting confidence, courage and providing emotional awareness, coping skills and sportsmanship.  

Our strategy for LSBE focuses on teacher development and growth as well. The teachers dedicated to LSBE at both public schools have scheduled check-ins with the LSBE team on a weekly basis. We ensure full support is available to our educators as they embark on this new journey with our students. The LSBE teachers undergo regular checks throughout the academic year called observation cycles. These evaluations, done by LSBE lead, involve class management, content mastery and planning and mode of instruction.

In the upcoming months we aim to work on further collaborations to provide students with more practical experience. We would launch a full scale evaluation of the pilot currently in progress from grade 3-8 and further work or procuring and compiling relevant grade wise workbooks for our students. LSBE allows Zindagi Trust to empower young girls through their holistic personality development. We hope to equip students to effectively deal with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Zindagi Trust remains resolute to strengthen Life skills based Education for our students. Here’s hoping your support remains for the many great things yet to come for this program.