Life skills are vital for a better life

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself" –This remark of George Bernard Shaw highlights the importance of education. At present, education is nothing but book-snatched concepts and reproducing the same in exams for grades. The explosion of technology made this world as digitalised, technology-driven and an inconceivable change has taken place in the arena of education. The present education system is preparing the pupils for their course and for careers but not for life. To live their life without any difficulty they are in need of life skills. The life skills make them more professional with the support of academic excellence to solve the problems and to make good decisions. These skills encourage the individuals to apply the acquired knowledge to the real-life situations and to sail through. Further, the individuals that are produced by the present educational system are lacking many skills that make them more fit to survive in the society. Though, they have academic excellence they are maintaining stained relations because the learned education hasn't instilled such skills that will promote interpersonal relationships.

World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined life skills as "the abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life". It is very disgusting to notice that the lower organisms are living decently by adapting themselves with their changing environ than bipedal. The acquisition of life skills makes man flexible in approach and able to adjust with his surroundings. They will make individuals more positive in difficult situations. The student tribe is procuring only information through the education and not adaptability. The post-independence era of education has made our student tribe a mile away from our indigenous professions and debased our rural economy "God left the world unfinished for a man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud. The oil still in the earth.

How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven"-This remark of George McDonald significantly insists that man has to skillfully lead his life than depending the unknown source by leaving the known, visible and exploitable resource. So, it is the responsibility of the education system to supply the life skills through the curricular and extracurricular activities. An individual after the possession of these life skills leads a harmonious interpersonal relationship with psycho societal behavior.

That individual takes well-informed decisions, solve problems, critically analyze the pros and cons of an act, will have creativity, communicate effectively, Build healthy relationships, empathize with others and lead a fruitful living. The current education system has miserably failed to instill all these skills and making the people more rigid than flexible. For instance, a motorcycle rider was killed in Delhi by educated youngsters for questioning about their rash and speed driving. This incident reflects a lack of components of societal behavior. The education should have to bring the behavioral changes that will help the individual to cope with. It is very well said saying that "Even Niagara-falls wouldn't generate power unless it were harnessed"-So life skills are quite necessary for an individual.

BY E Gajendra Nath Reddy