Invest in Training of Teachers on Pedagogical Practices, Building Assessment Tools: UNICEF

Invest in the capacity building of teachers, including training on appropriate pedagogical practices and building teacher-aids like codified classroom scripts, assessment tools and teacher-mentor programmes, says a recently released report. UNICEF along with YuWaah has launched #YoungWarriorNXT report in partnership with Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Udhyam Learning Foundation.

Giving recommendation to make youth skill ready the report also advised to create an accessible repository of life skills content, mapped to state-specific adoption frameworks and proficiency levels using standard definitions. The findings and recommendations also advised to integrate life skills into the school curriculum, and therefore, garner support from SCERTs and state resource groups to identify and codify important life skills in each state.

It further asked to involve parents, family members and community leaders in establishing value proposition, creating accountability, and delivering content to influence on enrolment, engagement, and impact positively. Build a common vocabulary for life skills to help converge efforts and develop and adopt standardised life skills assessment tools, contextualised and relevant to India, the report added.

With a vision to mainstream life skills training in the country, the organisations came together in July 2021 to respond to the imperative need to build the life skills of young people in India and initiated the Young Warrior NXT (#YWNXT) programme. At its core, YW NXT aims to equip five lakh adolescents with the relevant life skills to make them employable and future-ready, by galvanising partnerships with diverse stakeholders and leveraging existing content, technology and human resources in the ecosystem.

Commenting on the launch of the report, Yasumasa Kimura, UNICEF India representative said, “For a country like India, with a large youth population, it is important that a holistic approach to education is adopted. Life skill development is a critical component of that approach, training for which should start early on in life. The Young Warrior NXT report brings together much-needed data and evidence on approaches that can be deployed at scale to empower young people and help in the effective delivery of life skills education.”

Geeta Goel, Country Director – India, Michel & Susan Dell Foundation said, “Twenty-first century life and employability skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, leadership, resilience, and digital literacy are important to bridge the employability gap and are essential for the well-being of young people. For India to truly deliver Life Skills at scale there is an urgent need to integrate these in the school curriculum, and to adopt standardised tools that can measure progress on these skills.”

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