A 5-year study calls for improving social-emotional skills of school students

What are social-emotional skills? They are crucial for connecting with others in a mature way. They come to our rescue when we have to manage emotions, form healthy relationships and express empathy. Some of these skills include self-esteem, friendships, and identity development. It is especially important for children to develop these skills in schools and homes.

However, a new "360 degree attitude audit," in government and private schools in India does not paint a flattering picture of the state of foundational skills students need to navigate life and its frustrations. The inability to manage one’s emotions and understand the emotions of others have a huge cost not just to the individual but to the society at large. According to the national crime records bureau reports, 13,089 children committed suicide in 2021. Apart from the loss of human capital, social and emotional incompetence has several other implications.

Centre for Science of Student Learning (CSSL) released a collection of five reports on the 'Acquisition of Cognitive and Affective skills in schools across India' on December 5 and 6. The reports are the result of extensive research done over five long years across the country in both private and government schools. It was launched by Anil Swarup, former Union secretary of school education. The study covered about 34,648 students, 1,354 teachers, 553 principals, 4,483 parents from 572 government schools and 2,627 students, 98 teachers, 33 principals, and 379 parents from 26 private schools. The research reports tracked social-emotional skills, positivity, and academic learning achievement among students in government and private schools.

The study found that most students in government schools and a relatively lesser extent of students in private schools are not acquiring social-emotional skills such as understanding how they or others would feel in different situations, recognising and labelling emotions one feels in different situations, categorising the emotion for a situation correctly, verbalising the characteristic of an emotion, understanding how one can change how they feel and behave in different situations. The survey also revealed that relationship skills are the weakest for both government and private school students across all classes. Not surprisingly, the male respondents were found to be more traditional and discriminatory than the female respondents, and the attitudes of students were similar to that of their parents in social aspects such as gender, caste, citizenship and school activities.

Government school students were highly discriminatory in their attitude (26.5-51.0 per cent) towards several social aspects like girls’ equal right to nutrition, education, freedom of mobility,, and gender stereotypes. While private school students were found to be comparatively more egalitarian, they also showed gender-discriminatory attitude in all aspects.

The report discusses many other aspects of social-emotional skills and how it shapes the holistic well-being of students and concludes with several corrective recommendations such as cognitive behaviour group therapy, mindfulness training, teacher training, value education, and inculcating higher-order thinking skills.