Life Skills and Girls' Education: Potentials and Pitfalls

• In Event: Equitable Education for Women and Girls: Global Challenges and Local Solutions

Abstract

Life skills education has gained considerable attention among policymakers, researchers, and educators as being the sine qua non for life achievements, including educational completion, better employment, and better social relations (DeJaeghere & Murphy-Graham, 2021). They are particularly regarded as important for girls, who experience a global gender gap in educational participation and completion. A key premise for teaching life skills to girls is that they will be empowered to overcome gender norms and health issues that constrain them from participating in and doing well in schooling. Given the near ubiquity of life skills education and its uses to achieve educational and life outcomes, it’s important to ask: Which life skills can foster girls’ educational achievements and empowerment, and how should they be taught?
This presentation examines this question through two related studies of a life skills program in India (DeJaeghere & Arur, 2020). The studies in India examined an INGO that provided a life skills curriculum and mentoring to girls and their families to support them to continue their schooling through the secondary years. The program was implemented in Rajasthan, where girls were supported during their final three primary years (grades 6-8) years, and in Uttarakhand, where girls were supported through their secondary years. The girls were generally from low socio-economic classes and castes or tribes, and they had been identified by the program staff as not being able to afford or at risk of leaving schooling.
Repeat interviews were conducted with 57 girls from grades 6-8, and for girls who had completed their secondary schooling, we conducted life histories of 25 girls. All interviews were translated into English by research team members from the Marwari or Hindi. We coded data in NVivo focusing on the program and schooling effects on girls and their families.
A randomized controlled trial of this program (Edmonds, et al., 2019) found decreased school drop-out for the primary-age girls. The qualitative longitudinal study (DeJaeghere & Arur, 2020) found that this was in part related to how local women mentors encouraged them to attend school and met with them and their families if they did not. Girls also reported improvements in emotional and social support, as well as planning. Girls met in groups to discuss topics, such as goal setting and decision-making, and these discussions provided support to think about their futures differently than if they didn’t participate in program sessions. The continued involvement in schooling gave the girls more confidence, and fostered their motivation to continue. The life skills program did not improve their cognitive learning abilities (Edmonds, et al., 2019), and if they were not learning well, they were at greater risk of dropping out. For those who completed secondary school, they delayed marriage and often continued to higher education. Many also worked, often in low-paid and challenging environments, due to their caste and class circumstances. Life skills helped girls to pursue further education and imagine different alternatives, but those alternatives were often difficult to achieve given other social constraints.

Author

• Joan G. Dejaeghere, University of Minnesota