How life skills got attention in the New Education Policy

“A good education is a foundation for a better future”

– Swami Vivekanand

In July 2020, the government of India introduced the New Education Policy (NEP). Before this, our education system focused on a principle that education must develop cognitive skills that is both ‘foundational skills’ of literacy and numeracy, and ‘higher-order’ skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. However, the NEP has put a focus on certain social and life skills which include cultural awareness, perseverance, grit, teamwork, leadership, personal finance and more.

So, how important is it to teach kids social and life skills?

As per UN Population statistics, India is estimated to add another 183 million people to the working age group by 2050. School’s main goal is to equip children for the working life by enabling education in various streams for them. However, young people cannot conquer the work-space with rote learning alone. In today’s day and age, they need to be empowered with a complete competency package that includes knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. With necessary skills, children can be more prepared for future work and will have developed mindsets that will allow them to succeed.

Let’s take financial literacy as an example. Our country’s financial literacy rate is only 27%. A majority of our population lacks basic financial knowledge due to which they are unable to make sound decisions which will make them debt free. Most women are dependent on their spouses because they cannot make their own independent decisions with respect to investments, tax savings, insurance, etc. Year on year we see digital scammers get creative and their identification is becoming difficult, resulting in majority falling prey to them.

These problems can be tackled with the help of right and relevant knowledge. “When we came up with the concept of WealthVidya, our goal was to ensure that people don’t see our teaching as ‘gyan’ but life skills; skills that will prompt them to make prudent decisions, understand the nature of finance in depth and lead them to attain financial freedom.” - Shruti Lohia, Co-founder of WealthVidya

If you were to compare the finance content out there on social media today with the finance knowledge that our country’s patrons need, the gap is bit wide. Various statistics show that there is a lack in the basics of finance itself. Therefore, we need to go to ground zero and start from there. And to ensure that our youth doesn’t experience the same problems as we did, we founded WealthVidya – a financial ed-teach platform exclusively created to equip kids with financial wisdom and knowledge. “Our mission is to enhance financial literacy and give practice money skills by providing a level playing field for students to learn across rural and urban areas. Our courses align with each of NEP’s guiding pillars i.e. Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability. Our knowledge is India relevant, we especially curate projects for students to apply all that they have learnt, and we provide opportunities for them to test out their knowledge via competitions.” - Shruti Lohia, Co-founder of WealthVidya

Our students are already making decisions about how they want to use their pocket money, gift money and they are ready to manage their own finances when they start earning.

The New Education Policy is a game changer in many ways and while we are only small part of it, there are many others implementing the change in different way. If you are interested in knowing more about how the NEP is being effected, catch our founderFounder and CEO - Archit Lohia along with six other teaching and ed-tech industry experts during a panel discussion at TechEdu Summit India 2024 hosted by ETEducation.

Date: 07th March 2024