Your work focuses on developing life skills curricula to help build healthy behaviors in young people. Could you tell us a bit about it? Why is your work important? Why do young people in Malawi need life skills education/CSE?
No society can thrive if its youth are not healthy. Life skills education was introduced over 20 years ago in primary schools in Malawi to help young people develop healthy behaviors. It includes concepts such as health promotion, social development, moral development and physical development, among others. For example, under the health promotion concept, “the learner will be able to make informed decisions and demonstrate health promoting behavior in his/her personal life as well as in his/her community and wider environment with particular attention to prevalent diseases such as malaria , STIs, HIV and AIDS”.
I see the work I do as a curriculum specialist as vital, especially to ensure that the life skills taught in classrooms respond to the needs and aspirations of Malawi’s young people.
Young people face many challenges and uncertainties in their lives as they grow up. In Malawi, early and unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections are prevalent among adolescents, and unemployment rates have increased. Life skills, as a subject, empower learners to adapt and adopt the skills, values, attitudes and knowledge they need as they grow and explore in their communities. It empowers them with decision making and critical thinking skills, assertiveness, coping with stress, anxiety and many other benefits.