Lifeskills

Abstract

The concept of Lifeskills has been developed and pursued in Uganda for over ten years, since the official launch in 1994. It was an outcome of several information based interventions through the Ministry of Education & Sports (MOES) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) supported by international donors, particularly UNICEF. The forerunner interventions included the School Health Education Project (SHEP), The Health Education and Nutrition (HEN) to mention a few. Lifeskills came in as a bridging intervention to the knowledge base acquired in the classroom and its practical application to overcome the challenges that may lead to the health risks related to STIs including HIV/AIDS. The roll out plan for life skills through the different levels of the education system was clearly laid out as follows: 1. National level through the Primary Teacher Colleges (PTCs): the tutors were to incorporate life skills in the college syllabus and lesson delivery. 2. Student teachers to incorporate life skills into their lesson preparation and delivery as an approach of instruction; 3. The in-service teachers through refresher courses were to incorporate life skills into their lesson plans and delivery; 4. The lecturers in Universities who were to incorporate the life skills into their respective subjects of specialization; 5. The top district officers like the DEO's and Community mobilises to incorporate life skills in their office and community service; 6. Institutionalisation of life Education project into a Kyambogo University (then ITEK) programme. Life skills have since taken centre stage in all aspects of health and academic education. However, the original perspectives were adulterated for lack of standardisation. Life skills, however, were not developed beyond the conceptual level. They have been passed on in a more academic manner appealing more to the mind than attitude and practice to be translated into behaviour change. The aim of this manual is to go a step further to consolidate life skills from the two major dimensions: i. as a teaching approach to lesson delivery and ii. sets of behaviours that can be passed on in a classroom interaction and practiced beyond the school. This means that the teachers need to internalise not only the concept, but the two dimensional benefits to effective teaching in the areas of planning, class control and focused performance as well as adoption of healthy behaviours.