Students of DPS Megacity at an interactive session

Gone are the days when teachers droned on about honesty, responsibility and discipline in the weekly moral science class while students fought to keep their eyes open. Now most leading English-medium schools prefer to equip their students with “life skills” and “social skills”, and that too in a “fun” way.

Schools are packaging old subjects in new names for GeNext. “Instead of moral science, we have regular workshops and story-telling classes. We also teach life skills to students through popular films. It’s easier to explain to children the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi through a film or a play,” says Anushree Ghosh, the principal of Delhi Public School-Ruby Park.

“Workshops and interactive sessions are held on drug abuse, sexual harassment and the problems faced by adolescents. Sometimes a counsellor is invited to help children cope with stress and emotional problems,” she adds.

Old moral science taught the same life skills, but it was not so smart. Perhaps “moral science” sounded heavy. Interactive sessions are the buzzword now. “I try to hold even scripture classes a bit differently,” says David Pascal, a teacher at St James School. He involves the kids in project work and draws parallels with current events.

Interactive sessions are mostly held for value education or personality development. The Heritage tries to inculcate leadership qualities in their weekly personality development classes. Teaching life skills is a priority. “Team-building exercises, how to cope with peer pressure and how to stand up to injustice and bullying are part of the curriculum,” says principal Seema Sapru.

Inculcating social skills is the need of the hour. “Students of Class VII and VIII are groomed so that they become well-rounded individuals. In our social skills classes, students are trained in yoga and elocution. In Classes IX and X the stress is more on public speaking," says Malini Bhagat, the principal of Mahadevi Birla.

The psychology teacher of Salt Lake School in CA block holds counselling sessions for students. The trend is not just to repackage old subjects but also to hire professionals. “All that we learnt in moral science classes has to be creatively inculcated in the modern child,” says psychologist Saloni Priya, who holds life skill workshops in several schools.