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Can we lesson the load? Here’s what schools should be teaching us
Why is school so bad at equipping us for adult life? Experts pick the subjects that need to be in classrooms of the future
Trigonometry, yes. But what about learning how to mediate as two loved ones fight? Dissection yes. But what about the art of introspection? Conjugating French verbs, yes. But what about investing, insurance and planification financière? School years can seem endless. But perhaps they’d have felt more interesting if these life lessons were added to the syllabus.
Around the world, young people are grappling with anxiety, self-loathing, depression and the pressure to excel as near-perfect lives play out on Reels and posts. Yet, few schools in India even acknowledge that mental health is essential to a person’s wellbeing.
“People don’t take mental health seriously, so they don’t feel the need to teach students about it,” says Divija Bhasin, a psychologist who goes by @awkwardgoat3 on social media. “The definition of mental health for many schools is ‘Do yoga and wake up on time’. We trivialise young people’s problems and say ‘They’re just children. What could they be stressed about?’ There is no government-level mandate for teaching mental health-related topics.”
Mental-health lessons at school won’t just help students cope with growing up, it will make for more stable adults too. “The subject should be taught at all levels, with topics getting more complex as students grow older,” Bhasin says. “It should cover consent, boundaries, discrimination, stress triggers, assertiveness, a little bit about disorders, the science behind mental health, suicide prevention, therapy, anxiety, stress responses and how to vocalise one’s feelings.”
Imagine going to a school where every teacher understands what triggers stress, which student struggles with anxiety and what led to a playground fight. And coming home from school and being able to articulate a bad lesson, a tough day or a school bully with parents. Imagine parents being involved enough in the lesson plan that they’re trained to decode an outburst or mood swing at home. “If adults were more aware, students would be too,” Bhasin says.
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Most of India’s educated classes struggle with simple financial tasks – young employees have no idea what to do with their newfound income, household budgeting stumps newlyweds, mid-career folks grapple with risk-management. And this includes those who went to the good schools.
Most Indian states have agreed to include a financial literacy programme developed by the Reserve Bank of India and other authorities, in their school curricula. We don’t yet know if it’s good enough.
“Financial literacy is a life skill that needs to be developed early,” says Vishal Dhawan, founder and CEO of Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors. There must be practical learning as well. “Students learn from mistakes, and it’s important that they learn to not make those mistakes in the real world. We need practical learning.”
Dhawan also believes that the curriculum should help students learn how to communicate better and think critically. “If someone has to decide whether to buy mutual funds or an insurance policy, there should be a role-play situation in which students learn the right questions to ask,” he says. “Students in India are taught the answers to questions, not how to ask the right questions.”
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In the Netherlands, school sex education is required by law. At age four, kids are taught about relationships, appropriate touching, and intimacy. By age seven, they’re taught the proper names of different body parts. The year after, they discuss gender stereotypes. By the time they reach 11, they treat sex ed as a subject like any other and have frank discussions about sexual diversity, reproduction, safe sex and abuse.
It’s worked. The Dutch are among the top users of the birth control pill. They have among the lowest rate of teen pregnancies. They report their first sexual experiences as being positive. They have low rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
India, in contrast, has no national mandates for sex ed in school. “In an ideal world, all schools globally should offer comprehensive sexuality education that is age appropriate and inclusive, with a focus not just on the basics of health and reproduction but also gender, sexual orientation, consent and pleasure, relationship skills and media literacy,” says Leeza Mangaldas, a content creator who focuses on sexual health and sex positivity.
It helps teach younger generations the value of consent and helps children understand that they can and should speak up against unwanted touch or abuse. “In the internet era, learning about sex from porn is like learning to drive by watching The Fast and The Furious,” she says.
Lessons cannot be fear-and-shame-based, or centred on abstinence. “The taboos around sex and sexuality don’t serve anyone,” she says. “They create and maintain a culture of shame and silence. People hesitate to speak up against experiences of sexual violence, to seek contraception, and other sexual health services because of it.”
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Remember PT class? Was it about marching in formation, an obligatory sprint, a few exercises or something that kids could use into adulthood too? Ankit Gautam, founder of health club chain, Fitness Xpress, says that while physical education is a necessary break for students chained to their desks, what is missing is knowledge. “Kids aren’t told why they’re exercising. So, ultimately, they lose interest.”
The class needn’t be just about basic movements. “Children need awareness about human anatomy, nutrition and diet, too,” he says, “They should be able to understand and choose what kinds of food they’re putting into their bodies. Once they understand it, they take the knowledge home and teach their families about diabetes, high blood pressure or PCOD.”
It’s easy to make it fun too. “Children should want to play sports, not just suffer through PT class. And we can only do that by exposing them to different activities: cricket, boxing, badminton, or a class about sports injuries,” he says. “Kids often don’t listen when the parents tell them to be more active. But maybe, coming from an expert, it could make a difference.”
