Improving Self-Esteem, Assertiveness and Communication Skills of Adolescents through Life Skills Based Education

Abstract

Life skills-based education is recognized as a methodology to address a
variety of issues of child and youth development. For the Life Skills Based
Education (LSBE), an international NGO, Rutgers in collaboration with local
NGOs implemented a project in selected 16 schools at Lahore, Karachi,
Quetta and Multan. This paper is an assessment of effect of LSBE on selfesteem, assertiveness and communication skills of the adolescents. Both
qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted to conduct the study
with 1500 secondary school students in the targeted cities. The results
showed that the approach is highly feasible and effective in improving the
knowledge of the students regarding the LSBE topics. Both qualitative and
quantitative data proved significant positive impact of the intervention on
improvement of communication skills and self-esteem building amongst the
students. The study findings propose the inclusion of life skills in
mainstream curricula in Pakistan.