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Skills for Healthy Living: Child-to-Child and Life Skills Education in Uganda

Rachel Carnegie, Child-to-Child Trust Adviser and Consultant on Life Skills Education

'Whenever my mother sends me to the shop to buy beer, there is a man who always asks me for sex. He always gives me money, but I tell him that I'm coming back, but I do not go back. I'm still young and not interested in sex. How can I stop this man?' Juliet

'I'm 14 and in P6. When I'm going back home from school, I always find a girl on the way waiting for me. She is older than I am. How can I avoid her?' Haman

'I always think about beautiful girls in my sight. I talk to them but I fear AIDS. Does this mean I will not marry?' Kenneth, 14 years

These are just some of the letters which children in Uganda have written to Young Talk, a magazine distributed to primary schools. The problems these children face and the questions they ask demonstrate the importance of life skills education. In these examples, the children know about the risks of HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy and want to protect themselves, yet information alone is not enough to enable them to cope with these situations. Their concerns are about coping with their own stress and emotions and developing positive, healthy relationships with their families, friends and others in the community. These kinds of abilities are called ‘life skills’. In Uganda, as in other countries, it has been recognized that life skills present a 'missing link' in enabling children and young people to translate health knowledge into healthy behaviour.

Life skills are the personal and social (psycho-social) skills required for people to think and behave competently and confidently in dealing with themselves, relating to others and taking effective decisions. Although there are clearly many different elements of life skills, they can be usefully organized into five key areas.

Of course, in any given situation, people will actually draw on a range of life skills, because they are all inter-related. For example, Juliet, in the first letter above, needs several life skills to deal with her situation. She is already using critical thinking skills, since she has identified the risk this man presents. She also demonstrates some problem solving skills in seeking help from Young Talk. However, she also needs to develop her communication skills to discuss the problem with her mother and also to be more assertive in refusing the man, rather than accepting his money.

Looking at the list of life skills, we can see that they are also integral to the Child-to-Child (CTC) learning process. Children learn to think critically about their life and environment in order to identify needs. They are encouraged to think creatively, to analyze how to deal with the problem, and to take decisions. While they carry out surveys and interviews, share information and discuss action at school and at home, children practice how to communicate. If we take an example of a CTC project, we can see how the activities in the six steps use and strengthen children’s life skills.

However, we should not assume that these skills are automatically being developed through involvement in CTC activities. Indeed, it is possible that children may meet difficulties if they have not had an opportunity to practice these skills before going out into the community. For example, children may decide to conduct a survey with mothers on feeding practices for young children, or to interview older children on why they smoke. Before setting out, it is important that they practice how they will communicate in an acceptable and confident way. Otherwise, there is a chance that they could meet resistance. Children’s life skills can be developed through the CTC process, but it is also important to focus explicitly on strengthening these life skills to enable children to take effective action.

In Uganda there has been a long and intensive effort on children’s health education and health promotion through primary schools. The CTC approach has been an integral part of the school system in Uganda since the mid-1980s. Based at the Institute of Teacher Education, Child-to-Child Uganda has, over the years, developed an association of schools, which promote CTC approaches in the classroom and in extra-curricula activities. The Government of Uganda, supported by UNICEF, also initiated the School Health Education Project (SHEP) in 1985, which involved the extensive training of teachers and production of teaching/learning materials, incorporating CTC concepts.

The achievements in these years were considerable, especially in terms of the motivation and sense of ownership felt by schools in identifying their own local concerns and developing CTC activities with children. An evaluation of SHEP in 1995 found significant improvements in children’s health knowledge. However, this was not necessarily matched by a corresponding level of behavioural change. A major gap identified was life skills promotion, which would help to enable children to put their knowledge into action.

Since 1995, there has been extensive training of teachers and teacher trainees on life skills education. At the same time the new Ugandan Primary School Curriculum strongly emphasizes life skills and CTC concepts in its Integrated Science syllabus. Over the past year, a team of writers led by the National Curriculum Development Centre, with support from UNICEF, has developed a set of supplementary readers to support life skills education in upper primary classes. A strong feature of these materials is their focus on the positive role that children can take in promoting health in their schools, families and communities, as well as addressing the more conventional 'problem' (risk-behaviour) topics of life skills education, such as smoking, drugs, alcohol and sexual activity. In helping children to develop their capabilities, the Life Skills Initiative will also help to strengthen the on-going CTC activities in Uganda.

Children develop critical thinking skills to analyze messages in advertisements

Illustration: Life skills materials for primary schools developed by the National Curriculum Development Centre, Uganda