Pivotal life skills to be imparted to the children at Anantapur Sports Academy

Most education systems across the globe have varied and diverse curricula and most of them aim to build cognitive abilities such as reading and math. However in the race to achieve this, we rather forget to equip students with abilities that allow them to succeed and contribute to the society in a more efficient way. Realising such voids in between giving and receiving, Anantapur Sports Academy (ASA), a sport for development initiative by Rural Development Trust in Andhra Pradesh, decided to supplement life skills training to the children besides the focus on sports training and educational support. Nearly 160 children including girls and boys are part of the residential sports programme offered by ASA for the underprivileged children of Anantapur.

ASA entered into a one year partnership with Learning Curve Life Skills Foundation (LCLSF) to deliver life skills training for our children. As part of the agreement, LCLSF organised the first workshop for ASA coaches, who will be imparting life skills to the children, from 24 - 26 July. The initial phase kicked off with a three-day workshop for the coaches and volunteers. The activities in the workshop focused on peer-to-peer appreciation, five minute group performance using various tools of acting, singing and mimicking which further helped in tackling stage fright and enhancing communicative skills. For most of the coaches and volunteers, it was a first time experience doing such fun activities related to life skills.

Subbu Parameswaran, co-founder and CEO, Learning Curve Life-Skills Foundation was amazed to see the enthusiasm and active involvement the coaches and volunteers brought into the workshop. In the second phase, the coaches and the volunteers will make use of life skills ‘learning toolkit’ to conduct life skills classes for the kids of respective sports at ASA.

“For the U15 kids of the ASA football academy, I have started the ‘learning toolkit’ which focused on self-awareness and emotional well-being of oneself. I could see a positive response from the kids who found these sessions enjoyable and intriguing”, says Anand Reddy, one of the volunteer coaches for the football programme at ASA. Over the next one year, Mrigendra Singh, Academic Support at ASA will assist the volunteers and coaches in conducting the sessions.

With life skills being added to the curriculum, children at ASA will learn within a holistic environment. This initiative aims to equip the children to be more proactive, informed and confident individuals, who will be able to take responsibility for themselves and successfully deal with significant challenges and opportunities they could potentially face in their daily lives and contribute to the society in a meaningful way.

[This article has been edited by the Operating Team.]