There’s more to a student’s life than just textbooks. Knowledge need not be assimilated from chapters alone but can be found anywhere. On that note, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), today, launched ‘21st Century Skills: A Handbook’ consisting of learning skills, life skills, and literacy skills. The 21st Century skills are essentially the outcome of experiential learning, i.e. they are imbibed through observing, understanding, practicing, and experiencing.

Releasing the handbook, the Board said, “Simply teaching to test or learning for exams is not going to help a student face everyday life situations. 21st Century Skills are key to the empowerment of children and adolescents to deal with the issues and concerns related to their life. They experience several feelings, many of which are related to their growth and development from childhood to adolescence and beyond.”

The Board intends to implement 21st-century skills in the teaching-learning process through core subject areas like Native Language/Reading, World Language(s) including English, Arts, Geography, History, Mathematics, Science, Government/Civics. It also delves into themes like global awareness, Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy Civic Literacy, Health Literacy, and Environmental literacy.

The handbook has a list of activities that can be blended with the subjects during classroom sessions. It emphasizes enhancing the learning skills of students through critical thinking, creativity & innovation, collaboration, and communication.