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Int Rev Educ (2014) 60:217234
DOI 10.1007/s11159-014-9408-2
Kwame Akyeampong
Published online: 30 March 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning 2014
Abstract Early notions of life skills in Africa did not take into account the importance of a exible and portable set of skills that would enable youth to adapt to changes in the world of work and lay the foundations for productive well-being and behaviour. Rather, life skills education in many secondary education curricula in Africa started with an emphasis on developing specic technical vocational skills considered essential for employability or self-employment. Using Ghana as an example, this paper shows how secondary education curriculum reformers recommended shifts that embraced a new interpretation of life skills focused on 21st-century skills. This gradual move also reected the difculty that secondary education in general has had in networking with the world of work to provide work experience that would lead to the development of work-related skills and enhance employability. The authors main argument is that although the reconceptualisation of life skills in secondary education to reect 21st-century skills is a welcome shift in the African context, this needs to be accompanied by reforms in teacher education. Classroom teaching and learning need to be adapted in a fundamental way in order to ensure that youth fully benet from the inclusion of 21st-century life skills in secondary education curricula. Such reforms must include pedagogical practices which nurture communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills.
Keywords Life skills Youth employability Technical and vocational skills
Secondary education Teacher training Ghana
Rsum Reconceptualisation des comptences pratiques dans lenseignement secondaire en contexte africain : enseignements tirs des rformes au Ghana Les premires notions en Afrique des comptences ncessaires dans la vie courante ne
K. Akyeampong (&)
University of Sussex, Brighton, UK e-mail: [email protected]
Reconceptualised life skills in secondary education in the African context: Lessons learnt from reforms in Ghana
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tenaient pas compte de limportance dun ensemble de comptences exibles et transfrables, qui permettent aux jeunes de sadapter de nouvelles situations dans le monde du travail et de crer les bases pour un bien-tre et un comportement productifs. Lenseignement des comptences pratiques prconis lorigine dans de nombreux programmes de lenseignement secondaire en Afrique mettait laccent sur...