Let's talk about the Surat fire incident that took place at a coaching class on 24th of May, 2019. The whole country wept and wailed in grief for the death of 22 young lives. The innocents gave up their lives being trapped in fire. But the question of concern here is, could by any chance, the deaths be avoided? Yes. Definitely yes. If not, then why would a fraction of students still be alive when stuck in the same situation? Of course they involuntarily and unknowingly used Life Skills to save themselves which others could not. But are they innocents to be blamed for this? No. Life skills are the skills which we need to instill in us to deal with different situations in our lives. These need to be taught from the initial level of education. But the Indian education system is still confined to scores and sports. Name a place where we are cent percent safe. I bet you won't be able to name even one.
Simply because we need to be aware everywhere. Even at our homes we aren't safe. We never know when an earthquake would come and destruct us. Talking of earthquakes, when the earthquake took place in India in 2015, I, like most of the children was in my school. By God's grace, that earthquake wasn't that destructing in India. But by any chance if it would have been, the maximum deaths would have been of children studying in school because there would have been children trapped in building which might collapse anytime, not knowing how to escape or be safe. In foreign countries life skills are taught at first instance. They prepare the children for every odds of life. Foreigners are well aware that if a fire breaks out, they must follow the 3G rule(get down, get crawl, get out). They know that fire spreads from ceiling, hence, instead of panicking, they are aware of crawling down towards the door.
After all, the kids in Surat jumped off the window out of panic because they weren't aware of life skills. People are well trained in other countries for the worst situations. They are sent to perform mocks to prep themselves. On contrary, in India we are given the most basic bookish knowledge of first aid and are taught in book the most impractical steps to be performed. Yes, many schools have advanced their way of teaching life skills but the ratio of those Indian schools is not even 10% It is not that Indians do not train life skills to people. They do. But they train them when they join office. Some offices teach life skills to hype up their HR Management while some teach the factory workers for their safety. There's a separate safety department in the companies as well to ensure workers safety. But if safety is given priority in offices and companies, why isn't it prioritized in schools? Are the lives of children not as important as that of adults? Or do they have to wait to get a job for learning how to save themselves from absurd life taking situations? The biggest fear is the fear of death and one should not leave a single chance to learn how to fight his fear.
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