However, there is a group of skills that, although sometimes go unnoticed, can be decisive for student development and learning: socio-emotional skills. These are defined as the ability of a person to relate to himself and other people in an effective and healthy way. They are related to the soft skills that the labor market is increasingly demanding. Examples of this type of skills are self-regulation, resilience, assertive communication, leadership and integrity, among others.
These skills are worked on at home from the first years of life and there are people who find them easier than others from birth. However, school, where children spend almost a third of their day, is an ideal context to get to know them better and practice them. The question is, is this covered in the curriculum?
According to a recent IMCO document, Transcending the ABCs and 1-2-3: Social-Emotional Skills for Tomorrow’s Leaders Nowadays, students from preschool to high school take a subject to learn more about socio-emotional learning and, in principle, these are practiced in the rest of the subjects through projects and different activities. However, this is at risk since the study plan that the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) wants to implement as of August 2023 does not define how this type of learning should be promoted.
Nor has there been an effort on the part of the SEP to train teachers and school directors in managing emotions and interpersonal relationships, in order to ensure that socio-emotional teaching is implemented more successfully. This need has become even more important after the pandemic, since students did not go to classrooms for almost two years. Which left, at least according to INEGI statistics, 30% of primary and secondary students stressed during the past school year, 20% desperate for academic work, 12% sad or depressed, and 5% with problems relating to others. people your age.
Girls, boys and adolescents are the future of Mexico. If we want their minds to be healthier, to make better decisions on a personal level and to learn more, it is necessary to invest in the development of socio-emotional skills in a comprehensive way.