As an educator, I strongly recommend the need for preparing children for life rather than fretting over one board exam or an admission to an elite college or university.

Rather than teaching ABCs…let’s focus on teaching them the ABC of thinking, develoment of cognitive and flexible thinking, and helping children develop emotional intelligence is the need of the hour.

The facets of higher emotional intelligence are self-motivation, self-awareness, emotional control, empathy, and relationship skills.

I conducted 3-hour brainstorming sessions for 270 students of classes 11 and 12 and 250 teachers of APS Aknoor and five other branches on 27 and 28 September on handling emotions and becoming emotionally smart individuals.