The Role of Life Skills in Developing Sustainable Development Competencies among Higher Secondary Students: Implications for Curriculum and Teaching Practice

Abstract

Education for sustainable development has become a central concern of educational policy worldwide, yet a persistent gap remains between students’ awareness of sustainability issues and their capacity to act on them. This paper examines the role of life skills in developing sustainable development competencies among higher secondary students and considers the implications for curriculum and teaching practice. Adopting an integrative review design, the study synthesises international literature published between 2015 and 2026, identified through the Scopus database, spanning education, sustainability studies, the social sciences and teacher education. The analysis identified six interrelated themes. First, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, resilience and emotional intelligence act as foundational enablers of sustainability competencies such as systems thinking, ethical responsibility and action competence. Second, project-based learning, design thinking and experiential learning emerge as the most promising pedagogies for integrating life skills with sustainability education. Third, gender and spatial (urban and rural) disparities shape the acquisition of these competencies and call for inclusive, context-specific curricular adaptation. Fourth, sustained, active and culturally responsive teacher professional development is essential to embed life skills in classroom practice. Fifth, fragmented policies, curriculum overload and weak interdisciplinary planning constrain implementation. Sixth, significant research gaps persist, particularly regarding longitudinal evidence, cross-cultural validation and the assessment of collective and emotional competencies. The paper concludes that life skills education should be treated not as an add-on but as the connective tissue of sustainability-oriented curricula, and it proposes implications for curriculum design, pedagogy, teacher education and policy, with particular reference to the Indian higher secondary context under the National Education Policy 2020.