The games are being designed to draw upon the qualities and capabilities of young people, a process that will engage the students themselves through classroom exercises or homework assignments.

Students might be asked to write down what they admire about a classmate on a piece of paper, for instance, after which the positive feedback would be pinned on the student’s back. “He always helps me if I’m stuck or she is my best friend — comments such as these could help students during times of stress by letting them recognise their qualities,” says Education Secretary Rina Ray. To reinforce the message, one suggestion is that teachers then reproduce the comments on a postcard and create a keepsake for students.

Brainstorming sessions to compile ideas for games involved people from different communities, ranging from academics and counsellors to students and teachers. Apart from the importance of building up a storage bank of positive messages, Ray says that the games will also be used as a way to open up a channel of communication between children and their parents.

“As a society I think we’re uncomfortable with praise. But by students going home and saying something positive to their parents, it should eventually help them,” says Ray. The idea is that when children need to talk to their parents about subjects they would otherwise find difficult to talk about — like choosing what subject to study at university — they can do so with greater ease.

The Life Skills Programme will be launched on the Directorate’s website by the end of the month, and will be open for public comments and suggestions for a period of three weeks before it is created into a physical document.

Its 600-plus pages act as a handbook for parents as well as teachers, covering a host of topics other than games, including newly revised guidelines on adolescence education.