Influence of non-formal education on behavioral change of adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a phase of a life which involves the changes in cognitive, emotional, psychological, and biological development. Young people are facing great challenges and risks like poverty, social inequality, discrimination, and health issues. In such challenges, developing positive behavior is important among adolescents. Non-formal education is vital in the development of positive behavior. SAMVAD is a non-formal education that intake adolescents from marginalized communities like Dalits and Badi in Nepal and trained them in three phases; dialogue and problem solving phase, life-skill phase, and vocational training phase. However, behavior change on adolescents due to SAMVAD is hardly researched. The main purpose of my research is to see the behavior change among adolescents who graduated from SAMVAD. For the purpose of examining the behavior change in adolescent, this study has applied qualitative design using case study approach. The findings of this study asserted that SAMVAD training improved the attitude in hygiene, improved health behavior, developed confidence for communication, increased belligerence against social ill, developed positive attitude towards career goal, and conscious on financial literacy. However, result also shows that SAMVAD has disturbed the relationship with societal setting while trying to show the competency learned in SAMVAD. The findings of this study can be useful for leaders of educational institutions to integrate the non-formal education along with formal education system for holistic development of adolescents. The findings can be useful for local level government and NGOs. They can weight what to focus on while providing the non-formal education like SAMVAD.