Non-Formal Education Tackles Children’s Mental Health Crisis By Providing Community and Encouragement

Self-confidence issues continued to be a rampant issue among children in 2022, leading parents and schools alike to search for new solutions. Non-formal education can help children to become more resilient and self-assured by providing a supportive environment to explore their interests and gain confidence in their abilities.

Self-esteem is a critical component of a child’s emotional and mental well-being, yet studies show that it is on the decline. For example, most children ages 11-14 in the UK experience a significant drop in their mental well-being during their first years at secondary school, regardless of their circumstances or background.

Research also indicates that children are facing increasing pressures from social media, academic performance, and peer interactions that can negatively impact their self-esteem. This is an alarming trend as how well-adjusted a child is socially, behaviorally, and emotionally will in part determine how they deal with obstacles, peer pressure, and other difficulties throughout life.

Akvilė Bartaševičiūtė — the founder of FRIENDOLAND, an intercontinental non-formal e-school with classes for children ages 6-17 — says that schools often lack the tools and resources necessary to keep in constant check with their pupils and their emotional state. “Children in the traditional schooling system are already facing the repercussions of insufficient attention paid toward the mental health of students,” she explained. “While this trend can be attributed to many factors — from standardized testing and social dynamics — and schools cannot be expected to cover all aspects of a pupil’s well-being with very limited resources, the lack of confidence-building tools in education is apparent.”

Non-formal education offers a supportive environment

Tackling the children’s mental health crisis will require a joint effort from parents, educators, and legislators. However, short-term, there are online tools available to any family that could help boost a child’s self-esteem and cultivate confidence.

For one, non-formal online schooling offers children the opportunity to challenge themselves and delve into unfamiliar subjects in a supportive, non-competitive environment. Research has proved there exists a link between poor academic results and issues with self-esteem, thus, a learning process that does not assign grades to the work of students may help them tackle challenges and take academic risks without fear of failure.

Confidence may also be built by a child’s healthy social development, and schools often have problems with mitigating bullying. Children are often unnaturally forced into age cohorts at school, not interest groups and there are insufficient role models to teach them how to deal with their fellow humans in a humane way. Conversely, non-formal classes are formed purely on a joint interest in a given topic: from sustainability to cultural traditions. This makes it easier for children to bond and work together toward more knowledge.

“Non-formal education places a lot of emphasis on community, as it is entirely voluntary and born out of a mutual love for knowledge and all the curious things about the world. What we often see on these platforms are very close relations between the staff, parents, and students,” Bartaševičiūtė noted. “This close-knit environment encourages openness, which is extremely important for a child’s well being. For example, we even offer classes completely dedicated to emotional intelligence, where students can learn how to better identify their feelings and how to cope with them in a healthy way.”