Effects of soft skills on capacity development of students in secondary education classes

The current study investigated to explore the effects of soft skills in improving the capacity of secondary school students in four main centers based in Takhar Province of Afghanistan. It also attempted to determine the importance of soft skills in promoting students’ abilities. Furthermore, the study aimed to find out which social skills (soft skills) have been more common among Afghan secondary school students. The data collected from 112 secondary school students in Taloqan City. 71 of the participants were female students while only 41 of the participants formed male students. To analyze the data, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 was employed. The findings revealed that soft skills were crucial in promoting secondary school students’ performance. These skills have a direct relation with the learning improvement of students in and out of the classrooms. Furthermore, the results showed that the participants can easily achieve soft skills when their teachers are creative enough to design the teaching materials based on the learners’ needs. Another finding the study is that soft skills are helpful for both learners and teachers. The study further clarified if the teachers provide the learners with soft skills, particularly public speaking and presentation skills which play an important role in the job market, both students and teachers can benefit from the lesson. Moreover, the findings of the study also highlighted a number of soft skills which are more common among secondary school students in Takhar Province of Afghanistan. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.