Nine-year-old Diya (name changed) is a happy and active child through the weekend. But on Monday mornings, she starts complaining of abdominal pain or a pounding headache. She feels very unwell and so the school bus comes and goes without Diya. By 11.30 am, the child is back on her feet.

The physical ailments resurface the next morning, making it difficult for her parents to send her to school. The family doctor sends the worried parents to a psychologist.

“It was a case of school refusal or school phobia… The most common manifestation of this ailment is frequent, unexplained medical problems,” said child psychologist Jairanjan Ram. According to him, if a child is temperamentally anxious or has had an adverse experience in school, he or she is more susceptible to school refusal.

In some cases, children weep, cry and are generally disruptive and distraught when they are taken to school. They are unable to settle down and many of them refuse to go to school.

“This phenomenon is not new among kids, but it is growing because of rising competition even at school levels. And as parents are more aware these days, more incidents are getting reported,” Atashi Gupta, psychologist with Teenline (Child In Need Institute), which provides counselling for young people.

Though psychologists are yet to conduct a thorough research on the subject, some experts say around 70 per cent of such cases stem from environment problems at school or problems in academic performances.

“If a child is rebuked, chastised or mocked by teachers or bullied by peers, he tends to suffer from school phobia,” explained Ram.

Students with learning problems also suffer from this syndrome if schools take a punitive attitude towards them or if the teachers are not sympathetic towards them.

“It is basically a phenomenon where the school environment appears threatening. Students suffering from school refusal actually feel a fear of failure not just at school grades but of acceptance by peers and teachers,” explained Saloni Priya, psychologist with a leading school.

That’s exactly what happened with 10-year-old Souvik, who was studying in an elite day boarding school. A few months ago, he started refusing to go to school and became stubborn and aggressive at home. As he failed to concentrate on his studies and started performing badly, his parents took him to a psychologist.

“We were told that because of the school environment, he was feeling physically and mentally tortured in school. Without wasting time, we acted on the doctor’s advice and changed his school and now he is much better,” said Maitreyi, Souvik’s mother.

But changing schools cannot be the solution in all the cases, pointed out Atashi Gupta, psychologist with Teenline (Child In Need Institute), which provides counselling for young people.

According to psychologists, around 30 per cent cases of school refusal develop as a consequence of domestic violence or marital conflict between parents. “Children from such families tend to cling. They feel that if they do not go to school, they can prevent the violence or protect their mother,” said Ram.

Schools like Delhi Public School, Heritage School and South Point have in-house facilities to counsel students. “We not only attend to the students but also at times, counsel the parents and teachers,” said a counsellor.