The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) wants teachers across its institutions to act as first-level counsellors to students, recognise children’s mental health problems and be aware of the effects they may have on them.
Last week, the council conducted an online session for teachers to enhance their understanding of mental health and well-being in schools.
The need was triggered by reports of stress, peer pressure, bullying, altercation between students, substance abuse and instances of self-harm, the council said. “We will empower teachers through training and interactive programmes. To bring about any change, one must be aware of the requirements to address the problem,” Joseph Emmanuel, chief executive and secretary, CISCE, told The Telegraph.
“There have been reports of bullying, altercation between students, excessive use of digital resources, substance abuse and isolated incidents of suicide attempts, from schools.”
Positive attitude
Students have to be told how to respond to situations positively.
“Even if they disagree with something, the disagreement has to be shown respectfully and not aggressively,” said Emmanuel.
The council chief underlined the importance of students being compassionate and empathetic.
“Every child should take care of fellow students, and that will drastically reduce bullying,” said Emmanuel.
Bullying is a serious problem in many schools.
Identifying stress
The stress in children comes from manifold directions — peer pressure, self-inflicted pressure and pressure from teachers or parents who expect them to excel.
The council said a teacher’s role is to provide both psychological and career counselling.
“Pressure mounts if one is pushed into the wrong career. Not everyone is equally good at everything. So, identifying the right career, skill set and abilities is important,” said Emmanuel.
There are positive and negative stresses, he said. “Positive stress will help one to achieve well. You should raise your own bar and set benchmarks according to your ability and skill set,” said Emmanuel.
The council in the past has conducted sessions with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans), Bengaluru, before the exam season.
Rupkatha Sarkar, principal of La Martiniere for Girls, said the pressure to achieve and the need to get validation from social media are playing havoc in a student’s life. ‘“It starts in social media and spills into real life. School has to play a role because learning cannot happen if the emotional state of a child is in disarray,” said Sarkar.
The online session was attended by almost 1,000 teachers across the
country.
The three-hour session by psychologist Salony Priya focused on self-awareness in mental health and breaking the stigma around it.
Need for counselling
Priya advocated counselling as a preventive measure.
“When you are feeling lonely, low, upset, you go for counselling, it helps you to prevent addiction or move away from destructive methods of filling your vacuum,” she said.
The responsibility of identifying a child’s mental state rests with the teacher, who is in direct contact with the student.
“One or two counsellors cannot undertake the entire responsibility, which is mammoth. Be it the class teacher or any subject teacher, she can reach where higher authorities cannot and becomes the person in whom the child confides,” said Sarkar.
Triangulation
Psychologist Ruvena Sanyal said that parents, teachers and counsellors should work as a “triangulation of support around the child”.
The challenges are compounded when parents,even in this day and age, are unwilling to accept their child’s possible “mental health problems”.
Sanyal complained that parents had become too easy on their children. “Schools have rules and regulations, and parents are the first ones to flout those,” said Sanyal.
Violent behaviour and aggression among children are increasingly common, said teachers. The violence, at times, starts at home and extends to schools.
“Aggression will not help in any way but finally boomerang on parents. If the grooming at home is good, automatically the child starts respecting others,” said Emmanuel.