Chennai: Members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) have asked the government to conduct a detailed inspection of residential schools and issue guidelines for maintenance of hostels on their premises.
As the number of suicides of students in private residential schools is on the rise, the student campaigners demand establishing psychological counselling centres in these schools to reduce stress among the students.
They said two students committed suicide in a top residential school in Namakkal in the last six months.
It’s high time the school management was pulled up for harassment meted out students in the guise of discipline, they said.
Speaking to DC, A.T.Kannan, state joint secretary of SFI, said, “We have been organising awareness programmes to check suicide among students. In the case of private residential schools, the students are not given adequate rest. Class 11 students are forced to prepare for class 12 public exÂam for a year. They write tests throughout the year so as to score more marks in the public exams.”
He added that students undergo severe mental stress. “Every school should provide counselling facility,” he said.
P. Uchi Mahali, state president of SFI, pointed out that there are no guidelines for hostels run by private schools.
“There are guidelines for government welfare residential schools. Norms like number of study and free hours for students, sports amenities on the campus, menu served for inmates are given for government residential schools. But private residential schools are not brought under the scanner,” he said.
