KOCHI: The Union HRD ministry has come out with a specially funded scheme to encourage school teachers to function as first-level counsellors.
Teachers will have to follow inclusive principles and not label children as ‘slow learners,’ ‘bright students’ or ‘problem children.’ The curricular activities will be planned to enable students to connect the content of their learning areas and subjects with their lives and the world around them.
To promote life skills and value education, the CBSE has already integrated health and physical education with academics and set apart one period for sports every day. Stress, anxiety and other such issues have become part of the textbooks developed by NCERT in line with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005.
The psychology textbooks of both classes XI and XII cover several topics, including motivation and emotions and life skills.
According to psychiatrist Dr C.J. John, certain fundamental issues have to be addressed to meet the objectives of the plan.
“Education has to be attitude-driven instead of the present entrance-oriented rat race-driven system. Any experiential learning sticks to the mind rather than rote learning. The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) has developed modules from class I onwards after holding discussions in this regard. These are meant to equip students with life skills,” said Dr John.
Such modules try to impart empathy by asking a child to walk blindfold among his peers in a session so that he or she gets a feel of the agony that a blind man goes through. The concepts are transferred to the students in such a fashion.
“Another basic aspect is that it cannot be limited to schools alone. Home and family are another major turf for it. These days children do not have much life exposure as in the old days. So family and parents should be better equipped to impart such lessons in practical life also,” said Dr John. “When one is taught how to be successful, he or she also should be taught how to handle failures also.”
The role of well-trained and equipped teachers in imparting such lessons is also important. “To ensure this, talent must be attracted to teaching profession, especially at the school level, and for that the teachers should first be well-paid,” said Dr John.
