Nellore: Against the backdrop of students committing suicide, unable to handle the examination pressure and other social stigmas, a teacher of Kendriya Vidyalaya in Nellore has been carrying out a study on the Mental Health and well-being of students of higher classes to transform their stigmas into strengths.
The teacher, Sudha Rani Atluri, was the recipient of the National Incentive Award for outstanding contribution to education. She had also worked as a Biology teacher at the Indian Embassy School in Moscow, apart from Kendriya Vidyalayas in the north and northeast.
Thanking the Principal of KV, Nellore, Ms Sarita Rao, for her cooperation during the study, Sudha Rani said, “I have developed a strong feeling that promoting, protecting and strengthening children and youth, should be given top priority to prevent short term crises and to develop good inter-personal relationships among the students.”
Mental health and well-being has a profound impact on our quality of life. It is just as important as our physical health, yet people are reluctant to talk about and seek help for mental health problems,” Ms Sudha Rani observed.
According to Ms Sudha Rani, students are becoming more intolerant, stressed-out and are turning extremely sensitive to failure and rejection or failure, and are getting involved in bullying or harassing others.
Many students are not in a position to cope with exam stress, and are committing suicide or getting implicated in heinous crimes. There are cases of students in higher classes, remaining absent because of various family problems, anxiety disorders, behavioural problems etc.
As part of the preparatory work, advocacy meetings have been conducted with parents to tell them about the need and concerns of the Adolescent Education Programme. Under the principal’s guidance, the parents were enlightened about the skills and qualities to be developed among their wards for holistic growth and to face the challenges of life.
As many as 35 students of Class X and 11 students of Class XI have been selected for the study and there is a marked change in their attitude following counselling through systematic lectures, providing literature, care and involving the students in the survey and counselling part.
The project has been executed in a structured way by giving awareness on changes during adolescence, understanding personal strengths of self and friends for self development. Ms Sudha Rani had conducted interactive sessions on feelings, thoughts, deeds and elicited information on their helpful and non helpful thoughts, besides conducting group activities on Four Pillars of mental health and well being for self and community development.
Students were told to present their views on Work productivity, Reali-sing one’s ability, Contri-bution to community, through poster presentation to develop more awareness on these issues related to their mental health.
After this preparatory work the parents of Class IX were called for an advocacy meeting and discussed how they can help their wards to meet future challenges in life by giving an awareness on life skills to be inculcated among them.
Ms Sudha Rani said she took a holistic approach to abolish the stigma on mental health and well-being among students, so that they won’t be vulnerable to the problem.
She said she personally took individual counselling sessions with parents and students.
