Soon,a manual to help deal with stress among school children

The manual is expected to be ready in a month’s time and will be distributed to schools. TISS is also in talks with the school education department to introduce the manual in others parts of Maharashtra. Representatives from TISS also met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan recently to apprise him of the study findings.

According to 2009 records,published by Ministry of Home Affairs,2,010 students committed suicide across India due to examination stress,including 227 from Maharashtra. In the wake of the spurt in student suicide cases in Maharashtra,the state government had asked TISS to conduct a study to identify the reasons for stress among young children and suggest ways to cope with it. The study identified school,family and society/environment as three main sources of stress.

Besides ways to identify signs of stress,the manual will recommend methods to address the symptoms. Since very few schools,which were part of the study,had a full-time counsellor,the manual will instruct schools on ways to appoint counsellors and develop a strong counselling system,keeping in mind scarcity of resources. Area of training the counsellors will also be covered in the manual.

Further,ways to involve parents in the process will be spelled out. The study identified the involvement of parents in children’s lives as key to reduce stress levels. “We will also suggest how schools can have regular interaction with parents so that both are aware of the child’s needs and problems,” said Parasuraman.