Our Responsibility to Children (ORC), a project for providing social and psychological support to schoolchildren, will be extended to 20 schools in the district. The project was implemented on a pilot basis in five schools last year. The programme is part of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), being implemented in association with various government departments such as Education, Health, Police, Excise, and Local Self Government. Aimed at weaning children away from unhealthy practices and harmful behaviour, the project envisages counselling and mentoring services.
Teachers in the schools brought under the programme will be given training and nodal teachers will be selected to coordinate the activities. Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of children will be done with a view to helping them cope with emotional, behavioural, and learning problems.
“The teachers are being trained to observe attitudes of the children in the classrooms. Children with deviant attitudes will be identified and a multi-pronged approach will be adopted to help them,” an official of the project told The Hindu.
Emotional problems
Under the programme, the class teacher will identify children who require special attention after assessing them through a questionnaire on ‘strength and difficulty.’ The learning and emotional problems faced by the children will be referred to the nodal teacher.
“If the behavioural problems arise from the situations at home, the parents’ attention will be drawn into the matter. Services of counsellors will be made available to help them. Though counsellors are available only in 60% of the schools, their services are being extended to other schools,” the official said.
Drug abuse
Drug abuse is one of the major problems found among children. A recent study held in schools in Alappuzha found that over 60 students were involved in drug abuse cases. Certain children were selling drugs even though they did not consume it. Even 6th standard students were part of the racket. Frustration and financial gain were among the reasons behind the criminal act.
The ORC scheme facilitates external help if the counselling sessions at the school fail to achieve intended results. Those who need further guidance or expert psychological consultation are referred to the district level committees set up for the purpose.
The scheme was successful in the first stage, the District Child Protection Officer said. The second phase of the project would be launched on July 15, he said. A representative of the Parent Teacher Association of a school said that though some training programmes were held, there was a need for more activities as well as an awareness drive.
The ORC project had originated a few years ago at Kozhikode after the police found out an abnormal rise in crime rate among children.