The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced that it would provide psychological counselling services to students at the time of preparation as well as during the examinations to overcome exam related stress. 

An official said the pre-examination psychological counselling for students and parents would begin from the February 1, and will go on till April 13. Also, principals and trained counsellors from within CBSE-affiliated schools located in and outside India would provide tele-counselling. According to CBSE, this year 91 principals and trained counsellors from CBSE-affiliated government and private schools, few psychologists and special educators would participate in tele-Counselling and address exam related psychological problems.

In addition, students can dial the toll-free number 1800 11 8004 from anywhere in the country, which would give centralised access to CBSE helpline. This apart, CBSE experts would also answer queries from the students through weekly question-answer columns that would be published in major national newspapers during the month of February. Students can also send their queries to counselling.cecbse@gmail.com. 

In Tamil Nadu, the government-run 104 health helpline have started receiving calls from students who raise a range of questions. 

“We have just started receiving calls from the students. Right now, they want to know how they can improve their learning capacity or how to not forget what they studied during the exams. Some even asked for suggestion about the choices for their higher studies,” said B Elayaraja, a counselling psychologist at the helpline. 

He added that they are expecting more calls as the exams get nearer, especially from the class 11 students who would be writing their board examinations for the first time. 

“We have enough psychologists to handle the calls from the students during the examination time. We have gotten more experts as we will be expecting more calls,” Elayaraja added.