GURUGRAM: The two-day workshop for government school teachers, under the government’s ‘Project Zindagi’ programme, came to an end on Saturday at the District Institute of Education and
Training (DIET) centre in Sadar Bazaar.
Around 45 teachers participated in the workshop where principal medical officer Dr Brahmdeep Sandhu, psychologist with Manas Foundation Ujjwala Bhandari and clinical psychologist Astha Dhingra apprised them about the various issues related to the mental health of schoolchildren.
Talking about the programme, Bhandari said, “We have tried to integrate comprehensive mental health and psycho-socio concerns of students in a strong curriculum under the
project, where teachers are being taught how to identify such cases and if required to refer them to counsellors or psychiatrists.”
She added that in the initial phase, the teachers will be under the supervision of professional counsellors and will be guided if they go wrong while handling such students.
Meanwhile, Sandhu said that stress also leads to poor academic performance. As parents usually hesitate in approaching psychologists, the easiest and most effective way to deal with these situation was to train teachers in basic skills of first hand counselling of students. “Only 10% children become toppers while 90% are slotted in the categories of weak and average. It is the latter who form the larger part of society. In order to help them do well in studies and manage stress even in future, counselling in schools is a big step forward,” Sandhu said.
