ZP plans counseling to adolescent students

The aim is to create awareness among students so that they do not take candid steps out of ignorance, says ZP CEO

Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, along with the Department of Education, has chalked out a programme to address adolescent students’ problems through psychological perspective. The ZP is on its toes to provide counseling to students in order to create awareness among them on various problems faced by them during the sensitive period of adolescence. 

The move of the Zilla Panchayat has come in the aftermath of the incident that took place recently wherein three High School students moved out of their hostels to explore the outer world. 

It may be recalled that students who went missing from post metric hostel of backward classes’ welfare department near Kaikamba were traced at Lingappayya Kaadu in Mulki on last Friday. The students had quoted the reason of ‘boredom’ in the hostel for moving out. The students had confessed that they moved out of hostel as per their own wish.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Thulasi Maddineni said that under the aegis of Zilla Panchayat and Department of Education, experts will provide orientation to the teachers to make them equipped with counseling methods.

The CEO said that the objective of the counseling programme is to create awareness among the students so that they do not take candid steps out of ignorance, she said and added that talks have been carried out in this regard with Roshani Nilaya School of Social Work.

High school teachers, wardens of BCM, post metric and pre metric hostels will undergo an orientation programme wherein they will be provided training by the experts in the field, towards addressing psychological issues among adolescents. The counseling will enable the students to share their problems with elders, she added.

Sarva Shisksha Abhiyan district project coordination officer S Shivprakash told Deccan Herald that SSA will coordinate with the Education Department in the execution of the programme. The orientation programme will be scheduled in the end of February, he said.

The wardens and school teachers, who have received orientation, will conduct counselling sessions in their respective schools and hostels. The counseling programmes will be held between April 1 and April 10, in all schools across the district after the end of examinations.

The schools and hostels will engage any one day between April 1 and April 10, according to their convenience for the counseling programme. Counseling for hostelites will be conducted separately, he said.

It will be seen to that the counseling programme is carried out in schools on a regular basis, after the commencement of school from June. The teachers and wardens will be directed to devote one day in a week to speak with their students. During the counseling, the students will be convinced of the administrative hierarchy, in order to make them knowledgeable regarding the authorised official, whom they are supposed to contact during problems, if any, Shivkumar said and added that during counseling, the children will also be informed on the child helpline and related issues.