Maharashtra issues guidelines to reduce stress faced by school-going kids, applicable for private coaching classes too

Apart from preventive measures, the guidelines also include directives to set up district-level committees, which will be headed by district collectors to address complaints related to students' stress. (Representative Image/File Photo)

IN A first, the Maharashtra government has issued comprehensive guidelines to reduce academic or any other stress faced by school-going students. These preventive measures including guidelines on student-counsellor ratio, timely mental health support, publicising of suicide prevention helplines among others will be applicable not only for schools but also for private coaching classes.

The decision, according to the Government Resolution (GR) issued in this regard, follows concerns and complaints regarding rising stress levels among students and in line with recent directions by the Supreme Court. The state will also begin the process of registration for private coaching classes following SC guidelines and a detailed procedure for the same will be declared soon.

Apart from preventive measures, the guidelines also include directives to set up district-level committees, which will be headed by district collectors to address complaints related to students’ stress. The committee will include senior officials from departments such as education, health, women and child welfare along with social workers and child psychologists.

The guidelines mandate that educational institutions with 100 or more students must appoint at least one qualified counsellor or psychologist. Whereas institutions with fewer students will be required to establish formal referral arrangements with external mental health professionals. “All educational institutions must maintain an appropriate student-to-counsellor ratio, particularly around and during exams, which is a period when students are most likely to be stressed,” stated the GR.

All schools and coaching classes are instructed to ensure prominent display of mental health services and suicide prevention helpline numbers in classrooms, common area, hostel etc. Additionally, it will be mandatory for all teaching and non-teaching staff to undergo two mental health training sessions, annually. This, according to GR, will prepare the staff for psychological first aid, identification of warning signs and response to self-harm incidents.

As per the guidelines issued, especially for private coaching institutes, they are expected to ensure a balanced time table that will allow students adequate time to rest. This will include one weekly holiday, no tests immediately after the weekly off, holidays for local festivals, cap on coaching hours to not be more than five hours a day and classes are not scheduled early in the morning or late in the night. In a first, the coaching classes are directed to organise co-curricular activities on life-skills, mental well-being, creativity, physical fitness, constitutional values, personal safety, environmental awareness and harmful effects of substance use along with counselling sessions.

The guidelines pertaining to private coaching classes instruct the institutes to clearly inform students and parents that enrolment in classes does not guarantee success in competitive exams for admission to professional courses such as engineering and medical etc. It further prohibits coaching classes from displaying test results. Each coaching class is advised to establish grievance redressal mechanisms within one month.

Responding to the guidelines, a first such mandate for private coaching classes in the state, Bandopant Bhuyar, from the State Consortium of Coaching Teachers and Institutes in Maharashtra said, “If directives are going to be made mandatory for coaching institutes, their representatives should also be there on committees regarding the same.”