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School students get another helpline to bust exam stress
Now board examinations can be a pleasant experience for the students. A counselor will always be just a phone call away to share tips on how to make preparations and cope up with the peer pressure or parents’ reactions in case of poor grade.
Now board examinations can be a pleasant experience for the students. A counselor will always be just a phone call away to share tips on how to make preparations and cope up with the peer pressure or parents’ reactions in case of poor grade.
Apart from the common helpline number of the Central Board of Secondary Education, students can also dial another toll-free number to seek guidance from experts.
A team of counsellors from Delhi University will be available between 10.00 am to 9.00 pm on the number 18002000026, said the NGO, Prayatna, which has set up the helpline.
Members of the NGO are distributing pamphlets in different schools so that the phone number could be circulated easily.
“We have tied up with 120 schools across India. In the city so far we have covered 15 schools. We are not only focusing on private schools but also trying to reach out to government schools students,” said Atul Agarwal, general secretary, Prayatna.
Pooja Khanna, a member of the counselling team said, that many children these days feel stressed because of high expectations from parents and society.
“This is an effort to give them pleasant examination experience.” She said, adding, “The counselling will continue till April and after that we would introduce post-examination counselling as most of the students are worried about results.”
Though most of the schools in the city have professional counsellors, but in most of the cases children hesitate to approach them as they fear that their classmates would tease them.
With board examinations approaching, the stress and pressure associated with them have started affecting not only students but their families too. The city has witnessed a 30-40% increase in number of students seeking help of psychiatrists in the past few weeks.
