Tamil Nadu   

Counselling to help CBSE students tide over exam fear

G. Mahadevan

All about the CBSE helpline, which has become operational from February 1

Now that the countdown to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Classes X and XII examinations for this year has begun, the board has put in place, yet again, its tele-counselling facility aimed at helping students tide over examination-related physical and mental tensions and to clear any examination-related doubts they may have.

The helpline manned by as many as 40 Principals of CBSE schools and trained counsellors of the board has been in operation since February 1.

The first phase of this counselling will continue till March 31. These counsellors and teachers are spread across 13 cities, including Delhi, Chandigarh, Meerut, Jaipur, Faridabad and Bhubaneshwar.

This time round, the counselling facilities will also be available at Mumbai, Vishakhapatanam, Coimbatore, Hosur and Kolkata. The tele-counselling facility will also be available in Dubai.

The helpline section of the CBSE's website `www.cbse.nic.in' contains detailed instructions to counsellors, parents and students on how to deal with examination-related stress.

The counselling manual instructs the counsellors to be empathetic to the students who call in with problems, to be open-minded with them, to maintain objectivity while dealing with students, to be genuine in expressing concern and to maintain confidentiality about the problems expressed by students.

The stress factor

The manual also explains how stress may manifest as physical symptoms (tense muscles, change in appetite, headaches and cramps), as psychological symptoms (frustration, feeling mentally drained, being frightened and irritable, inability to concentrate) or as psychosomatic symptoms (fainting spells, asthma, vomiting, breathlessness, diarrhoea or gastric trouble.)

Parents whose children exhibit stress-induced dangerous or destructive behaviour can take a tip or two from the manual on how to deal with such situations.

The manual instructs the counsellors to strongly discourage violent behaviour or drug abuse while at the same time not adopt a moralistic attitude. Neither should any attempt be made to feel the student guilty about something he or she did.

Channels of communication should never be shut down and the child should be encouraged to share the problem with teachers or parents, the manual notes. It also says that counsellors (and parents too) should be assertive in denying the child's requests to take any drugs to tide over stress-related symptoms.

Based on the experience gathered through the tele-counselling sessions on since 1998, the CBSE manual also lists in detail ways to deal with students who exhibit suicidal tendencies as a result of examination-related stress.

The manual notes that a student who calls the counsellor is probably doing that as a last desperate measure and so it is necessary to buy time.

A lot of suicides are impulsive decisions while some are carefully planned.

Withdrawal behaviour spread over many days, the repeated mentioning of suicide and the writing of suicide notes are prime symptoms of a suicidal tendency, the manual warns.

It is important for such symptoms to be recognised and taken seriously; the services of a professional counsellor should be sought as soon as possible.

The manual also warns tele-counsellors not to recommend any medication for such students.

The helpline manual has a few exclusive tips for parents and students too.

The manual points out that parents should not `displace their anxiety' about examinations and performance levels on their children.

Moreover goals should be realistically set. On no account should family matters and academic issues be mixed.

Further, the parents can help the child a lot if they do not keep harping on the child's previous failures.

After all, the manual says, `Exams are not the end of the world.' There is also a special section on `must dos' for students to improve concentration and to get over study blocks.

The helpline link also lists 33 FAQs about the CBSE examinations, methods of valuation, rules regarding examinations and so on.

Helpline numbers

The CBSE helpline can be accessed over the MTNL network on the number 1250111102, and on 1250102 on the BSNL network.

Students dialling from Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Harynana will have to dial 95 plus the STD code of either Bangalore, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Indore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad or Gurgaon plus the number 1250102.

Students dialling from any other state will have to dial `0' plus the STD code of any one of the abovementioned cities plus the number 1250102.

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