As part of a State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) initiative to help students improve academic performance and handle stress better, mobile counselling psychologists have been appointed to conduct awareness programmes in schools.
Dividing Tamil Nadu into ten zones, the SCERT has appointed a counsellor for each zone and provided them with a mobile counselling van.
The van allotted for Coimbatore zone, comprising the city, Tirupur and the Nilgiris, made its first trip on Monday to the Government Boys Higher Secondary School at Ondipudur.
S. Arulvadivu, mobile counselling psychologist, said that initial focus of this event was to improve the academic performance of Class X and Plus Two students who will be taking the board examinations in the current academic year. Around 300 students took part in the day’s session. Further, special focus will also be given for classes with a high rate of absenteeism. Later in this programme, identifying learning disabilities will also be done, she said and added that she will be visiting the schools periodically.
Further, the psychologist said that they will also get the academic performances of students in high and higher secondary classes in all government schools in the district so that targeted interventions could be done. The counselling van was equipped with a television to show videos of stress management techniques, she added.