Snehitha @School , a Kudumbashree initiative to provide counselling and motivational sessions for students, will be extended to six more schools in the district this year.
An extension of the Kudumbashree District Mission’s Snehitha gender help desk, the initiative was piloted in Government Model Higher Secondary School, Pattom, in 2017. Last year, it was expanded to 37 schools, mostly in the city. Adolescent and anti-substance abuse counselling and classes on cybersecurity and hygiene were provided to students and classes on parenting were held for parents on schools’ requests.
This year, Snehitha@School will focus on select schools in the rural, tribal, and coastal areas of the district. This is as per the directions of the Kudumbashree State mission to undertake focussed activities. It is also an attempt to support schools where services of school counsellors are not available.
The schools
Though it was initially decided to make interventions under the initiative in five schools — Government Tribal High School (HS), Meenangal; Government Kani HS, Panacode; Government Vocational Higher Secondary School (HSS), Vakkom; Government HSS, Poovar; and Government HS, Plavoor, Kattakada — a sixth school, Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Vithura, too was included in it as per its request.
The programme was formally launched in these schools on the Pravesanotsavam day. One teacher representative each was also selected from lower primary, upper primary, high school and higher secondary sections. Earlier there was only one teacher to represent the entire school. The Snehitha staff said this posed a hindrance as students were reluctant to approach teachers whom they were not familiar with.
These teachers will coordinate the programmes in the school.
An initial orientation programme for parents was held on the launch day. Module-based classes on parenting, mobile use among children, children’s development stages, and so on will be held for parents from this month.
Classes for students will be scheduled on the basis of their age and will include those on education, hygiene, motivation, Internet, or exam fear. Classes, in the format of a group discussion, will also be held in association with other departments such as the excise and police. Separate, need-based classes will be held for adolescents. For instance, there will be sessions on exam fear during examination time.
Classes on hygiene and motivation evoked a very positive response, Snehitha staff said on the basis of their experience in the past year.
