The thought of an approaching examination can bring about a range of apprehension for students. But if this develops into excessive levels of anxiety, it can be debilitating and even cause panic attacks. That will misguide students and make them believe that they cannot succeed when really they can.
But convincing students who are victims to such anxiety that they can easily succeed is an art. Myrtle Mothis, English teacher at the Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School here is exercising that art through the “We Help” counselling programme under the Career Guidance and Adolescent Counselling Centre of the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education here since the past three years.
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In fact, she was selected for the job as Kollam coordinator by the directorate and had undergone training for the purpose. Her target category is higher secondary students and the counselling is provided from the campus of the Krist Raj HSS here. For this year’s higher secondary examinations which are over, the “We Help” centre here erased the examination fears of 91 students.
Out of them, 41 were boys and 43 girls. Ms. Mothis said that though it was basically fear, each student had a different problem and each of them warranted a different approach to be tackled and solved. The problems triggered from fear included loss of memory, feeling blank, lack of confidence, tension, lack of interest in studying, and inability to concentrate to name a few.
And after the examinations, many of the students had phoned and thanked the centre for the timely help which made them regain confidence and overcome the fear. That is big recognition for the work done, said Ms. Mothis adding that more than the timely help from the Centre, it was the students approaching the centre at the right time which produced the desired results.
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She said that had more publicity been given to the programme, more students would have approached the centre. The Kollam “We Help” centre can be contacted at Ph: 9446061954.