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Schools introduce special coaching sessions for Std X students and their parents to help them cope with H1N1, exam and suicide fears
Veteran educationist and director of New India School in Kothrud Meena Chandawarkar is a worried woman these days. Apart from her daily routine, she has taken on the additional job of counselling students preparing for the upcoming board exams in March.
"We observed that the percentages of students have dropped slightly during the terminal exams because they had to take a break from studies due to swine flu. As a result, there is a lot of fear among them. We are worried about that, which is why study and counselling sessions have to go hand-in-hand," said Chandawarkar.
Many other schools in Pune are introducing intervention programmes this year for the same reasons. "We are introducing study sessions that will help our students work on weaker subjects. We will also give them personal counselling and use music therapy. Earlier, we would only organise such sessions for weak and vulnerable students, but the recent spate of suicides and drop in marks due to flu have made us include all Std X students in this exercise," said Jaya Bhaskar, principal of Abhinav English Medium School, which reported the first and maximum number of swine flu cases in Pune. Many schools have made it compulsory for parents to attend counselling sessions.
"We know why the students' scores have suffered this year. This is why we are counselling parents not to exert pressure on children. This only makes children even more fearful. It was because of these concerns that we decided to include one-to-one sessions with parents," explained Lily Patel, principal, Sardar Dastur Boys School. | 
