More than 50% school-going students suffering from stress

Chennai: It is, perhaps, a revelation and a disturbing one at that – a survey conducted by the Scooldudes Team across 8 major cities in India and covering about 5000 school-going children has found out that 50 per cent of the surveyed children in Chennai are acutely stressed with the reasons cited being heavy syllabus, long study hours (incl. after school tuition), parental/teacher pressure and lack of confidence.

The stress levels of Mumbai and Bangalore children are higher at 80 per cent and 65 per cent respectively but that is not a comfort for the Chennaiites!! While this is so, today's typical parents have another major concern – their child is totally locked up with his/her mobile or the desktop or the iPad or the tablet, playing some video game or the other or generally lost in the world of social media and the internet.

Thankfully, Ramachandran Kannan, an XLRI alumnus (1982 batch) and an HR professional turned academician, seems to have come up with a workable solution to this vexing issue, courtesy, the innovative and engaging App Scooldudes formally launched on Friday in Chennai. The timing could not have been better what with the summer vacations just about to commence and the parents and children desperate to seek promising after-school engagement programmes!

Launching the Scooldudes App, B Santhanam, Managing Director, St. Gobain India Pvt. Ltd., lauded this initiative and said that this innovative effort will go a long way in addressing the major concern of today's parents and exhorted the children and parents to fully utilise the functionalities of the App.

He mentioned that there are outbound activities to provide experiential learning that would help in developing the life skills of children such as Self Awareness, Social Skills, Communication, Interpersonal Relationship, Coping with Stress, Decision Making and so on. He mentioned about a dozen programs available in the App such as J4M (Just 4 Minutes), Community Connect, Work and Learn, Career Wise, P Files, Wassup, etc., to ensure the development of these skills in children.

In short, this is a holistic platform which takes the students away from games and develops/improves their skillsets and even makes them plan their career in a very engaging and interesting way. Mr. Kannan has ensured to put in all his 35 years of experience and knowledge in designing this platform.

The App Launch in Chennai follows the successful launch of Scooldudes Operations in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra on Wednesday, the 10th April. Started in 2013, as a fun-filled after-school hangout for the children between the age group of 12 to 18 years, currently, Scooldudes has a presence in Chennai and other southern States. A recent entrant to Mumbai, Schooldudes will soon expand to other parts of India including Kolkata, New Delhi and other Tier I and Tier II cities in the next year. The company is also planning for a global launch in the near term