BIE issues guidelines to prevent students' suicides

Hyderabad : Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) has issued certain instructions for all the Principals of Junior Colleges and Composite Degree Colleges offering Intermediate Course in State to prevent the students from suicide attempts.

The management of the Colleges have been directed to strictly follow the academic calendar issued by the TSBIE and the working hours should be from 9:30 AM to 04:30 PM. "The management should employ professional counselors to counsel the students regularly. The Counseling should be blended with fact finding exercises with the scope for development of remedial measures for the emotional and physical well being of the students. Extension lecturers should be arranged by inviting experts in the areas such as building self-confidence, coping with anxiety, failure and success, improve concentration, career counseling etc.," the Board instructed.

The Board also directed that the games and sports in the evenings must be made compulsory. Good practices such as Meditation, Yoga and relaxation exercise should be introduced in the daily schedule. The college managements should also keep a close watch not only on the performance but also any clues for psychological pressure on the students. "The managements should convene at least once a month meetings with parents to ascertain from them about their own expectations and their wards feelings and suggest the remedial steps required. Also they must take steps to reduce the excessive emphasis of the parents / students on Medical/Engineering courses only and inform the parents and students about various other career options available also," it said.

Orientation programmes for parents have to be organized immediately after the admission process is over. Lectures on different aspects of adolescent psychology, parental role in dealing with emotional problems of children should be arranged. Managements have been advised to appoint lady teachers only in Women Colleges as far as possible. If a hostel is maintained by the college, overcrowding of students should not be there in the rooms and the management shall provide sufficient number of washrooms, which are also found to be the reasons for development of stress in the students.

The Board has also asked parents not to turn their children as tools for realizing their unfulfilled dreams. The parent community shall be asked to give priority to the interests of the students in selecting the course into which he wants to take admission. The parents should also advice their ward to select the course as per their ability, says the Board's advisory.

The college managements were particularly instructed to have proper infrastructure in their colleges, ie. Sufficient space in the class rooms with proper lighting and ventilation and furniture and sufficient number of toilets etc., The number of students in each class room should also be restricted as per the BIE’s specific stipulations in this regard, which need to be implemented strictly. The limited number of students would also help in improving the quality of students.

"The motto of all the Managements should be to safe guard the lives of the students who are the building blocks of the nation. If any deviations/violations are noticed, necessary stringent action will be initiated against the erring managements," Board Secretary Dr. A. Ashok said in a press release today.