New Delhi, Sep 27 The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is set to launch “Student Mental Health and Well-Being initiative” to engage nearly 16 lakh students and 32,000 teachers of its affiliated schools in structured conversations on student mental health, emotional well-being, resilience and supportive school environments, officials said.
Coinciding with World Mental Health Day on October 10, the initiative will move beyond conventional awareness programmes by creating a structured mechanism through which students’ experiences, concerns and aspirations can travel from classrooms to regional platforms and ultimately to a national forum.
The initiative will culminate in the CISCE National Student Mental Health Conclave to be held from November 20-22 at the CISCE Centre of Excellence in Hyderabad.
“Student well-being cannot be addressed through isolated interventions or occasional conversations. We need to create a culture in which students are heard, their experiences are understood, and their voices shape how schools think about mental health, resilience, and support. This Conclave is our effort to take that conversation from individual classrooms to a national platform,” said Joseph Emmanuel, Chief Executive and Secretary, CISCE.
The first tier, School-Level Mental Health and Well-Being Dialogues, will be conducted from October 4-31, across CISCE-affiliated schools where students from classes 6 to 12 will participate in weekly, structured classroom discussions covering four themes — Student Stress and Academic Pressures; Emotional Well-being, Digital Life and Positive Relationships; Drugs, Substance Abuse and Healthy Choices; and Building Resilience and Help-Seeking Behaviour.
“The school-level discussions are intended to generate a large-scale repository of student perspectives and experiences while encouraging schools to strengthen listening, empathy, peer support and appropriate pathways to help,” Emanuel said.
The second tier comprises Regional Student Mental Health and Well-Being Conclaves, to be conducted virtually across 18 regions from November 4-14. Selected student representatives and teacher mentors will participate in regional deliberations, where school-level perspectives will be examined collectively.
The regional conclaves will identify of student representatives and teacher mentors for the National Conclave through a fair and merit-based selection process.
The initiative will culminate in the National Conclave in Hyderabad from November 20 to 22, bringing together 72 students representing the 18 regions, 18 teacher mentors, mental health experts, policy experts, CISCE leadership and representatives of partnering agencies and the media.
“The real measure of this initiative will not be the number of conversations we conduct, but what those conversations enable us to understand and change. We want to listen systematically to our students and translate their lived experiences into practical recommendations, stronger school practices and a shared national framework for student well-being,” Emanuel said.
(PTI News)
