We have been hearing so much about mental health recently and while there is definitely a lot of talk, we need to see if there is a corresponding action. We started researching the ground reality at schools with the prospect of implementing mental health support initiatives to schools. It is mostly disappointing but surprisingly there are strong reasons to be optimistic about the future. Some of the questions that needed answers are – are we giving a secure childhood to children in the context of schooling? Are we helping our teachers handle the pressures of teaching? Are we helping the teachers to steer this generation, born with technology in their hands? Are we including parents in the process where a small tilt in the way we perceive childhood can go a long way in securing their lives? Not many studies are done on understanding how private schools in India are faring in this space. Our basic research from a small sample of city schools with parameters like awareness and openness of educational leaders, knowledge of child behaviour and credentials of teaching staff, systems to prevent and resolve crises, process of counselling teenagers, inputs from teenagers and counselors, investment of time and effort in psychological support processes. While most parameters are as expected, with a few surprises.
Insights are drawn from 31 private schools, 27 of which are small schools (100-400 students) and 4 are big schools (1000-2000 students) in Hyderabad. There is some activity in terms of psychological counseling, life skills training and training teachers at schools but there is hardly any coordinated effort for children, teachers or management in most small schools based on the interviews and public data. The good news is that big international schools are aware of how critical it is for children to grow up mentally healthy in addition to excelling academically or in sports or in art. These schools have a basic awareness on what constitutes good school counseling with a couple of them investing in a department of psychology along with special education. The bad news is that these schools constitute only 13% of the sample schools we studied. Surprisingly, even in these schools, there is no proactiveness or specific effort in bringing changes in the culture of these upscale schools with scarcely any informed and intentional decisions being taken in terms of establishing psychological expertise in schools. It is particularly strange that with proven benefits of leveraging expertise of school counseling and child psychology, most schools choose to ignore (or make half-hearted efforts in) this area.
As the focus of most schools and educational institutions has historically been on career success and earning potential of the young, the emotional or wellness indices do not seem to be showing much progress in our country. Whether it is psychological indices like number of suicides, percent of population struggling with depression, anxiety or mental health issues or the indices like happiness scale or the outcomes in sports or art, there is no significant progress that we can be proud of. It might be disappointing if we are still questioning or debating the benefits of building strong mental health interventions in schools. It is proven beyond doubt that having psychologists and counselors at schools, for social skills activities, individual and group behaviour sessions, staff training, and for prevention and resolving of crises, is indispensable. School Counseling interventions especially for adolescents showed great improvement in outcomes as seen from research studies. These interventions also showed improvements in social skills for all ages of children. Well-planned and well implemented school counseling is the best solution to handle current issues like substance abuse, gadget addictions, self-harm, depression, anxiety disorders, extreme adolescence issues, emotional unavailability, career uncertainty and many more.
What could be the reasons for schools to ignore investing efforts in this space? Is it due to the financial realities of smaller schools? Is there no clear positive financial outcome linked to this investment? Indian Schools being non-profit organizations, is it difficult to study the ROI dimension (a debatable topic as most private schools are non-profit only on papers)? Is it because most Indian parents do not consider this as a priority? Are the schools preoccupied with day to day operations of school? Is it too draining for schools to fight the societal stigmas around mental health, especially when there is no tangible ROI? Is there a fear of losing autonomy due to inertia around any culture change? Is there lack of much-needed nudge from civil society, parents or government? Are we not able to provide innovative, workable and affordable options to schools? Well, looks like all of these may be true to varying degrees and there may be more reasons.
While it is a daunting task to psychoeducate parents, schools and society, there are efforts to help people understand how the mind works, how growth and learning actually happens and how it is possible to make education and achievement much more efficient, fun, while building the character of our children. It is never easy to convince and bring big changes especially when current priorities need to be relooked at. It might be hard and slow, but it is absolutely doable. It is possible to make school managements see the fact that there is a clear ROI in investing time, efforts and money in this area. In fact, it is totally possible to reach school goals without losing focus on daily operations. There is no need of losing autonomy and schools can actually make real changes without affecting autonomy or making big investments. Why not delegate and partner with the right companies? Why not start looking at financial dividends for schools? Why can’t it be both? A strong and well-informed partnership between an inspired school and a motivated start-up of psychological services can bring in huge improvements in not only schools but also the society at large. This will also encourage entrepreneurs who are passionate to strengthen this space in our country. There is scope to reduce the costs of the services, improve and futuristic services to schools, increase the quality and build awareness not only in the cities but also in the small towns. This should help in nation building slowly but surely. All it takes is one motivated and child-centric school to think differently.
Part-2: Can private entrepreneurs bridge the gap?
Image Credit: Freepik.com
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