Counselling Cell, Directorate of School Education Jammu, in collaboration with Bharti Foundation the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, organised online sensitization cum training programme in Jammu Division to create awareness among faculty counsellors regarding Manodarpan, an initiative of MHRD to provide psychosocial support to students, parents and teachers during this COVID-19 Pandemic and beyond. Over 2009 Faculty counsellors from 1100 Schools (Higher Secondary and High Schools) of Jammu Division were trained on Stress Management, Managing Emotions and Manodarpan. These faculty counsellors are working in already constituted counselling cells in High and Higher secondary Schools, will further impart these training to students, their parents and teachers. The training was imparted from August 31 to September 9, 2020 in a phased manner using virtual platforms in all the 10 districts of Jammu Division. Resource persons both from counselling cell DSEJ and Bharti Foundation conducted online interactive sessions. To make training effective, various features were added to the session like pre-post assessments, regular interactions, feedback and polls. Speaking on the occasion of this initiative, Director School Education Jammu, Anuradha Gupta called upon all faculty counsellors to carry this training forward to the students, parents and teachers. She said that during this covid-19 pandemic, the mental health of students, parents and teachers has been adversaly impacted and at this crucial time, they need psychosocial support. She appreciated the efforts of Counselling Cell DSEJ and Bharti Foundation to organise relevant sessions on Manodarpan, stress management and Emotions Management. She proudly recognised the foresightedness of Counselling cell in taking initiative of psychosocial support to others even before the inception of this idea of Manodarpan by MHRD. She asked counselling cell members to conduct a study for impact assessment of such psychosocial interventions. Head Counselling Cell DSEJ, Romesh Kumar assured to work for making these initiatives sustainable to offer psychological support post-covid times too. He said that Counselling Cell DSEJ started its psychosocial support activities even before this Govts.’initiative and its Telecounselling Helpline Aao Baat Karein was launched in Feb.2019. He informed that faculty counsellors are actively engaged to offer psychological support to the students even before the launch of Manodarpan. Project Head, Bharti Foundation, Anil Bhat, added, “It has been our constant endeavor to provide rural children access to quality education through innovative teaching-learning methodologies. Technology, especially when schools are closed due to COVID-19, have helped us in ensuring that students across rural area continue to stay engaged with education, while being at home.” The sessions on orientation to Manodarpan were conducted by Romesh Sharma Head Counselling Cell DSEJ, Alka Sharma Member Counselling cell DSEJ, Preeti Sharma faculty Counsellor and Ruhi Kousar District counselling coordinator whereas Sessions on Stress Management and Managing Emotions were conducted by resource persons from Bharti Foundation. Pertinently Counselling cell DSEJ is actively engaged in offering psychosocial support to students during these challenging times through different activities viz: telecounselling helpline, webinars, and virtual sessions by faculty counsellors, capacity development of faculty counsellors, issuing advisories,following counselling calendar etc., Bharti foundation is helping counselling cell DSEJ in strengthening counselling cells in schools. The technical support for this training programme was provided by Bharti Foundation whereas Counsellor Shanti Saroop Sharma member Counselling cell DSEJ, District Nodal Officers, District Counselling Coordinators, Zonal Counselling coordinators, Psychological Task Force members, Sohail wani DRG Doda contributed in its smooth conduct.
