India’s schools face a mental health crisis marked by insufficient counsellors, lack of proper training, and limited infrastructure. Despite mandates for mental health support, gaps in execution leave many students vulnerable. Recent efforts aim to set standards, training, and oversight to transform mental wellness in education.
India’s battle with mental health in schools unravels a paradox of good policies but weak execution. Both CBSE and CISCE require full-time counsellors and wellness teachers for senior levels, yet many schools merely tick boxes without real support systems. Students often perceive the system as untrustworthy, fearing stigma or administrative bias.
Critical challenges persist, including:
The Counsellor Conundrum
Most school counsellors are employees of the school, lacking decision-making authority to advocate for vulnerable students. Often, they juggle administrative duties unrelated to counselling or are overwhelmed by the sheer number of students they must serve. In some cases, psychology teachers double as counsellors, burdening emotionally strained individuals poorly equipped to detect bullying or self-harm. This leaves severe cases like trauma or suicidal ideation largely unaddressed.
Education System Pressures
Teachers face academic pressures and heavy workloads, which push mental health sessions into a checkbox exercise rather than a valued intervention. Many schools prefer hiring unlicensed or inadequately trained staff due to cost, missing the specialized skills required to support children’s psychological needs.
Infrastructure and Confidentiality Issues
Schools often lack private spaces for counselling, forcing sessions in shared or inappropriate environments, undermining privacy and trust. The absence of clear student-to-counsellor ratios exacerbates the problem, with some counsellors watching over thousands of students.
Fixing the Fault Lines
Recognizing these gaps, experts emphasize structural reforms: a mandated national counsellor-student ratio aligned with global standards (1:250), credential and training requirements for counsellors, and better teacher training to identify mental distress. Standard operating procedures for confidentiality, escalation, and reporting are also urgent needs.
Government and school boards are stepping up. For example, CBSE initiated a Virtual Mental Health Series in collaboration with AIIMS, addressing stigma and providing practical strategies for students, teachers, and parents. This step highlights a shift towards integrating clinical expertise with classroom realities.
Community and parental engagement, along with de-stigmatizing mental health conversations, are critical to creating supportive environments where students can seek help without fear.
As India strives to bridge policy and practice, building a robust, accountable mental health framework in schools is paramount to safeguarding the emotional well-being of its youth.
Key Highlights:
- Counsellor Challenges: Schools under-resource counselling posts; many counsellors double as teachers or are bogged down by non-counselling tasks, limiting genuine support.
- Teacher Load & Mental Health Taboos: Heavy workloads and stigma reduce the effectiveness of mental health sessions, making them superficial.
- Confidentiality Gaps: Lack of private spaces and poor infrastructures deter students from freely sharing mental health concerns.
- Urgent Reforms Needed: National counsellor-student ratios, better training, standardized protocols, and independent oversight are crucial.
- New Initiatives: CBSE’s AIIMS partnership for virtual mental health sessions marks a progressive step.
- Community Role: Destigmatizing mental health and involving parents and educators can foster safer, supportive school cultures.
Sources: India Today, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), CBSE, AIIMS, Sattva Knowledge Institute
