Educationists and education activists at an exchange of views in Dhaka on Sunday said that all stakeholders should work together to improve the mental health of the primary students across the country for a better future.
They also said that measures should be taken to work on the development of mental health of the teachers and the guardians.
Campaign for Popular Education and BRAC Institute of Educational Development organised the programme titled Mental Health Development of the Primary Level Students: Our Actions at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh auditorium.
While presenting a paper, the CAMPE programme manager Abdur Rouf said that the recent political movement, violence and floods had put a negative impact on the mental health of the students.
To know the level of 鈥榯rauma鈥�, they had conducted a qualitative survey in over 150 educational institutions across the country, he mentioned.
He added that as per the survey results on the students鈥� parents and teachers, they found that the students came out on the roads, eyewitness violence and became victims of violence and lost learning items during flood.
Rouf also said that they had found that the students were having different mental problems like negligence in study, having nightmares, depression, becoming aggressive, increasing mobile phone addiction, rate of getting infected with different diseases and decreasing rate of presence in schools.
CAMPE executive director Rasheda K Choudhury said that from this view-exchange, they would like to gather recommendations from different organisations and people to work on the issue.
Erum Mariam, executive director of BRAC Institute of Educational Development, urged the parents and the teachers to let the students play and participate cultural programmes as much as possible for their socialisation.聽
She also emphasised on the improved relations between the teachers and the students.
Dhaka University Institute of Education and Research professor and director of Teacher Development Institute, Professor M Nazmul Haq, urged the guardians not to give pressure of expectations on the students.
Psychotherapy professor MA Mohit Kamal, also senior-chief consultant at the LABAID Cardiac Hospital, stressed on the easy ways of communication with the students as a part of improving their mental health.聽
Two primary level students, Rahima Akhter and Saiful Islam, demanded more facilities for the working children and mid-day meal.
Participants in the programme also recommended for the awareness programme on the issue, training of teachers on mental health, coinciding facilities in the educational institutions, communication with the guardians and a student-friendly environment in the educational institutions.
Among others, Primary Education Consultation Committee member Chowdhury Mufad Ahmed, Bangladesh Primary School Assistant Teacher Society president Shahinur Al-Amin and CAMPE deputy director Tapon Kumar Das, among others, attended the view-exchange.
