Plagued with a high number of student suicides, the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) has issued instructions and guidelines for all the Principals of Junior Colleges in the state.
The list of 14 rules, tackles various subjects, which result in stress on the students and may lead them to take the extreme step.
Directing the management of the colleges to strictly follow the academic calendar issued by the TSBIE, the board also said that working hours should only be between 9:30 am to 04:30 pm.
"The management should employ professional counsellors to counsel the students regularly. The Counselling should be blended with fact finding exercises with the scope for development of remedial measures for the emotional and physical well being of the students," one of the points reads.
"Extension lecturers should be arranged by inviting experts in the areas such as building self-confidence, coping with anxiety, failure and success, improve concentration, career counseling etc.," the Board added.
Stating that games and sports in the evening were a must, the Board also pitched for the introduction of meditation, yoga, and other such exercises to be introduced in the daily schedule.
"The managements should convene meetings at least once a month, with parents, to ascertain from them about their own expectations and their wards feelings and suggest the remedial steps required. Also they must take steps to reduce the excessive emphasis of the parents / students on Medical/Engineering courses only and inform the parents and students about various other career options available also," the Board instructed.
Stating that an orientation programme has to be organised for parents after the admission process, the Board says that the parents had to be given lectures on different aspects of adolescent psychology and the parental role in dealing with emotional problems of children.
Managements have also been advised to appoint only lady teachers in Women Colleges as far as possible.
As far as hostels were concerned, the Board insisted that overcrowding of students should be avoided, and sufficient facilities should be provided.
"Parents should not to turn their children as tools for realizing their unfulfilled dreams. The parent community shall be asked to give priority to the interests of the students in selecting the course into which he wants to take admission. The parents should also advice their ward to select the course as per their ability," the Board said.
The college managements were also instructed to have proper infrastructure in their institute.
"The motto of all the Managements should be to safe guard the lives of the students who are the building blocks of the nation. If any deviations/violations are noticed, necessary stringent action will be initiated against the erring managements," Board Secretary Dr A Ashok wrote, at the bottom of the press release.
Meanwhile, the TSBIE also released the time-table for the Telangana intermediate public examinations, which will begin from March 1, 2018 and conclude on March 20, 2018.
According to reports, nearly 10 lakh students will be appearing for the exam, with practical exams scheduled to be held from February 2 to February 22 across the state, a month before the theory papers.