Organiser:CBSE
Participants: Ms. Shalu Kathpalia& Dr. Preeti Jain
Divit Raheja, Akshaj Singla, Vedika Raj Singh, and Priyanka (Students)
The Central Board of Senior Secondary Education (CBSE) in collaboration with Expressions India, conducted a training for adolescents, ‘Adolescent Peer Educators Life Skills Leadership Program’ from 11 March to 14 March 2024. Several schools from across the country came together on a virtual platform to participate in the training. Ms. Priyanka, Ms Vedika from class XI, and Divit and Akshaj both from class IX represented Salwan Schoolas adolescent peer educators, accompanied by their teachers Dr. Preeti Jain and Ms. Shalu Kathpalia.The purpose of the programme was to impart life skills to the students that are useful in the context of everyday life and relevant to contemporary times. Its key objective was to enable them to recognise the role of mental health and well-being and to make them apply their best efforts to practically execute the learnings from the training, in creative ways. The training programme was divided into four days with one key module encapsulating a different theme each day.
Day 1
On the first day, the students were introduced to the objectives of the programme along with its relevance in contemporary times and how it would empower them. The first theme focused on the commonly observed health concerns such as nutritional issues, substance use/abuse and puberty related issues. The key messages of the module centred on normalising the emotional storms of adolescence
Day 2
The next theme was titled ‘Building resilience for coping and capacity building’, which began with a short ice-breaking activity, followed by introducing the students to the importance of resilience- the capacity to bounce back from any hurdle. It was highlighted that resilience does not mean that the students will not be affected by challenges or adversities, but they will acquire the skill to deal with these difficult situations.
Day 3
The third day’s theme centred around ‘A healthy expression of emotions. After a recapitulation of the previous session, the students collectively introspected on what the term ‘emotion’ meant. Through an activity, the students were invited to reflect on their emotions, especially the more difficult ones. Emotions, as per the facilitator, were transient and not permanent. They had a ripple effect on our surroundings.
Day 4
On the final day of the workshop, the students were introduced to the theme of ‘Digital Literacy’, with the key objective of helping students safely navigate the internet, follow digital etiquette and hygiene along with acquiring some awareness on the downsides of being on the internet
The session concluded with the agreement that being safe on the internet is a personal as well as a collective responsibility shared by us, the government, the developer/owner of a particular social media platform besides our teachers, parents and mentors. The children were made aware of the effects of data phishing, harmful games on the internet and the ways in which hackers illegally steal information, which ultimately have a detrimental effect on physical as well as mental health. The child helpline number (1098) was shared with the participants along with various strategies to be safe on digital platforms.
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