SC urges coaching centres to appoint counsellors, train staff for students

Business Standard

3 days ago

The Supreme Court on Friday issued fifteen guidelines aimed at safeguarding the mental health of students in schools, colleges, and coaching centres across India. This includes appointing one qualified counsellor, psychologist, or social worker trained in child and adolescent mental health.
Calling out the relentless academic pressure and rising cases of student suicides, the apex court observed that 'the very soul of education appears to have been distorted.'
'Increasingly, education is perceived as a high-stakes race, a pressure-laden path toward narrowly defined goals of achievement, status, and economic security,' the court said, adding that the joy of learning has been replaced by anxiety over rankings, results, and relentless performance metrics.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta made these remarks while deciding a case involving the death of a 17-year-old NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) aspirant, who died under suspicious circumstances after falling from the terrace of her hostel in Visakhapatnam, where she was undergoing coaching at Aakash Byju's Institute.
Taking note of the growing mental health crisis among students, especially those preparing for competitive exams, the court issued 15 binding guidelines. It directed all educational institutions to adopt and implement a uniform mental health policy, to be reviewed and updated annually, and made publicly available on institutional websites and notice boards.
The apex court also ruled that institutions with 100 or more students must appoint at least one qualified counsellor, psychologist, or social worker trained in child and adolescent mental health.
Apart from these, the court also directed institutions to maintain optimal student-to-counsellor ratios and told coaching centres to avoid batch segregation based on performance, public shaming, or setting academic targets disproportionate to a student's capacity. Further, mandatory mental health training twice a year for all teaching and non-teaching staff, focusing on psychological first-aid, identifying warning signs, and referral protocols, has also been mandated by the apex court.
Staff must also be trained to engage sensitively with students from marginalised backgrounds, including those from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, other backward castes, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities, students with disabilities or trauma histories, the order said.
In particular, the court singled out major coaching hubs including Kota, Jaipur, Sikar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Mumbai, where students migrate in large numbers and where the pressure to perform has led to a spate of suicides. These cities must implement heightened mental health protections, it said.
The judgment came on a plea by the deceased student's father, who sought a CBI investigation after the Andhra Pradesh High Court declined his request. The Supreme Court allowed the transfer of the probe to the CBI, citing serious lapses by local police and institutional authorities in handling the case and evidence.
In further directions, the court ordered States and Union Territories to notify rules within two months mandating registration, student protection norms, and grievance redressal mechanisms for private coaching centres. It also directed the formation of district-level monitoring committees, chaired by District Magistrates, to oversee implementation and handle complaints.
The court has also asked the Union to file a compliance affidavit within 90 days, detailing steps taken, coordination with states, regulatory measures, and the timeline for the report of the National Task Force on student mental health.