Population/Adolescence Education Programme


SCERT has been implementing Population Education Programme since 1984 and School AIDS Education Programme since 1998 with MSACS. The population Education programme aims at integration of population concerns at all levels of School Education and Teacher Education Programmes. It is the process of developing awareness and understanding of population situation as well as a rational attitude and behaviour towards those situation for the attainment of quality of life for the individual, the family, the community the nation and the world.


The Adolescence Education Programme (AEP) as one of the components of Population Education was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India in 2005 as a programme for adolescents. It is being implemented in states and UTs through SCERTs/State Boards with the support of State AIDS Control Society. The Objective of AEP is to provide young people with accurate, age appropriate and culturally relevant information, promote healthy attitudes and develop skills to enable them to respond to real-life situations effectively. The programme is implemented by using Co-Curricular methods with activities such as –

  1. Role Play
  2. Debate
  3. Quiz
  4. Question Box Activity
  5. Value Clarification
  6. Essay
  7. Teacher Counselling
  8. Painting Competition
  9. Poster  making Competition
  10. Group Discussion

 Objectives of Population / Adolescence Education Programme :

  1. Imparting scientific accurate and reliable knowledge about the process of Growing Up, HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse.
  2. To provide young people with accurate, age appropriate and culturally relevant information, promote healthy attitudes and develop skills to enable them to respond to real-life situations effectively.
  3. To enable Adolescents to articulate their issues and know their rights, counter shame and fear, built up self-esteem and self- confidence and develop ability to take responsibility in society.
  4. To empower young people through participation,process-oriented, non-judgemental approaches that build on the experiences of learners and provide them with aportunities to think critically,analyze and infer learning rather than being prescriptive.

 


SCHOOL HEALTH AND WELLNESS PROGRAMME (SHWP) UNDER AYUSHMAN BHARAT


School Health and Wellness Programme under Ayushman Bharat is a joint initiative between Ministries of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Education (MoE). It is a flagship programme of the Govt. of India for strengthening comprehensive primary healthcare in India.


Vision:

The initiative targets both Education and Health and intend to facilitate an integrated approach to health programming and more effective learning at the

school level.

Major Roles:

  • Under the programme teacher act as 'Health and Wellness Ambassadors' and disseminate various key information by organizing culturally sensitive

activity-based sessions for one hour per week for 24 weeks in a year to promote joyful learning.

  • Further, the students act as Health and Wellness Messengers in the society. And every Tuesday is dedicated as Health and Wellness Day in the schools


Objectives of the Programme: 

  • Increase knowledge, inculcate positive attitudes and enhance life-skills to promote informed, responsible and healthy behaviours-among school going children.
  • Creating school-going children and adolescence as 'agents of change' or 'health messengers' for spreading key health messages within the community.
  • Establish robust linkages between schools and Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) and AFHCs to ensure continuum of care between HWCs, higher facilities, schools and communities.
  • Foster growth, development and educational achievement of school going children by promoting their health and wellbeing.


Target Population:

The school health promotion activities will be implemented in all the government and government aided schools in the country. This will be achieved through the joint efforts and close coordination between Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource and Development at aIl levels (Centre and State).


Themes:

A Training Module is prepared by the NCERT which is translated in Mizo by the SCERT, Mizoram. There are eleven themes in the Module which are as follows:-

  • Growing Up Healthy
  • Emotional Well-being and Mental Health
  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • Values and Responsible Citizenship
  • Gender Equality
  • Nutrition, Health and Sanitation
  • Prevention and Management of Substance Misuse
  • Promotion of Healthy Lifestyle
  • Reproductive Health and HIV Prevention
  • Safety and Security Against Violence and Injuries
  • Promotion of Safe Use of Internet, Gadgets and Media


Operational Strategy

  • Schools covered - Middle School, Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools (Govt. & Govt. aided) of select districts.
  • Selection and training of two teachers as Health and Wellness Ambassadors on age-appropriate, skill-oriented, thematic, graded curriculum through a Cascade model (4-5 days training).
  • One-two days orientation of school principals/headmasters to increase programme ownership
  • Health promotion activities in schools by trained HWAs

- Weekly interactive classroom sessions for 1 hour week for 24 weeks

- One day per week as Health and Wellness Day.

- Installation of question box to resolve individual anonymous queries of students.

- Two students from each class selected as Health and Wellness Messengers to support HWAs in organizing school activities.

- Thematic Adolescent Health and Wellness Days may be celebrated every quarter in schools.

- Regular reinforcement of messages/themes through Information Education & Communication (IEC )/ Behaviour Change Communication (BCC)         activities such as interactive session.

- Referral of students to Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHCs)/Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) by Health and Wellness Ambassadors.


Selection of Teachers as Health and wellness Ambassadors:

It is recommended that proactive and self-motivated teachers with good communication skills, and ability to connect with students should be selected. The teachers from science, physical education background may be given preference. The age of teachers selected as Health and Wellness Ambassadors should be preferably below 45 years. Health and Wellness Ambassadors will then carry out the health promotion activities with the students.

Structure Activities:

The trained teachers/Health and wellness Ambassadors will conduct weekly sessions and complete the modules in the academic year as per the proposed schedule. The sessions have to be preferably included in the time table and regular curriculum of the classroom teaching. It is also proposed to have Tuesday of every week as the Health and Wellness Day. Age-appropriate material is being adapted from various programmes such as Life Skills, (Adolescence Education programme (AEP), Peer Educator Module, ASHA modules for conducting activities in the schools. The current sessions will build on the existing process to make it more comprehensive with respect to health.

Health and Wellness Ambassadors shall utilize training material provided to them. In case they are facing any difficulties in transaction of the sessions, they may seek help from the Medical Officers from PHC/CHC, Block Health Coordinator or the RBSK team doctor.

The Health and Wellness Ambassadors will be supported by two students (preferably) of each class who would help them facilitate the initiatives and activities under the school health component. They will be termed as 'Health and Wellness Messengers'.

Weekly lron Folic Acid Supplementation programme

  •  In-school adolescent girls and boys in class 6-12
  •  Out-of-school adolescent girls through the Anganwadi Worker (AWW) (adolescent boys covered by some States/uTs)
  •  Nutrition Health Education sessions in community and schools
  • Therapeutic dosage of WIFS-IFA to those diagnosed with anaemia for three months followed by weekly dose for maintenance

Weekly IFA Supplementation Programme (10-19 years)

  • Mass deworming for children aged l0-19 years
  • Twice ayear,usually on 10th February and 10tr August every year
  • For school going adolescent girls and boys aged 10-19 years, and out of school adolescent girls aged 10-19 years: Biannual dose of 400mg Albendazole (1 tablet).


MAGIC BUS INDIA FOUNDATION

Formal partnership agreement with the Government: 

Magic Bus signed a MoU with Department of Education, Government of Mizoram on 18 January 2023 which combines both Scale and Life Skills Collaborative initiatives. All three agencies of the education department i.e., Samagra Shiksha, Directorate of School Education and SCERT are partners in the entire programme.

Background/ Project Overview

1.   The Life Skill (LSC) aims to help organisations, institutions, and government agencies in transforming the learning ecosystem so that young people can thrive. LSC aims to build a Life Skills platform for India that will include a common vocabulary making it easier to understand the different terms that are  used today in the Life Skills space and build a set of assessment tools for a select set of skills which will have cultural and contextual relevance to the state specific ecosystem.

The current focus LSC is to build

  • Awareness in the area of Life Skills by listening to voices of different stakeholders on their needs and understanding aspirations to ensure that the provisions are matching aspirations and provide inputs that can drive government engagement and action
  • A contextual glossary or a set of terms and definitions to evolve a common vocabulary to purposefully develop Life Skills in India.
  • A set of assessment tools focusing on skills which support two broad area of Life Skills-emotional well-being and future readiness in adolescents in
  • age group of I 1-18 years.
  • Magic Bus is implementing life skills education programme in Mizoram through capacity-building of teachers and working closely with the education and school systems so that life skills-based approaches are integrated toward ensuring holistic education.


2. Objectives of the Project

The LSC with the Govt. of Mizoram will build and roll out assessment to over 30,000 students, 800 teachers and 30 state government officials. The following will be undertaken over a span of three years: 

  • Validation of the assessment tool in 2 districts with 600 adolescents and,25 teachers per district i.e., a total of 1250 respondents
  • Contextualization of the assessment tool
  • District level implementation of the assessment in 5 districts with 2000 adolescents and 50 teachers per district i.e., a total of 10,250 respondent per state
  • Provide technical support to the government in scaling up the assessment state-wide reaching out to approx. 22,550 respondents across the state
  • Collective of the qualitative data (voice from the ground-VFG) to compile contextualized glossary ready for the Life Skills ecosystem
  • Regular update and dissemination of results of work done by the LSC


3. Responsibilities of the Government of Mizoram

a) Provide permission to conduct the validation and district level assessment in the finalised districts in Mizoram (five representative districts)

b) Nominate Nodal officer as a single point of contact for LSC work and form a committee to coordinate and contribute to the work being done

c) Support in conducting the assessment exercise and collection of VFG by providing information about schools to collect data, among other similar areas of support

d) Scale up the assessment across the state in the third year of the project implementation


4, Role of Magic Bus Foundation

 Magic Bus India Foundation is fully responsible for ensuring the following:

a) Act as the focal point and the Lead for Mizoram for the Life Skills Collaborative

b) Support in conducting the validation and contextualisation of the assessment tool in collaboration with the Government of Mizoram

c) Conduct the district level implementation of the pilot assessment in 5 districts in Mizoram

d) Regularly update the LSC committee/nodal officer on the progress of the LSC activities

e) Disseminate results of the pilot assessment conducted

0 Provide{echnical support in scaling up the assessment state-wide


5. The Time Period of MoU: 24th April- 3l't December,2023


6. Project lmplementation Area

a) Lunglei

b) Siaha

c) Kolasib


7. Project Cost Sharing

There are no financial implications on the part of the government in year I (2021-22) and 2 (2022-23) under the programme. The government will provide logistical support to the LSC programme by facilitating workshops with Govemment stakeholders and LSC experts during this time. They will be expected to take part in workshops and discussions with the LSC experts on a periodic basis. In year 3, the government's monetary contribution is expected in scaling up the assessment state-wide.


Child Rights protection Cell:

Child Rights Protection Cell was established on 19 November 2009 under the Directorate of SCERT. The Cell was established to protect children from any form. of abuse by giving awareness to teacher educators, teachers and students. It aims at creating and enabling an environment to ensure protection of child rights. The Child Rights Protection Cell works together with School Education Department at all levels of school. The Cell also works in co-operation with the media and CBOAIGOs in the relevant field.




Contact Officers :

1. Ms. Lalnunsiami, Deputy Director - 9436153547

2. Ms. Laldampuii, Project Coordinator - 9436960715

3. Ms. Zozikpuii, Lecturer - 9774955014