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

The Supreme Court issues 15 guidelines to safeguard students' mental health, including mandatory appointments of trained professionals and staff training on mental health support

The Supreme Court on Friday issued comprehensive guidelines to safeguard the mental health of students in schools, colleges, and coaching centres, which included appointing a qualified counsellor, psychologist, or social worker by all institutions with 100 or more students.

 

The apex court issued the binding guidelines while hearing a petition filed by the father of a NEET student who died allegedly after falling from her hostel terrace. Latest available data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), said that in 2022, over 13,000 student suicides were reported.

 

“The very soul of education appears to have been distorted,” the apex court observed while calling out the relentless academic pressure and rising incidents of suicides among students.

 

 

“Increasingly, education is perceived as a high-stakes race, a pressure-laden path towards 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defined goals of achievement, status, and economic security,” the court said, adding that the joy of learning has been replaced by anxiety over rankings, results, and relentless performance metrics.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 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.

 

“Smaller institutions must formally link up with external mental health professionals,” the court said. 

 

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, have also been mandated by the apex court.

 

Staff must also be trained to engage sensitively with students from marginalised backgrounds, including those from scheduled case 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.