Help is at hand

Updated on: Monday, February 22, 2010

With the Board exams looming large, most students are burning the midnight oil. Stress, fatigue, blood pressure and sundry other problems that are part of student life come to the fore at this time and therefore, in a bid to make life a little easy for the student fraternity, the CBSE has begun its first phase of counseling which will continue till April 8.

“The CBSE outreach programme is carefully designed keeping the heterogeneity of the student population and geographical spread in mind,’’ said Rama Sharma, Public Relations Officer, CBSE.

There are a myriad ways in which you can get counselling if you are a student in need. For instance, CBSE telephone counselling is carried out by trained counsellors and around 52 principals from within CBSE affiliated schools in and outside India. Psychologists and social scientists will also be available on the helpline which will operate from 8 am to midnight from Delhi, Noida, Chandigarh, Meerut, Jaipur, Faridabad, Bhubaneswar, Vishakhapatnam, Jamnagar, Jabalpur, Coimbatore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Kerala, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Bhilai and Pune across India. There will also be three helpline centres outside India in Kuwait, Dubai and Doha.

Specially-abled kids will also be able to avail of this facility. This year the CBSE has set up a centralised call system for better accessibility and convenience. Students can call the following numbers and get in touch with counsellors for one-on-one telephonic advice — 011-22236110, 011-22236111, 011-22236112, 011-22236113.

“You could also log on to the CBSE website and interact with the Chairman on exam-related issues and the Director (Academic) and Controller of Examinations, CBSE can also be contacted for online counselling,’’ says Sharma.

There are of course other websites and helplines that students can visit. Snehi, a Delhi-based NGO, also runs a pre-exam helpline, Disha, which students may call anytime between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm every day except Sundays.

Then there is the CBSE website that gives plenty of information related to the exams and last but not least the CBSE has tie-ups with national newspapers like this one for weekly question and answer columns throughout the month of February.
A new online helpline called tomorrow4u.com by Sharda University aims to remove the examination blues of Board students and engineering, medical and MBA aspirants.

So, even though preparing for the exams may be a time of stress and strain at least you know that there is someone out there who is ready to listen and guide you along the way. Good luck!

Help is at hand

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