Reiterating determination to end drug abuse

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, September 5

On the occasion of Teacher’s Day, residents of Maqboolpura, which houses a large number of addicts, are thankful to Deepika, headmistress of Government High School, Maqboolpura, who has been doing yeoman service by educating youngsters of the locality to wean them away from the growing scourge of drugs.

After learning about the rampant drug consumption in the area from where 90 per cent of the students come to her school, she introduced a regular counselling session for the students of classes IX and X.

“This age-group of teenagers are the most vulnerable to fall in the trap of drugs and other bad habits which could prove disastrous for any. So its objective was to sensitise them about drugs and their consumption,” she said. For this, head boys and head girls besides four captains and four vice-captains each in class IX and X were appointed. They created buddy groups to take students to library and keep an eye that nobody falls in the trap of bad company.

Malkiat Singh, father of a student, said learning about the counselling sessions in the school to raise awareness about drugs was very assuring move as a parent. Several valuables lives were snuffed out by drug addiction in his locality.

Deepika was the only teacher from the holy city who was part of the delegation comprising 50 heads of Government High Schools who attended the five-day special training programme at IIM, Ahmedabad. Recounting the experiences gained from exposure, she said she learnt to frame the activities in a manner that the students should be beneficiaries.

MSc in chemistry, presently she is teaching all three subjects of science at the school. While sharing her experiences gained during the five-day training programme which ended on August 5, she said it was virtually a life-time experience for her which would certainly open new vistas in school management and consequently bringing in qualitative improvement in education.

The training consisted of 16 sessions covering important aspects on leadership excellence such as the role of the school head in developing an effective academic climate, managing self-limiting beliefs, data driven decision making for school improvement, leadership in schools and many more.

She recalled that professor Vijay Sherry Chand had emphasised the student-centric approach and professor Anuj Kapoor connected artificial intelligence with education and explained how they could incorporate it in their schools. Prof Kathan Shukla, who also chaired the training programmes, made our training an incredible experience by guiding her to create effective academic climate, leadership for positive development of adolescents and introducing the element of gamification in education.