Health meets education, parent-teacher meets double as cardiac awareness sessions

Parent-teacher meetings (PTM) were organised at various government schools on Friday and a number of parents turned up to get feedback from teachers regarding their children.

In a novel gesture, students were asked to monitor the blood pressure of their parents during the meeting. The step was taken as part of a campaign initiated by the district administration and the DMCH to raise awareness among schoolchildren about the rising incidents of cardiac arrests among youth and others. The campaign, Swasth Kavach Mission, was initiated in schools and free apparatuses to check blood pressure were are provided by the DMCH.

“Such activities boost the confidence levels of both students and parents. The aim was also to spread awareness among students about cardiac issues,” said the nodal officer-cum- Charanjit Kaur, Principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Cemetery Road.

The authorities concerned provided free BP machines to the schools where the strength of students was above 75 in the district. Many schools collected the machines and taught students to monitor BP, but nearly 60-70 schools failed to pick up the machines from the main centre (GSSS Cemetery Road). “We had informed everyone but there were still many schools that did not send anyone to collect the apparatus, so we believe that the activity was not carried out in those schools,” said the nodal officer.

Meanwhile at the PTM, many queries of the parents were solved and they were briefed about the overall performance of their wards. Many other school-related issues were also discussed.