Minding our Minds For Teaching Staff and Parents

Minding our Minds

On 30th October UNESCO New Delhi launched its book Minding our Minds during COVID-19: a guide to help foster positive mental health for students in India, towards its continued efforts to respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19 on the education system.

The guide was launched today virtually by Hon’ble Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Union Minister of Education, Government of India, in the presence of high ranking officials from the Government of India, Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Representative in India, representatives from other UN Agencies, stakeholders and partners.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused more than 430 million children in South Asia to rely on remote learning, who could now join the 32 million children who were already out-of-school. The long-time closure of educational institutes has hindered the growth as well as affected the mental health of students.

Minding our Minds
About the Guide: –

Divided into five modules the guide is to help alleviate the stress and anxiety that the school-going children are feeling.  As the schools reopen in India, the course will be a useful reference as well as an advocacy tool for not only enhancing the understanding of mental health issues within their students and children but also to scale up their efforts in helping them manage their mental wellbeing.

The five modules of the guide are (1) Introduction to coronavirus (2) COVID-19 and education (3) Looking after our mental health (4) Minding our minds during COVID-19 & (5) Way forward and resources.

For whom the book is: –

The target group for the guide includes: –

  • Educators
  • Trainers/ facilitators of education
  • Parents
What is the reader will achieve: –
  1. Have accurate and true information about COVID-19.
  2. Identify what anxiety is and how it affects young people
  3. Explain the possible impact of COVID-19 on mental health for all during lockdowns
  4. Investigate how teachers or parents can help young people
  5. Protect vulnerable youths suffering from anxiety
  6. Explore further resources

The guide is an extended version of a set of posters, Minding our Minds which were released earlier this year in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Tamil and Sinhala. These posters provided guidance to children, women and families who may be experiencing anxiety during the pandemic.

For more information, the interested reader can contact:

 Ms. Huma Masood, National Programme Officer (h.masood@unesco.org) Rekha Beri, Public Information (r.beri@unesco.org).

Click here to download the book.