The School Education Department's initiative to create a database of health conditions among government school students through a mobile application, while seen as a welcome step by the public and teachers, has also raised concerns about its effectiveness when used by teachers without prior training, stated a report in The New Indian Express.

TN-SED (Tamil Nadu - School Education Department) was launched by the state government in the academic year 2022-23 with a few questions. For the current academic year, more questions have been included. The health and well-being section features questions regarding conditions like anaemia, poor vision, congenital heart diseases, dental care, fluorosis, angular stomatitis, candidiasis, low immunity, urinary tract infections, skin diseases, muscular dystrophy, general physical health, sleep deprivation, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, social withdrawal, difficulty communicating, menstruation among girl students and seizures among others.

Understanding of the condition
Teachers were asked to fill the answers for each student at the start of the academic year. A government school teacher at Uthamarseeli in Tiruchy pointed that the questions were completely new to many of them, and that one had to have some understanding of each condition before answering it. "These questions cannot be answered with just a general observation of the student — teachers must have prior knowledge about these conditions," the teacher added.

Another teacher from a government higher secondary school in Lalgudi, said, "Most students would have no idea about these conditions and neither would their parents. Answering the questions with just students' inputs would make the whole thing ineffective."

Teachers should be trained
According to sources, the health database will be used when the medical team visits the schools to examine the children's health.

A school education official who wants to remain anonymous said, teachers should be trained about the questions and sensitised to the purpose of the drive. "Since many teachers are not comfortable with questions like menstruation cycle of girl students, they either skip it or answer by themselves which defeats the whole purpose," the official said, adding that teachers should be mentally prepared and have a thorough knowledge of each condition before filling out the database.