Can a five-minute meeting improve the wellbeing of students? The Indian school experience

Abstract

In India, school psychology is an emerging field of study. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has mandated the appointment of school counsellors to boost mental health through counselling, life-skills education, and career guidance. In the present study, the school counsellor implemented a five-minute meeting to quickly interact with students to promote their wellbeing. Using universal sampling, data were collected from 78 students using a Google survey form at one of the leading private schools in Meerut city of Uttar Pradesh State, India. The findings of the study indicated an improvement in the personal-social and school-career domains of students’ wellbeing. Approximately 72% of students reported being happy, and 58% shared being friendly (personal-social domain). Nearly 68% of students reported doing well in the school (school-career domain). Moreover, 65% of students expressed willingness to meet with the counsellor. The initiative received an overwhelmingly positive response (82%), indicating that it has increased the value of support for these students. This initiative provided an opportunity for both the counsellor and students to get to know each other and allowed the counsellor to plan individual and group counselling sessions as needed. Prospective studies could employ robust methodology with a larger sample size to evaluate the effects of this initiative on mental health outcomes.