深圳中小学开设心理课程 

    Wang Yuanyuan

    Primary and middle schools in Shenzhen must hold at least one psychological* education class every two weeks to ensure the mental health of pupils.

    Each school must have at least one professional psychologist to help students deal with day-to-day issues and intervene* if a child had psychological problems, according to the city education bureau.

    Schools should also promote psychological health in class during teaching with discussions and psychological consultations*.

    Boarding schools* and schools with more than 60 classes should have at least two psychologist teachers and each independent campus of a school should have at least one psychologist teacher, the bureau said.

    Schools were ordered to develop a protective monitoring system* to prevent pupils from engaging in extreme activities. Pupils who show abnormal changes should be immediately reported to school authorities, parents and the media if necessary, the bureau said.

    There are 13 provincial psychological health education model schools in Shenzhen and more than 500 schools had set up psychological consulting rooms. About 357 schools opened psychological hotlines and 166 schools established mental health Web sites, helping students with psychological problems of all kinds. More than 280 professional psychologist teachers were working in Shenzhen and all middle schools already had at least one psychologist teacher, the bureau said.

    Meanwhile, most suicidal children wanted to end their lives rather than suffer serious psychological problems, Kangning Hospital president Liu Tiebang said. “Parents and teachers need to be more careful observing students’ psychological changes and be more considerate to children in their daily lives,” Liu said.

    Most Chinese children’s worries stemmed from* problems such as studying, relationships, communicating, examination failure and eating disorders. “Parents should teach their children more about society and communicating, improving social awareness to prevent them from doing something extreme,” Liu said.