A three-day national conference on school psychology began in Chennai on Friday, with academicians and experts calling for a greater role of psychology at the college level as well as increased access for individuals seeking help.
The conference — ‘School psychology services to children with multiple disabilities’ — is being organised by Indian School Psychology Association (InSPA) along with National Institute for Empowering People with Multiple Disabilities at its premises in Muttukadu, along East Coast Road. S. Mohan, Director, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, suggested that study of psychology be taken up by students along with their regular subjects while pursuing arts, science, medicine or engineering degrees.
He was of the view that many successful people at work were unable to live up to the expectations of their relatives at home.
Urging InSPA to keep their doors open so that everyone could have access to applications of psychology in their everyday lives, Mr. Mohan pointed out that many successful professionals did not even see eye-to-eye with their colleagues.
K.V. Kaliappan, president of Madras Psychology Society, said the present system of education was unchanged since the days of the British, who provided education to “Indians, so that they remained clerks.”
“Education should be for personality development, not mere knowledge and information. It should make an individual communicate properly and in an effective manner,” Mr. Mohan said.
In his address, V.P. Thakur, president of InSPA, said the disabled needed intensive care. Hence, there was a need to educate parents, caretakers, peer groups and others associated with the disabled.
A number of technical sessions and paper presentations would be made during the three-day event.
P. Rajavelu, minister for social welfare, Puducherry, was present. N.K. Saksena of Kanpur received School Psychology Services Award, while Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani (TN), P.A. Baby Shari (Kerala), and Reshma A. Shah (Gujarat) received best performance awards. Panch. Ramalingam of InSPA and Neeradha Chandramohan, Director of NIEPMD also spoke on the occasion.