Parental involvement key to student well-being in Thiruvananthapuram coastal schools

An intervention report on Project Changathi that is being implemented in a couple of coastal schools in the district by the non-governmental organisation Kanal has found that lack of parental involvement is closely linked to issues identified among students such as psycho-social difficulties, nutritional deficiencies, and academic neglect.

Changathi is a bio-psycho-social intervention project launched in 2023 to improve the well-being of early adolescents in the fishing community in the coastal areas of Thiruvananthapuram. It is fully operational in two coastal schools, with primary focus on Class VII students, and is in nascent stages in a third school.

The comprehensive intervention report for the 2023-25 period found that parental involvement played a crucial role in students’ academic progress and well-being. Issues such as skipping meals, nutritional deficiencies, and psycho-social problems were closely linked to challenges in parenting.

Inadequate parental supervision was a cause for concern. Often, both parents went for work to earn daily wages. This, in turn, limited the time and attention they could devote to their children, especially if men went out to sea at night.

A significant number of families experienced instability, including high rates of marital separation and parental alcohol dependency, particularly among fathers. This had an impact on children’s emotional and economic stability.

Inadequate support

Students from disrupted or single-parent families found it difficult to concentrate in class. For parents, daily survival priorities eclipsed academic encouragement, leading to inadequate academic support to children and poor communication with teachers. Houses were often cramped and overcrowded, and so lacked quiet study environments. Many parents had low literacy levels, which hindered their ability to guide their children or monitor homework and revision.

With parents working, it was found during biological assessment that students would buy hotel food and regularly consume junk food. This, in turn, affected their immunity and long-term health and academic performance.

Kanal conducted group therapy for students and found improvement in their home adjustment. In one school, parent management training yielded positive results, with parents continuing to seek counselling support and guidance for their children in the first year of the project. In a school where the project was launched in the second year, poor turnout in 2024-25 led to the launch of corner PTA meetings based on residential clusters this year. This improved parental participation, largely by mothers.

Community-based activities on nutrition education helped educate parents on importance of consuming green, leafy vegetables and maintaining a balanced diet so that family-level dietary habits could be reinforced and affordable nutrition practices promoted.

A ‘Happy hour at home’ campaign required parents and children to spend at least 15 minutes together before bedtime in a casual environment in order to increase their bonding and providing an opportunity for parents to understand children’s issues, says Anson Alexander, director, Kanal.