The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has launched a new mobile application--‘Dost for Life'--for the psychosocial well-being of students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The app has been designed for students of Classes 9 to 12 and can be used for counselling sessions from May 10 onwards. It is available on the Google Play Store and will cater to students and parents from CBSE-affiliated schools in different geographies across the world.
The new application will host several features such as counselling sessions, expert advice, suggestive course guide after Class 12, tips on mental well-being, COVID-19-related protocol and audio-visual messages.
The counselling sessions will cater to both students and parents. The live counselling sessions will be conducted free of cost, thrice a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the trained counsellors and principals. This year there are 83 volunteers out of which 66 are in India and 17 located in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Nepal, Oman, Kuwait, Japan and the USA.
Students and parents can select their own time slot between 9.30 am - 1.30 pm or 1.30 pm - 5.30 pm and connect through a chat box as per their convenience.
Further, the CBSE's ‘Dost for Life' application will also include educational material on social, emotional and behavioural issues such as exam anxiety, internet addiction disorder, depression, specific learning disability, substance use disorder, aggression and life skills to sensitise students and masses.
This can be accessed at the website cbse.gov.in and the YouTube channel of CBSE.
