Gujarat makes counsellors and wellness teams mandatory for Classes 9 to 12

The Gujarat government has introduced regulations requiring mental health support in Classes 9 to 12 of schools affiliated with the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB). Schools must form a School Wellness Team every academic year, and schools with 100 or more students must appoint at least one qualified counsellor, psychologist or social worker trained in child and adolescent mental health.

What happened

The provisions were introduced under the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Regulations, 1974, and were announced in a state government release on 1 November 2026. The government said they follow the Supreme Court’s guidelines and directions on student mental health and suicide prevention, and the state has adopted NCERT’s UMMEED (Understand, Motivate, Manage, Empathise, Empower and Develop) guidelines as a reference framework.

Every school offering Classes 9 to 12 must constitute a School Wellness Team at the start of each academic year, with its functioning reviewed annually. The principal heads the team and a counsellor or designated teacher coordinates it. It also includes a teacher each from the secondary and higher secondary sections, a School Management Committee representative, a non-teaching staff member and two student peer leaders, called Mano-Mitra.

Schools with 100 or more students must appoint at least one qualified counsellor, psychologist or social worker trained in child and adolescent mental health. Schools with fewer than 100 students must set up formal referral arrangements with external mental health professionals, nearby community and primary health centres, the District Mental Health Programme and Tele-MANAS.

All teaching and non-teaching staff must be trained by certified mental health professionals at least twice a year. Schools must have procedures for psychological first aid, recognising warning signs, responding to self-harm and referral, must give students confidential channels to raise concerns, and must keep counselling records confidential. Additional mentoring or counselling is required around board examinations, results and the moves from Class 8 to 9 and Class 10 to 11.

Schools may not segregate students by examination results or marks, publicly humiliate them, or compare them in ways that could cause distress. A school’s failure to act on a risk it knew of, or should reasonably have known of, may be treated as institutional culpability where it significantly contributed to serious harm or a student’s suicide. A district-level committee headed by the District Collector will oversee implementation.

Why it matters

The rules treat student mental health as a defined institutional duty, with named roles, staffing thresholds, training frequency and accountability, rather than an optional service. Counsellors working in these schools will be expected to work within a team, keep records confidential and run referral pathways to public services such as Tele-MANAS.

The release, as reported, does not define which qualifications count as “qualified”. Anyone seeking one of these posts should check the eligibility conditions set by the state or the school; a training certificate, including one from Therapy Council, does not by itself meet a statutory employment requirement.

What happens next

How the rules work in practice will depend on the supply of trained counsellors, the capacity of referral services and the district committees’ oversight. This item will be updated if the state publishes the regulation text or qualification criteria.

Source

• The Indian Express (Press Trust of India)Gujarat mandates mental health support for Classes 9 to 12; adopts UMEED guidelines