Teachers in the state are now being taught how to handle issues like infatuation and addiction in adolescents and their increased dependency on cellphones and television. These teachers, once trained, are expected to act not just as counsellors but as friends.

As many as 400 teachers have so far been trained as ‘master trainers’ in adolescent psychology at the Pune–based Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (Yashada).

These master trainers will now help 20,000–odd teachers – one from each school across the state – to understand subtle issues of adolescence which, until recently, had hardly received any attention in schools.

Teachers from zilla parishad–run, aided and non–aided schools will get the training.

"Adolescents studying in std VIII to X who have behavioural problems were until now dismissed as ‘brats’ without anyone understanding the reason behind the problem. This should no longer be the case after teachers understand the real causes and their psychology, " said senior researcher Shashikant Waidande, officer on special duty, Centre for Human Development, Yashada.

He said, "We have prepared a training module on adolescent psychology for teachers. The aim is to help teachers become reasonably well–informed about the current scientific knowledge about childhood, adolescent development and psychology so that instead of simply dismissing a child as a brat, the teachers will form a friendship with the student to understand and resolve his/her issues. "

Like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the department of school education and literacy of the Union ministry of human resource development has launched Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) with an aim to achieve universal access and quality secondary education. "The training module on adolescent psychology is part of the RMSA, " Waidande said.

"There are some private schools who have already appointed counsellors to tackle issues of adolescent students. But we have still asked them to send their representatives for the training, " he added.