Education Ministry to provide additional guidelines on student depression

The Education Ministry will provide additional guidelines to help schools detect those students suffering from depression.

Minister, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said through the guidelines, principals and headmasters would be able to determine the appropriate form of action if a student was found suffering from depression.

"This is a serious matter and all parties should take note of the problem. We are asking school headmasters and district education officers to give due attention to the behaviour of students.

"For example, how does a teacher look at the development of pupils in the course of one or two years? If there were elements of depression, it should be referred to a counsellor or maybe, the parents should be called to the school for discussion," he said.

He was commenting on the case of Airel Hafiz Yahsin, a Year Six pupil who was found hanged in a house here on Wednesday, believed due to depression.

Mahdzir was met when visiting the family of the student in Felda Cahaya Baru Masai here Friday. -- Bernama