Health, Safety, Nutrition, and Well-being
This domain tests whether you can keep children safe, fed, healthy and emotionally secure at school, and whether you know the schemes and protocols that support this in Odisha schools.
Core rules and concepts
- PM POSHAN (the school meal scheme, renamed in 2021) provides hot cooked meals; nutritional norms are about 450 kcal and 12 g protein at primary level. Children must actually eat, so meal-time supervision, hygiene and taste-testing matter.
- Hygiene essentials: handwashing with soap before meals and after toilet use, safe drinking water, clean toilets, safe storage of food and water.
- Health programmes: Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) screening for defects, deficiencies, disease and disability; National Deworming Day held twice a year; iron-folic acid supplementation; vision and hearing checks.
- Safety: personal safety education under POCSO, no corporal punishment, fire safety and evacuation drills, disaster preparedness for cyclone and heat wave (highly relevant in coastal Odisha), safe play equipment, first aid kit and trained staff.
- Reporting: child helpline 1098, emergency 112; report suspected abuse to authorities - never investigate yourself or promise secrecy.
- Well-being: adequate play, sleep, freedom from fear and humiliation, attention to emotional distress.
Worked example
A Class 3 child faints during morning assembly in May. Reasoning: heat and possible dehydration or low food intake are the likely causes. Move the child to shade, loosen clothing, check breathing, give oral rehydration if conscious, inform parents and the health worker, and record the incident. It would be wrong to send the child home alone, or to restart assembly without reviewing shade, timing and water access.
Traps that cost marks
- Sending a sick child home unaccompanied.
- Ignoring allergy or food-safety information.
- Treating fainting, bruises or fear as discipline problems.
- Keeping a disclosure of abuse confidential instead of reporting it.
- Forgetting heat, cyclone and fire preparedness as school-safety duties.