Mental health support is helping students manage stress and thrive in learning
In the classroom, children’s behaviour often reflects emotions they cannot express. In Peshawar, Pakistan, a structured school-based approach is helping teachers to recognise and respond to students’ emotional needs, reducing aggression, improving wellbeing, and learning outcomes.
Bringing Mental Health into Classrooms
In schools, many students experience stress, fear, and emotional challenges. They lack the language or support to express them. Teachers and counselors are not trained to handle students’ emotional stress. Safe spaces, mental health awareness, screening and parental engagement are largely missing. When these issues are left unaddressed, it leads to aggression, disruption of classes and poor learning outcomes. Building teachers’ skills to recognise and respond to students’ emotional needs is therefore crucial to improving students’ wellbeing and learning outcomes. School teachers can play a critical role in helping students to cope with these challenges.
Through the “Social Support for Vulnerable Afghan Refugees and Host Communities (SSARC)” project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ Pakistan is supporting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Department to integrate mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) into the public school systems across Peshawar. By providing structured training and ongoing supervision, it provides teachers with practical tools to identify and respond to students’ psychosocial needs and create safer and supportive learning environments.
Building Capacity Through Female School Leader’s Network
In Peshawar, 25 female school leaders were trained on MHPSS. They now provide mentorship and training to other teachers from schools across Peshawar. Each month, these female school leaders present structured plans to the District Education Officer to ensure alignment with the public education system and make the approach sustainable. They conduct regular MHPSS sessions for teachers and use role plays to demonstrate stress management and emotional wellbeing techniques to help them understand and respond to students’ behaviour and emotional challenges. This approach helps create safer and more supportive learning environments across schools in Peshawar.
This cascading approach has reached 41 schools, 443 teachers and more than 9,300 students across girls’ schools in Peshawar.
“As teachers, we now understand children’s emotions better and can help them to express themselves and feel heard. We respond with empathy instead of punishment.”
“We now treat students with greater empathy. The first step towards a solution is to be able to better recognise and express one’s own feelings and to feel that that their problems are taken seriously. It is particularly important for Afghan girls that they also feel seen and taken seriously.”
Practical Solutions for Everyday Challenges
Teachers are now better equipped with the practical tools and techniques to support students. They use simple stress-relief techniques and have introduced “grief boxes” in schools to allow students to share their concerns anonymously. In addition, referral pathways connect them with psychologists, clinics and other relevant support services.
Extending Impact Beyond Schools
The initiative also engages parents through Parent-Teacher Council meetings where MHPSS topics are regularly discussed. Parents are now more aware of their children’s emotional needs and are adopting more supportive behaviours at home.
“We work with parents to help children. They now take time to understand their children and guide them instead of reacting harshly to their child. This way, both teachers and parents support students’ growth.”
Creating Sustainable Impact
Integrating MHPSS into the education system is a long-term institutional change. It improves health and well-being of the students and promotes gender equality through inclusive and supportive learning environments. Integration of MHPSS in the education system is now benefiting hundreds of teachers and thousands of children across Peshawar.
