Awareness programme for school students and teachers on the responsible use of antibiotics at Kokuvil Hindu College

In view of reducing the misuse and overuse of antibiotics by the general public, the Department of Microbiology, has successfully conducted its first outreach awareness programme for the grade 10 students and teachers of Kokuvil Hindu College on the responsible use of antibiotics in the morning on 07.03.2025 from 7.45 – 11.00 am. Verbal approval from the school principal was obtained and approval was sought from the Provincial Director, Department of Education before the session.

Student awareness programme

The programme was conducted from 8.00 am onwards for about 1 ½ hours per group. Hundred and seventy students participated. A pretest was done at the beginning, followed by an interactive discussion session in small groups of around 15-20 students in each, role play by the students of Kokuvil Hindu College (who were trained by the department staff previously) and a posttest.

Performance of students in the pretest was compared with their performance in posttest (minimum possible score was 0 and maximum 10). The mean, median and mode scores of the students in the pretest were 6.6, 7, and 7 and those in the posttest were 8.6, 9, and 10 respectively.

Certificates were awarded to all the students who got the maximum score of 10 in the posttest (54 students) and to the 18 students who performed in the role-play.

Awareness session for the teachers

A discussion session by Dr Valarmathy with the teachers was held from 7.45 am for about one and a half hour on sensible use of antibiotics and the consequences of unnecessary and inappropriate use of it. Around 15 teachers actively participated in the session and discussed.

Funding was sought from the University for the Outreach Programme (accounts attached as annexure).

The department is committed to such awareness programmes to improve sensible use of antibiotics with the support of the supporting staff and temporary demonstrators.

Acknowledgements:

• A big thank you is due to all the grade 10 students and teachers of Kokuvil Hindu College who actively participated with great enthusiasm in the discussions.
• My sincere thanks to the Principal, Kokuvil Hindu College, Mr Vasanthan Perera for allowing us to conduct this awareness programme.
• An immense thanks to the students from Kokuvil Hindu College who performed a role-play on the responsible use of antibiotics and to the principal of Kokuvil Hindu College for allowing them to perform the role-play.
• A big thanks to teachers Ms Yalini and Mr P Kesavan at Kokuvil Hindu College for their support with the logistics and training the students for the role play.
• Thanks are also due to our Dean, Prof R Surenthirakumaran who has been wholeheartedly supporting our outreach programmes.
• My sincere gratitude to the supporting staff and Temporary Demonstrators of the Department of Microbiology for their whole hearted support for this programme throughout and for being the facilitators for the student sessions.
• An immense thanks to Mr M Ragikaran, Technical Officer, Department of Microbiology, who is the Coordinator for this awareness programme, for all his hard work and for making this outreach programme a success.