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

In view of reducing the misuse and overuse of antibiotics by the general public, the Department of Microbiology, has successfully conducted an awareness programme for the grade 10 students of Jaffna Hindu College on the responsible use of antibiotics on 29.01.2026 morning from 8.00 – 11.00 am and for the teachers on 09.02.2026 afternoon from 1.45 – 03.15 pm. Verbal approval from the school principal was obtained and approval was sought from the Provincial Director, Department of Education before the session.

The programme was conducted from 8.00 am onwards for about 1 ¼ hours per group. Three hundred and eleven students participated. A pretest was done at the beginning, followed by an interactive discussion session in small groups of around 25 students in each, role play by the students (who were trained by the department staff a few days before) 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 7.11, 7, and 9 and those in the posttest were 9.02, 9, and 10 respectively.

Certificates were awarded on 12.02.2026 to all the students who got the maximum score of 10 in the posttest (135 students) and to the 15 students who performed in the role-play.

A discussion session by Dr Valarmathy with the teachers was held on 09.02.2026 afternoon from 1.45 pm for about one and a half hours on sensible use of antibiotics and the consequences of unnecessary and inappropriate use of it. Around 70 teachers participated in the session and several questions were raised and discussed.

Funding was sought from the University for the Outreach Programme (accounts and bills 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 students and teachers of Jaffna Hindu College who actively participated with great enthusiasm in the discussions.
• An immense thanks to all the students who performed a wonderful role-play on the responsible use of antibiotics.
• My sincere thanks to the Principal, Jaffna Hindu College, Mr R Senthilmaran for allowing us to conduct this awareness programme.
• A big thanks to the Deputy Principal Mr T Ayavan and teachers of Jaffna Hindu College, Mr K Sasitharan and Mr T Nitharshan for all their support with the logistics and in 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.
• I extend my thanks to the staff of the Medical Education Unit, Mr B Jeyachandran and Mr S Rinoshan for their assistance in recording the programme.
• My sincere gratitude to the supporting staff Mr. S Sacikaran and Mr T Sanchayan and Temporary Demonstrators of the Department of Microbiology, Ms V Tharsana, Ms S Nilani, Ms S Kamshalini and Mr P Kajan for their whole hearted support for this programme from the beginning 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.