Awareness programme for school students and teachers on the responsible use of antibiotics at J/Attiar Hindu College, Neervely

The Department of Microbiology has successfully conducted an awareness programme for the teachers and grade 10 and grade 11 students of J/Attiar Hindu College, Neervely on the responsible use of antibiotics on 24^th July 2026 morning. 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 10.00 am onwards for about 1 ¼ hours per group. Sixty-three students participated. A pretest was done at the beginning, followed by an interactive discussion session in small groups of around ten students, each with the technical officers and demonstrators of the department, 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 5.3, 5, and 6 and those in the posttest were 7.6, 8, and 9 respectively. 

Certificates were awarded on 05.08.2026 to all the students who got the maximum score of 10 in the posttest (13 students) and to the 15 students who performed in the role-play.

Awareness session for the teachers

A discussion session by Dr Valarmathy with the teachers was held on the same day from 10.00 am for about one and a half hours on responsible use of antibiotics and the consequences of unnecessary and inappropriate use of it. Around 20 teachers participated in the session and several questions were raised and discussed.

Jaffna Medical Faculty Overseas Alumni, Canada has agreed to fund this Outreach Programme (accounts and bills attached as annexure). The department is committed to such awareness programmes to improve responsible use of antibiotics with the support of the supporting staff and temporary demonstrators.

Acknowledgements:

• A big thank you is due to the students and teachers of J/Attiar Hindu College, Neervely 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, J/Attiar Hindu College, Neervely, Mrs Srirathy M for allowing us to conduct this awareness programme.
• A big thanks to the teachers of J/Attiar Hindu College, Neervely, Mrs K Thadshajini and Mr Anton K for all their support with the logistics and in training the students for the role-play.
• I extend my sincere thanks to the Jaffna Medical Faculty Overseas Alumni (JMFOA), Canada for the financial assistance for this programme.
• 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 Ms Sutharjini N and Mr. S Sacikaran and Temporary Demonstrators of the Department of Microbiology, Ms I F Shukra, 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.