- My interest in this study is also through my personal experiences. When I was undertaking my one year course in counselling I studied student counselling and child counselling, there I got interested in child counselling. And I believe that there is a lot of scope for child counselling arena in rural and semi-urban schools also. In this study, I studied a variety of school types, which gave me exposure to various student wellbeing facilities and programs at school.
Student mental health is an emerging
issue globally. The CTF (Canadian Teachers’ Federation) has conducted a national teacher survey on the Teacher
Voice in 2011. Various questions were asked to teachers. One question was about
the most significant challenge
influencing students’ ability to succeed in school, one teacher respondent
noted:
‘I am seeing mental
health issues more frequently impacting student performance’.
When asked what changes they would make
to the public education system for the benefit of student learning, this
respondent noted:
‘Availability of
mental health professionals who specialize in work with children and are
attached to schools’.
Counselling could happen in two ways- Formal counselling and
counselling skills.
‘Formal counselling is undertaken by a professional counsellor
acting in his or her specialist role and in accordance with a recognised code
of ethics that requires confidentiality, accountability, and supervision and
continuing professional development’
‘Counselling skills are used by many people who work with children
and young people in a specific role such as teachers, school nurses, youth
workers and social workers. These skills
include listening in a non-judgemental way, being empathic and helping people
to feel valued and understood. The role and responsibilities of the individual
professional will determine the boundaries of their working practice’
The second type of counselling approach illustrates that it is not
necessary that only psychologists have to be counsellors. The teacher, social
worker, school support staff, all can counsel the children for all-round
development. And for these people to respond better in terms of counselling
ethics, minimum training is advised.
State of counselling facility and expectation at schools:
There are many pieces of research which have studied the school counselling
practices. There is a related study done in national and international schools
in Karnataka by S. Venkatesan, and H.R. Shyam, of All India Institute of Speech
and Hearing, Mysore
This study reveals some of the major points related to the state of counselling facility and expectation at schools. The study says that,
the ‘counsellors want to focus on student problems and issues,
while parents and teachers
want them to undertake academic advising, student discipline, conflict
resolution, crises intervention, career choice and guidance.
The school administration expects them to liaise, handle
admissions and conduct staff enrichment programs’
This is part of Children's mental health and wellbeing series brought to you by Credence Learning Foundation. This article is taken from a study submitted as course work at Azim Premji University.
