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Counselling skills are seen as an important area in educational institutions. The education boards like CBSE mandates schools to appoint counsellor. The schools which have appointed counsellors in the school environment, the counsellor face few challenges, as school involves multiple stakeholders- Teachers, Children, Parents, Management, Civil society (Civil society- When school is involved with collaborative programs with external institutions).
There are some kinds of stigma attached to counsellor and counselling practices. When counsellor calls children to meet, they become very conscious to go to the counsellor even to have general interaction. Some responded that if a child goes to a dedicated counsellor, the child might think he has negativity in him.
A counsellor said that rapport building takes much time. Children are afraid because they have misinformation about counselling. Class 1st to 5th children know counsellor as a Lifeskills teacher and not as a counsellor. It helps to avoid stigma.
Counsellors have to educate not only children but also adults, parents and society in general regarding the counselling. School counsellors have to collaborate with all the stakeholders, counsellors cannot work in silos. Silo occurs when a particular group does not share information, goals, tools, priorities and processes with other departments in the organisation. The silo mentality is believed to impact day to day operation of an organisation, impact collaborative output, reduce the efficiency of the school
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During our research interviews we found various challenges faced by the counsellors while discharging their duties.
Below we have discussed a few challenges among them:
a. Challenges with students:
In one of the schools, a counsellor shared her 1 on 1 student meeting plan. The counsellor calls children for counselling during PET/Sports period, games and library period. The reason is that other children will not know that these children are with a counsellor. This raises a question, are the students who come to a counsellor are weak and incompetent? Or this is a general stigma attached to counselling practice at school.
b. Challenges with teachers:
The collaboration between a teacher and a counsellor is key for a school. The counsellor usually cannot impact children directly, the counsellor can reach out to all the students only through teachers, particularly class teachers, or student mentor. During our study, the counsellor said that the teachers are cooperative, but the challenge is when teachers do not accept the feedbacks, in turn, teachers respond that, whatever they are doing is right.
c. Challenges with parents:
The counsellor said that the orientation of parents is very challenging, we need to put a lot of efforts to convince parents in some matters. Sometimes parents could be rash and aggressive. They don’t accept feedback of children. For example, They don’t accept that their child is a slow learner, sometimes it takes 6 months to convince them. They do not agree upon visiting an external special need certifying institute. They accept on behavioural problems, but in learning issues, it is difficult to convince them.
d. General challenges:
There is also another misconception about counselling practice, some teachers and students think that the counsellor is a ‘spy’ from management.
And also the expectations from the counsellors are high given the school’s large strength. Counsellors have many things planned to do in school, which sometimes they find it hectic. The salary of a counsellor is very less in some schools, this leads to low job satisfaction. And this forces counsellor to change the jobs frequently.
Above are the challenges faced by the counsellors which we have discussed briefly. The challenges might vary from school to school also.
If you have any clarification, suggestion, you can write in the comment section.
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.
