Thiruvananthapuram: Now, teachers to counsel students

Thiruvananthapuram: The schools in the state lack trained staff to counsel students. Hence, the Career Guidance and Adolescent and Counseling Cell (CG and AC) of the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education is training teachers for the purpose.

The CG and AC conducts programmes on reproductive and mental health named ‘Know Thyself’ in selected higher secondary schools as part of the  Souhrida Club, the flagship programme of the cell. This is being held in 1,319 schools during 2018-19.

A four-day residential training will be held for teachers at the child dev-elopment centre, Medical College, here in the last week of December. One teacher from each educational district will take part in training. The selected teachers will act as special faculty members and Souhrida coordinator for three years. An awareness class titled ‘Makkaleariyan’ is held in schools having Souhrida clubs to help parents deal with adolescents.

CG and AC state coordinator C.M. Azeem told Deccan Chronicle that teachers were being trained as there was a difficulty in getting doctors to counsel students on medical topics like mental, adolescent and reproductive health.  Though many teachers from schools with Souhrida clubs were trained in the past, several of them were transferred. So, replacements had to be found, said Mr Azeem.

Mr C. Swaraj, associate programme coordinator, said that most of the schools have paid part-time counsellors who could identify issues related to trauma and sexual harassment. They would even direct the students or parents to Childline or other agencies if they needed help, he said.

However, the teachers were not equipped to identify students with varying degrees of learning difficulties of  mild, moderate and severe nature.  Hence, they could not make corrections, he said.

But some argue that psychological counselling in schools is not effective. Ashok (name changed), student of a leading school in the city, said, “I got easily distracted and had a stressful relation with my classmates. However, going to the school counsellor was taboo and I feared that I would be branded insane if I went for counselling. Moreover, my parents took the issue lightly. They thought that I was just complaining to skip studies,” he said.

Psychologist Aravind Thampi also echoed the same view. Many students would not like to seek the help of counsellors. It would be better if the issues are dealt with by teachers themselves.  Though psychology is a subject for BEd, teachers are not given practical or theoretical training to cope with problems of adolescents, he said.

Such mental health issues of students reach professionals in the tertiary stage only. In the primary level, the problem  reaches parents who find little time to deal with it. Often this is  dismissed as lack of interest in studies, said Mr Thampi.

In the secondary stage, the issue  reaches the teachers. Apart from lack of training, the present student- teacher ratio is high for teachers to pay individual attention to anyone. 

Moreover, with the introduction of continuous evolution system, they are overburdened. Therefore, they pass on the responsibility to the school authorities, who report it to the parents. The mindset of the teachers is more legal and not personal. They want to avoid being on the wrong side of the legal tangle, said Mr Thampi.