The history of school counselling around the world varies greatly based on how different countries and local communities have chosen to provide academic , career, college readiness and personal / social skills and competencies to children and their families based on economic and social capital resources and public versus private educational settings in what is now called a school counselling program.
School counsellors help to make learning a positive experience for every student . Counsellors facilitate communication among teachers , parents , administrators and students to adapt the school’s environment in the best interest of each individual student.
Counsellors have also extended their services to listening and helping find synthesis even to issues which otherwise would have been considered personal or private.
It is however sad that counselling in our schools has taken a rather reactive approach than a proactive one. In the 4 years i spent on KNUST campus as a student for example and most alumni can confirm this, i heard little or nothing of the counselling unit probably because it is not functioning properly or it simply did not position itself strategically to whip up student interest in it.
Ask any student to list three ways they would seek help to their problems or seek assistance to solve an issue and the guidance and counselling unit which ideally should have been top on the list will be totally missing.
Students do not have interest or should i say have lost interest in guidance and counselling units, not just in tertiary institutions but also our senior high schools and no one seems to care about the dwindling image of the unit.
I anticipated a heated debate on counselling and guidance and it’s role in preventing student disasters in our schools such as the recent incident in KNUST and even at home. Yes! i am referring to the incident where a young brilliant female student took her own life for reasons yet to be established by ongoing investigations.
Anomie as sociologist would call it could be caused by disintegration or a feeling of separation between an individual and the values of his/her society as Emile Durkheim puts it. It could be described as a condition of instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or from a lack of purpose or ideals.
The recent increase in suicide levels in the country and particularly among our young students could, even though no empirical evidence exist be attributed to a situation of anomie as the institution responsible for socialisation and re-socialisation, as well as integration and guidance have failed woefully in controlling tensions and suppressing suicide tendencies in individuals.
In the wake of increased pressure on our country’s economy and the strain that results as a consequence of the economy’s nose dive, our religious and community leaders need to do more to ensure increased socialisation opportunities and conflict resolution to reduce the amount of tension and pressure that members of society experience lately, most important however should be the strengthening of our social institutions to better position them in a more proactive style approach to provide that guidance, counselling and monitoring to minimise the trend as it cannot be halted.
The MBA foundation wishes to draw the attention of the government to the importance of strengthening and improving guidance and counselling in our educational institutions.
We also charge authorities of these institutions of education to initiate self help and take guidance and counselling seriously while working out modalities to improve upon the dwindling image and interest among students. The services and benefits of the unit must be rebranded to awaken a new sense of interest for the unit.
Customized programs must be carved out by heads of these institutions along with departmental heads and heads of counselling units to whip up interest among our students and by extension the entire population of our country.
To the general public and media , these students represent our next crop of leadership, as such their development should be of outmost interest to us all because their thinking directs our country’s development in the near future, we all should based on this knowledge, rally around the flag and put in a collective effort to ensure their proper development and nurturing.
We wish to appreciate the efforts of all towards providing a comfortable life and serene environment for the nurturing of our students but truth must be told, there is more to be done.
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