15 August, 2009 - The ministry of education agrees with full-time Bhutanese counsellors on the urgent need for a comprehensive counselling program in the education curriculum. This will mean a full time counsellor in every school, who addresses not only career guidance, but emotional issues for students as well.
“We’re aware of the situation,” said education secretary, Sangay Zam, on the ineffectiveness of the current teacher-counsellor model. The secretary said the education ministry recognised the need for a dedicated counselling service today and that plans were underway to achieve placing a full time counsellor in, at least, every major school, for now. But she also said, “We can’t address this need overnight, it’ll take some time.”
“We’re aware of the situation,” said education secretary, Sangay Zam, on the ineffectiveness of the current teacher-counsellor model. The secretary said the education ministry recognised the need for a dedicated counselling service today and that plans were underway to achieve placing a full time counsellor in, at least, every major school, for now. But she also said, “We can’t address this need overnight, it’ll take some time.”
On what immediate plans the education ministry had to address the lack of a comprehensive counselling program in education, the secretary said, “We’ve recently released some of our best teachers for the counselling courses being offered at RUB (royal university of Bhutan).” The education ministry will also be increasing the number of teachers being sent for six-month diploma courses in India. Once these teachers return, the secretary said, their academic responsibilities will be lessened to partly solve the dual role dilemma teacher-counsellors face.
But the secretary also said the current teacher shortage, which is a major obstacle for such a plan, would be “aggravated”. She said alternative plans are being made to recruit more teachers from abroad and increase the number of contract and volunteer teachers to fill the gap.
On whether introducing a comprehensive counselling system was worth it with the current teacher shortage, Janet Schofield, a psychologist at the royal Thimphu college (RTC) said, “If the resources are available, without cutting into areas that are even more useful, then it’s a useful thing to have.”
But Schofield, who was a high school counsellor in the USA, agreed that a comprehensive counselling system was not only an important but essential part of US education. “It’s considered one of the basic services that are needed,” she said.
Schofield said counselling is important for “periods of transition or change”. Adjusting to change, and figuring out how to live effectively or productively in the new cir*****stances, was one way counselling helps youth, she said. Counsellors in Bhutan attribute much of the increase in emotional problems youth and society are experiencing to the effects of modernisation and commercialisation.
On how effective the counselling system was in the USA, Schofield said, “It’s certainly widespread, and the degree to which they’ve spread suggests that people think they’re worth having.”
President of the centre for Bhutan studies, Dasho Karma Ura, on the other hand, said, “Investment in counselling is treatment of symptoms, though it has also its place, but should be always considered a secondary option.” Instead, Dasho Karma believes the main focus should be in improving “value education and practice of values in the schools, whereby non-cognitive, emotional intelligence and ethical consciousness of the youth are enhanced.”
Sonam Pelden, a counsellor with the department of youth and sports, agreed that such values needed to be enhanced. But she felt counsellors could fulfill this need, by having full time counsellors teach in the classrooms. She said, rather than teach academic subjects, these counsellors could focus on contemporary issues that the youth face today through forums, discussions and other kinds of activities.
By Gyalsten K Dorji
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