Bhutanese counsellors disagree. They say a rational way to deal with this issue would be to invest more strongly in a comprehensive counselling program instead.
Although counselling was introduced as early as 1996 in Bhutan, the system has been ineffective, say counsellors in the country. The fault, they say, lies not in the concept of counselling but in an inefficient implementation system and unrealistic expectations from not only education officials but society as well.
There are about 300 counsellors distributed throughout the education system in the country today. But these counsellors are also teachers, who serve a dual role. Referred to as teacher-counsellors, these teachers undergo a two-week training course at the royal university of Bhutan (RUB), and are expected to both teach academic subjects and offer counselling, mostly just career guidance, for students.
“We’ve found that this doesn’t work,” said Sonam Jamtsho, a full-time counsellor at the department of youth and sports (DYS). Sonam, who’s been a full-time counsellor for nine years, said that two factors impeded the effectiveness of the role of a teacher-counsellor.
The first was that teacher-counsellors viewed their counselling responsibility as a secondary task. He attributed this relegation not to the teacher but to the process of teachers being assessed at the end of every year on their academic results by the royal civil service commission (RCSC). “With such a system, teacher-counsellors wouldn’t be able to prioritise their counselling role,” he said. This problem is enhanced by the chronic teacher shortage, with teachers bearing more academic responsibilities than normal.
The second obstacle for the teacher-counsellor model was tradition, he said. Students in Bhutan are brought up in a culture where teachers are authoritarian figures to be unconditionally respected or “feared”, he said. With such a perspective, Sonam said, “there is a hesitation by students to open up, they don’t feel comfortable because they believe the information they reveal may be used against them.”
Sonam Pelden, a DYS counsellor, agreed with her colleague on the obstacles impeding the teacher-counsellor model in Bhutan. Sonam, who has been a counsellor for eight years, said school dropouts dealing with unemployment and substance abuse was a common and increasing issue she dealt with. “Young people are finding it very difficult to cope up with commercialisation, especially when they come from economically disadvantaged families.”
Tshering Dolkar, a counsellor at RENEW for nine years, said other issues like domestic violence, rape, sexual and emotional abuse, sexual exploitation, homosexuality, incest, paedophilia and other mental health issues were increasing and affecting youth. “We need to look at how we can really address these issues through external means,” she said. “We need the right people in the right places. A person, who’s a graduate in Arts or Math, placed to counsel our youth, isn’t right.”
But Bhutanese counsellors say one major obstacle for counselling in the country is a misconception by the public on what it means.
“Sit with the counsellor for an hour, and then they’ll come out all right, cured,” said Sonam Jamtsho, on the misconception. People need to understand that counselling is long term, and that sometimes a person may not even be “cured”, he said. “Counselling is a helping process where you provide a listening ear, and the person talking to you shares their concerns and issues,” said Tshering Dolkar. “Then you discuss and analyse what’s really troubling the person, together.” Sonam Pelden summarised the concept of counselling as exploring ways for the client to find hope.
Asked if, during their experience, counselling worked for their clients in Bhutan, the counsellors said yes. “We’ve seen it change the lives of people,” said Tshering Dolkar. But she reiterated that, for it to be successful, counsellors needed to be properly trained. On how they measured the success of counselling, RENEW counsellor, Tshering said, her organisation had a monitoring program, which followed up on clients.
The ideal situation Bhutanese counsellors would like to see is full-time counsellors gradually introduced for every school in Bhutan. There are less than 15 full time counsellors in the country today.
Although they acknowledge teacher shortage as a critical obstacle in achieving this situation, the counsellors say, with the changes Bhutan is undergoing as a result of development, the need for professional counselling for youth is urgent if we want to mitigate the negative aspects of modernisation.
By Gyalsten K Dorji
source: Kuenselonline.com
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