School Counselor A Need of Every School

The role of counselor has become very pertinent in all the schools particularly in bigger cities where the life style of 21^st Century has brought several changes. The schools in rural or remote areas have their own set of challenges. There are several factors that have made it mandatory to put all the students from Early Years to Senior Secondary under a professional or well-planned observation to guide them from time to time.

The system of family breaking to nuclear from joint is the foremost reason. The counseling that an earlier child received from grandparents, uncles and aunts and senior cousins has vanished. Having been left with parents and with one or two siblings there is no scope of absorbing the day to day shocks that the child could earlier bear comfortably in the presence of the grandparents. In case of working mother, the child is left with outside help at home or at the crèche and that cannot serve the purpose that earlier joint family did in a very subtle and appropriate manner. In such cases there are chances of the child becoming introvert due to loneliness and the counselor at school can understand this and provide the child with equivalent emotional security. The plan to keep him otherwise involved in activities at school can keep him away from negative thoughts. Unfortunately many children being brought up by the single parents face another kind of turmoil when they interact with their peer group at school. The cases of child abuse have also gone up in number as the children are left with the care takers who cannot be trusted.

Parents already living under lot of stress from day to day living and matching with the fast pace of life style are left with very little time to be spent with the children and hence the quality time' justification is being commonly expressed by them.

In the elementary years students begin to develop their academic self-concept and their feelings of competence and confidence as learners. They begin to develop decision making, communication and life skills as well as character values. School counseling programs can provide education, prevention and intervention services, which are integrated into all aspects of student's life.

Apart from the social and psychological help that the counselor provides, academic follow up and early identification of special needs is also big contribution. This removes the barriers in the learning process and remedial measures can be taken up by the Special Educators.

School counselors are required to work collaboratively with parents and teachers to decide on what action needs to be taken to address issues interfering with students learning process.

Another field of concern for the counselor is the career awareness programs for the young minds. With the variety of opportunities available in the higher studies, career counseling though to be handled separately by Career Counselor, can be introduced by the school counselor at early stage by introducing the the options without getting into the Aptitude Test etc. These tests are required to be done by career counselor only. The rosy side and the thorny path of every career can be atleast brought to the knowledge if every student.

Parents need to learn a lot in the recent availability of infrastructure and the resources. This can be conveyed by conducting special workshops from time to time where the presence of counselor can make the parents understand the need to know their child's aptitude and not pressurize to choose a stream of their choice.

Though every teacher plays the role of the counselor for her students along with other teaching and administrative responsibilities, yet the need of a dedicated counselor is very important in every school. To make our children learn in a harmonious environment where they feel wanted and encouraged to take a bold and fearless step forward we definitely need the protective hands of counselors to nurture them from early years to senior secondary level.