NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING PROGRAMMES AND SERVICES IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING PROGRAMMES AND SERVICES IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Z. Zayapragassarazan
Lecturer (SS)
Department of Education
Pope John Paul II College of Education
Puducherry-605 010.
E-mail: zprazan@yahoo.co.in
&
Rev. Fr. P. Paul Rajkumar
Principal and Secretary
Pope John Paul II College of Education
Puducherry-605 010.


ABSTRACT
Today’s young people are living in an exciting time, with an increasingly diverse and mobile society, new technologies, and expanding opportunities. Young minds need to be oriented towards respect for all persons, inclusive community, quality education, concern for the poor and social justice and value based overall personality development. To help ensure that all students are well prepared to manage the above said areas, the guidance and counselling of students should be made as an integral component of the educational mission of any school or college to promote the personal, social, educational and career development of all students. The ongoing guidance and counselling programmes in colleges are not found to be much effective and have met with serious criticism by various sectors. The present paper discusses on the need for effective guidance and counselling programmes in colleges to ensure proper guidance and support for the overall development and well-being of the college students. The authors of this paper suggest for Comprehensive Guidance and Counselling Programmes and Services (CGCPS) which are systematically planned to meet the needs of all Indian students. A comprehensive guidance and counselling program includes four components. These components encompass services and programmes ranging from college-wide developmental programs and services (primary prevention) to individual interventions, which include counselling, team consultation, and referral to specialized student services and community resources (secondary and tertiary prevention). The four components are: Developmental Guidance, Individual Planning, Responsive Services - Counselling, Consultation, and Referrals and System Support. CGCPS support students in various areas of their development. The provision of CGCPS is the shared responsibility of all staff. A team approach should be employed, wherein all staff members have specified roles to play. Thus student counsellors play a key role in planning and implementing programs and services.

Key Words: Guidance and counseling, student counsellors, Comprehensive Guidance and Counselling Programmes and Services, higher education.

Introduction
Education in its widest sense is expected to broaden a child’s horizon in more ways. While, classroom learning widens the child’s intellectual horizon, sports and education help to widen the physical, social, and emotional competencies. There is no limit to one’s horizons of knowledge, skill, social wisdom and emotional maturity. The main objective of education is to widen such horizons of knowledge, experience and competence of the learners. The present educational scenario hardly appears to take this into account. What matters now is the standard of academic achievement and the ranks and one takes into consideration the performance in the academic field only, then the rest will take a back seat. All in all, the educational institutions, parents and the society are at pressure pushing a child from the school level itself toward excelling in a particular field. This is done irrespective of the aptitude, interest or inclination of the child. This is where the role of “counselling” is important to enable the students make right choices, take right steps and follow right path suitable to their aptitude and interest. It is also required to enable the parents and the society to follow a proper path in this regard.

Guidance and Counselling
Guidance and counselling are two sides of the same coin. The goal in both cases is to give an opportunity for an individual to see a variety of available options and thereafter, assist the person in making a wise choice. Guidance is the process that is put in place at a time a choice is to be made. Counselling on the other hand is a process which takes place in a one-to-one relationship between an individual beset by problems with which he cannot cope alone and a professional worker whose training and experience have qualified him to help others reach solutions to various types of personal difficulties” (Hahn and MacLean, 1955). Counselling is concerned with bringing about a voluntary change in the client. To this end, the counsellor helps and facilitates the client achieve the desired change or make the suitable choice. The client alone is responsible for the decisions or the choices he makes, though the counsellor may assist in this process by his warmth and understanding relationship.




Need for Guidance and Counselling in Educational Institutions
Large numbers of students of the present generation find themselves in the midst of various adjustment problems. The following reasons necessitate guidance and counselling in any learning institution:

• The dynamic human behavior demands scientific and careful handling of students. Curriculum change, advancements in science and technology requires adjustments on the part of learners and teachers.
• Overloaded Curriculum and Syllabi have expanded during the past decades. For example, at the high school level the general or composite mathematics of yesteryears has been replaced by modern mathematics, more and more additions may yet to be contemplated.

• Present generation learners are expected to give more importance on self-learning as compared to the spoon-feeding approach of earlier years. Students are expected to use effective study methods and learning to be successful in their chosen field of study.

• The number of students who drop out or fail to graduate should be minimized as much as possible.

• The common emotional problems of students for example anxiety, depression, and emotional sensitivity may be caused by the pressing conditions of the learning teaching process and therefore need treatment.
• Generally, in colleges of higher learning the support of trained professionals is important for the academic, social and personal problems of the students.

• The socio-cultural, religious and economic characteristics of the student of a particular institution also demand the need for guidance and counselling service.

• The students who have been away from full time education for a long time become a challenge to the college teachers to help them to adjust themselves to college life.

• Other than the emotional and behavioral adjustments they have to make, the students are also expected to develop qualities such as good study skills, taking lecture notes, effectively using reference materials and other resources.

• Some of the students who are married (in most of the cases women students) and have responsibilities to their families need proper guidance and counselling in all respects.

• As the students are from different regions, their interaction is highly influenced by their cultural differences. The guidance and counselling service can work to facilitate the integration of students.

• Some of the adult college students are used to the ups and downs of life. Their age, their social, economic and personal backgrounds, including their present situation, has its own unique effect on each of them. The college need to provide personal counselling in such situations.

• The attitude and behaviour of the parents, teachers, peers, elders and low achievement of students results in the feelings of loneliness, insecurity and maladjustment with the society.

• Undesirable influences through films, print media and electronic media.

• Pub and Discotheque culture

• Sexual problems of the adolescence stage

• Drugs, alcohol, smoking and substance abuse

• The pattern of life the students were brought up by their parents (either communal or occupational) does not go well with the emerging urbanization, resulting in increasing aspirations, both realistic and unrealistic.

• In the present set up of expanding opportunities and they lack in clarity for apparent choice and decisions and yielding to parental or peer group pressures. This results in the confusion and disappointment, which leads to students taking drugs and alcohol, increasing rate of suicides, anxiety, distress and unrest among students.
• The transition stage faced by the rural and sub-urban students who come for education in urban areas and metro cities face a variety of problems like language and communication problems, adjustment with the changed social environment, feelings of isolation in the new environment, being away from home results in home sickness, depression and unrest.
• Only the brighter cream of students may very well cope up with the expectations of the parents, over loaded syllabi, technological explosion in the field of education, impact of urbanization, modern methods of instruction in the school and college level, mark oriented exams, increased competition, etc., irrespective of the capacity of the children to withstand pressure, creates psychological pressure on backward students.

• Ignorance of parents, teachers and institutions to identify the potentials of the student and the failure to channelize the same constructively into productive fields.

• The present generation students are lacking in analytical, futuristic and critical thinking that may enable them to form realistic life goals and plans. They lack not only focus but also a meaningful direction.

• Many parents have false and impractical hopes pinned on their children regarding their career choice. While the child aspires for something, the parents expect something else, resulting in a lot of pressures and conflicts.

• Failures in aspirations lead to intentional or unintentional damage to the property and life of unfortunate victims and become the so-called anti-social element.

• Adolescents with excess money and power at their disposal are misguided or mislead by their peers or by extremists thereby they are psychologically moulded to an anti-social member of their society.

• It has been identified and recognized that the present cinema films partly attribute for highlighting “puppy love” as a higher order of achievement.

• There is alarming growth in the number of adolescent pregnancies, abandoned infants and also adolescent suicides because of failure in “love”.

• One gets the impression that the highest order of achievement in life is to have a girlfriend or a boyfriend at an early possible age and a failure to achieve this leads to futility in life.

• Almost daily we come across the pathetic stories of adolescents who commit suicide out of frustration, because they have failed to achieve something which either they have aspired for or was expected of them.

Role of Guidance and Counselling in Indian Educational System
Education plays an important role in the all-round development and effective functioning of an individual. This requires going beyond syllabus, examinations etc. This is precisely where the importance of counselling comes into operation. In response to the demands of modern existence, many educational innovations have been adopted. The demand for professional and technical skills has given rise to different curricular programmes and a variety of specialized courses are now being offered. A student needs the necessary help in the choice of a useful course to suit both his capabilities and aspirations. In this context the need for “counselling” comes into picture. The goal of counselling is to help individual overcome many of their future problems.

Counselling should start early in school and should continue in order to enable individuals to meet various problems of adjustments in life. Counselling has to cater to a variety of problems, such as educational, vocational, marital, parental and personal. The major objective of counselling is to help individuals become self-sufficient, self-directed and to adjust themselves effectively to the demands of life. Individuals are provided help through counselling to realize their capacities for choice and decision making, solve their own problems and thus enhance their personal, social, emotional and intellectual development.

Comprehensive Guidance and Counselling Programmes and Services (CGCPS)
A comprehensive guidance and counselling program includes four components. These components encompass services and programs ranging from school-wide developmental programs and services (primary prevention) to individual interventions, which include counselling, team consultation, and referral to specialized student services and community resources (secondary and tertiary prevention). The four components are:

Developmental Guidance
Developmental guidance programming focuses on competencies which all students should develop in order to achieve personal success and fulfillment, and to make a contribution to society. The content of developmental guidance programme includes expected student learning outcomes in three areas: personal/social development, educational development, and career development. This content is normally delivered through classroom teaching/learning units, group guidance methods, courses for credit (e.g., School-initiated Courses and Student-initiated Projects), and school-wide programmes and projects.

Individual Planning
Individual planning assistance supports and facilitates all students in developing and managing their individual personal/social, educational, and career goals and plans. Individual Planning involves the provision of personalized information, direction, assistance, and monitoring. The activities in this component are delivered on a group or individual basis. Examples of content in the individual planning component include making transitions, orientation to new placements, student portfolios, individualized career and educational exploration and planning, counselling regarding graduation requirements and course selection, post-secondary plans, and financial aid.


Responsive Services: Counselling, Consultation, and Referrals
A comprehensive guidance and counselling program includes responding to students who are experiencing immediate on-going problems, concerns, or crises which interfere with their learning. This component includes activities such as providing information, individual and small group counselling, consulting with staff and parents, and referral to other specialists or services.

System Support
This component involves the administrative and management activities necessary to support the guidance and counselling program, as well as activities or services provided by school counsellors to support other guidance and educational programs of the school. This component includes consultation and collaboration with parents and community agencies and other support services, staff development, research, budgeting, community relations, and program evaluation.

Planning for Comprehensive Guidance and Counselling
Annual school plans should include the components of guidance and counselling. An effective guidance and counselling programme includes planned programmes and activities, based on the needs of students that result in student outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in areas of personal, social, educational and career development. Planning should include all four components of the comprehensive guidance and counselling model. Plans should address issues of diversity and inclusion and should identify the range of programs and services to address diverse needs of all students. The process of planning should involve key stakeholders, including students, school staff, families, and the community in a meaningful way.
Planning for comprehensive guidance and counselling programs and services should include:
 A statement of vision and mission
 Identification of priorities or key target areas
 Statements of expected outcomes
 Strategies and activities to achieve the outcomes
 Measurable indicators of success (strategies for evaluating the effectiveness of activities).
Special consideration in planning should be given to the role of guidance and counseling in supporting and contributing to the following priorities of students:
 Improving outcomes especially for less successful learners
 Strengthening links among schools, families and communities
 Strengthening school planning and reporting
 Improving professional learning opportunities for educators
 Strengthening pathways among secondary schools, post-secondary education and work
 Linking policy and practice to research and evidence.

Role of a Teacher in the Counselling Process
The role of a teacher is very special. Whether many people accept it or not, it is a fact that many students spend more time with teachers whom they value rather than their parents, for any counsel or advice. This is more often seen among adolescents who are fortunate enough to have a teacher who shows a genuine concern for the student. At the adolescent age, traditionally it has been seen that the teacher very often remains an anchor point. The reasons for this are:
• From the student’s point of view, a teacher can be more objective whereas the parents show more anxiety, involvement and possessiveness about the child resulting in conflicts.
• The communication channel for the adolescent, in some cases, is more open with the teacher than the parents or even the student’s peer group. The student may think the parent is more closed in his/her thinking whereas the teacher is not.
• With the parent the child may react, but with the teacher the child may interact.
• With a parent the adolescent may withhold the information but with the teacher the she/he may communicate.

All the above may take place subject to the availability of the anchor in the teacher the child can hang on to. The teacher should be a good anchor point in such a case. Trust, confidentiality, nurturance, empathy, wisdom, maturity, positive acceptance and a host of other qualities are essential for such a ‘Teacher Counsellor’. For this, it is necessary to develop the needed competence in the teachers which the present training does not appear to sufficiently impart. An effective training programme in this direction is necessary to create the mental set and change the existent set among young teacher trainees so that they become good anchor points for a healthy supportive and secure environment around the students. It is well said that a child should “learn to win, learn to lose”, being able to accept either of these gracefully, appreciating the outcome. Only when a child has such an environment as mentioned above can this be possible.

Student counsellors are key members of guidance and student services teams. Within the context of a collaborative, interdisciplinary team approach, student counsellors play a leadership role in the development and implementation of a comprehensive guidance and counselling program. The vital functions of the student counsellor include:

Developmental Guidance: Counsellors develop, co-ordinate, and implement various developmental and preventive programs.

Individual Planning: Counsellors participate, collaborate, and consult as members of the interdisciplinary team to provide support for students' individual planning.

Responsive Services: Counsellors provide services to students in need through individual and small group guidance and counselling interventions, crisis intervention, parent out-reach, consultation, referral, and multi-systemic interventions.

Systems Support: Counsellors perform various activities intended to support the school's guidance function. Examples include conducting workshops for parents and staff, student placement, research, data collection, community outreach, and program administration.
Counsellors are also in a key position to play a vital role in threat assessment teams, student support teams and safe school teams. They often also play an advocacy role for students with staff, families, and outside agencies.

Training of Student Counsellors
Educational institutions should ensure that persons fulfilling the role of student counsellor are adequately trained. It is recommended that school or college counsellors should have completed a degree or diploma program in Guidance and counselling, including supervised practice in guidance and counselling.

Inclusive Nature of Comprehensive Guidance and Counselling
Comprehensive guidance and counselling programs and services are inclusive. They are intended to help all students realize their full potential regardless of physical, social, emotional and other challenges. The functions of student counsellors towards students with special challenges may include:
• working as a team member with other support professionals;
• intervening with students with difficult behaviour;
• providing responsive programs, including crisis counselling, group guidance and counselling, family support, and consultation;
• providing in-service support presentations to staff;
• providing special curriculum programs to strengthen personal and
• interpersonal skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, understanding feelings and self-acceptance;
• providing referrals for additional specialized support services; and
• mediating and facilitating effective behaviour change.
• providing social skills training individually and in small groups;
• assisting in establishing appropriate individual behaviour programs;
• serving as a consultant and resource to parents, teachers, and other school personnel;
• promoting workshops for staff and students on various disorders;
• supporting parents and families;
• providing career planning;
• making referrals to appropriate specialists; and
• assisting in the completion of funding applications.

Conclusion
One of the important functions of education is to provide opportunities for the total development abilities in students. Counselling, hence, is an integral part of education. In addition to the three R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic of the traditional education, modern education also emphasizes another R, the responsibility of being responsible for one’s own actions and decisions. Rogers (1951) hold that if an individual is provided an understanding of the way he sees himself, he can do the rest in helping himself. This involves highly sensitive listening with empathy and unconditional positive regard. Counselling stresses the importance of in-depth exploration of feelings about self and the confidential nature of the client-counsellor relationship. Thus counselling aids in the adjustment function, in the sense that the student is helped in making the best possible adjustment to the current situations in the educational institutions and occupational world, at home and in the community.

References
Gysbers, N. C. & Henderson, P (2000) Developing and managing your school guidance program. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Hahn, M. E., & MacLean, M. S. (1955) Counseling psychology (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Rogers, C. R. (1951) Client-Centered Counselling, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.