THE increased rate of psycho-social issues among students has seen the Ministry of Education moving to hire counsellors and establish counselling rooms at schools to address these issues.
There are currently, ten (10) counselling rooms in schools around Georgetown, where counsellors work on a daily basis. The students, based on behaviour patterns, are referred for counselling to address the issues and to effect behavioural change.

Chief Education Officer, Marcel Hutson, explained that these are some of the immediate measures that were taken in terms of dealing with behavioral patterns among students, centred in the city. “You know that when we talk about city life it is associated with all kind of issues, it is not to say that we don’t have those issues in the hinterland, but we are moving out. We have started with the problematic areas so it’s more of a scientific approach and we roll it out as we move ahead,” he said.

During an exclusive interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI)/Government Information Agency (GINA), Hutson noted that there are children with many issues, issues that will ultimately affect their education, hence the initiative is timely. “Sometimes children just need someone to talk to, someone to give them the kind of guidance that they need in terms of how they deal with life issues,” the chief education officer noted.
Teachers alone cannot suffice in terms of guiding the students, Hutson said, noting that the teacher has his/her job to do, which is to facilitate learning and ensure the curriculum is covered at the end of the academic term. “Teachers can’t be spending the entire day dealing with children and their issues, because teachers have their job to do, it is not to say that the teachers do not participate and help. So we need to expand the counselling programme. We are not where we want to be as yet, but I think we are in a good place by establishing these rooms in schools,” Hutson reiterated.

Hutson emphasised that there are not enough counsellors in the schools, therefore the ministry is working on recruiting adequate counsellors to man the counselling rooms, towards ensuring that every school has at least one counsellor. The ministry also has a Schools Welfare Unit, which is responsible for monitoring children with social issues and truancy. The welfare department is involved in home visits, networking with other social service agencies, parent sensitisation, talks with children, visits to schools, and community outreach programmes.

(DPI/GINA)