Gazi Md. Abdur Rashid :
Guidance and counselling helps learners to improve their academic performance. Guidance and counselling are important for children and schools have a huge role in bringing out the best in children. Sometimes young minds need guidance to polish their personality. Through counselling, children are given advice on how to manage and deal with emotional conflict and personal problems. Proper counselling will help incorporate valuable lessons in their daily life. Some sessions should involve career guidance, where the students are advised on the selection of courses and different career paths. It’s important to prepare them for life after school and what to expect in the different fields they might opt for.
Guidance and Counselling aim at-
n Providing focus on the needs of a child-With regular guidance and counselling sessions, teachers can give the desired focus to every student. Continuous interaction with students can build trust which can fine-tune the relationship between the teacher and child. Counselling sessions are a gradual process to mould and redirect children for a brighter future.
n Acquiring the right understanding-Every child is special and unique in its own way. Productive counselling can help the teacher to understand how much attention is required to be given to a child.
n Maintaining discipline-Counselling helps in improving the relationship between the teacher and children which can be beneficial to develop control on the child. Every educational institution has its own goals that can be achieved if you have control over the children. This helps you to maintain discipline and keep your children in check.
n Enabling overall development-Along with academic and career development, social and personal development is also important. Students need to acquire knowledge, attitudes and Interpersonal skills to set their own goals, make their own decision and take necessary decisions to achieve those goals. Children need to also know how to be a good human being.
The Importance of Guidance & Counselling in a student’s life
o Students are given proper guidance on how to deal with psychological problems which can badly impact their studies. Through these sessions, the students will be able to develop certain problem-solving skills which to an extent help them deal with particular issues surrounding their lives.
o The students are advised on how to cope with different situations they tend to face in their school life. For instance, how should they talk politely or relate with their peers. This advice will give them perspective on how should they behave in certain scenarios.
o It helps to shape a student’s behaviour and also instill enough discipline in them. Proper guidance helps them achieve their goals; well guided and counseled students know what to do and how to do things in the best possible way.
o Students learn how to live in peace and harmony with others in the school community. Thereby, they also learn to appreciate other people in their class.
o It helps to bridge the gap between students and the school administration, since they are able to guide their problems through a proper counseling channel in the office.
o Students get comprehensive advice on career, courses and jobs that enable them to make a proper and informed choice and understand what they can do after they are done with school.
o It allows students to talk to teachers about various experiences that make them uncomfortable. They can openly share problems that they cannot share with their parents.
o Talks related to alcohol, drugs, personal feelings or any kind of abuse can be openly discussed. Guidance and counselling also make students better human beings since they are counseled on how to act and behave in a particular situation.
o It enables students undergoing certain difficulties in their lives, to ask questions and clarify them through guiding and counselling. Therefore, counseling helps them ask without any fear since the person in charge is willing to help.
Guidance and counselling is important in schools and colleges in the following ways
o Guidance and counselling helps young people to pursue the right type of education. Whenever any learner is confused between two career options, vocational guidance can help to make a choice. In this way, the individual is motivated.
o Sometimes learners get confused while managing their time properly. Guidance helps learner to organize their leisure hours.
o It assists individuals to make informed decisions about their education. Individuals have to know the choices that are available in subjects, curricula, schools or colleges to determine what exactly they want to pursue. They have to know subject combinations or options, what the subject involves in the classroom, available courses and what are the future prospects of following a particular course, available schools and colleges that offer the desired programmes, admission requirements and educational opportunities
o It facilitates the smooth transition for children from home to school, from primary to secondary school, from secondary to higher educational institutions and to the world of work. The final transition from the educational system to the labor force appears to be most important and challenging for students
o It helps students to cope with examination anxiety. The fear of failure and a craving for high grades are major stress factors among students nowadays. Handling this pressure becomes difficult for children. Guidance helps learners to overcome this fear and achieve good marks.
o It helps students to develop effective study habits. They are guided to improve their competence in reading, note-taking and academic achievement.
Owing to huge competition and expensive education system, parents pressurize their children to perform well by packing them into a room with books and switching off the TV, internet connection and reducing the time for sports and other outdoor activities. But this does not work. Rather, this makes the child depressed which burdens them with fulfilling expectations of their parents. Counselling helps in assisting the child in a proper direction so that he/she is well aware of what he/she wants to do in life. It is important to make your children understand the importance of education and guide them to pursue it.
(Gazi Md. Abdur Rashid, Research Officer, District Education Office (Secondary), Munshiganj)
