Professor and Head, Guidance & Counselling Cell, SCERT, Nagaland Dr Zavise Rume has said that the children of today are suffering from a different level of stress and anxiety caused by the complexities of the present day. He said that teachers and parents are aware of the problems faced by the children, but they lack professional competence to deal with these problems and so the need for professional counselling services in Nagaland has been increasingly felt.
Dr Rume was speaking at the One Day Interaction on School Counseling and it’s Future Prospects in Nagaland held at SIEMAT Hall, SCERT, Nagaland on Friday.
Mentioning that counselling had been thought of as a problem-oriented activity, he said that in the present day, it is in “harmony with the goals of education to facilitate maximum total personality development”. Stating the stresses and anxieties in children are being caused by examinations, academic under-achievement, relationship crisis, love failure, crisis in career choice, substance abuse, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, and many other serious emotional and psychological problems, Rume stressed the “need to focus on physiological, emotional psychological aspects of the students rather than and normal routine exercise.”
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The professor mentioned that in view of all these, SCERT Nagaland has introduced a Diploma in School Counselling (initially for duration of nine months and now extended to one year) becoming the first SCERT to introduce the course in the whole country. He said that SCERT aims to ensure that every school in Nagaland has professionally trained school counsellors. School Counselling is now universally recognized as an integral part of School Education to cater to the needs of academic, career, personal-social, mental, psychological emotional wellbeing of the students, he stated, adding that NEP 2020 envisages that professionally trained school counsellors are made available to every school.
Dr Rume informed that SCERT, Nagaland has trained around 105 School Counsellors and urged schools to utilize the resources of these trained counsellors and also maintained that the counsellors must ensure that regular counselling services are made available to their students on regular basis.
Kezhazolie Cornelius Mere, Chairman, Carl Rogers Institute of Mental Health & School Counselling, Kohima highlighted about the institute that he came up with along with Dr Rume in 2022 with the aim to promote the philosophies of Carl Rogers, one of the most influential psychologists in the modern world today, the pioneer of person-centred therapy through the non-directive approach to counselling.
He said that the vision of CRIMHSC is to promote mental health to all categories of students so as to cater to the needs of mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Mere mentioned that the institute hosted a Stress Awareness Week from 22-27 May 2023 in collaboration with the department of health and family welfare, national mental health program, where they visited five schools in Kohima and the Nagaland Police Headquarter. He revealed that from around 1300 participants during the stress awareness program, CRIMHSC was able to identify around 200-250 suicidal students.
He therefore strongly encouraged counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapist/ psychiatrist to come and work together. Mere also stressed on the need to keep spreading awareness with each other.
Read more: CRIMHSC, H&FW organising Stress Awareness Week in Kohima
The chairman of CRIMHSC also informed that the team had encountered over 300 suicidal students from just six or seven schools and colleges in Kohima and Dimapur and lamented that many schools and colleges are still in ignorance of the mental health of their students. So, he encouraged all schools, colleges and churches to also come up with seminars, sessions and campaigns to take care of the students’ mental health.
The concluding remarks was given by Yartenla Jamir, Counsellor, Kohima town. Earlier, Bendangsashi Walling, Pastor, Ao Baptist Church, Kohima said the invocation.
