At last!

National Council for Educational Research and Training offers courses apparently offers a course on guidance and counselling for over 2 decades I suppose. Many have taken this course for the lack of training on an applied oriented proper psychological intervention system. At least in Odisha, a large number of psychology students have taken the course and with support from their psychology background are contributing in different life spaces including the schools about just a decade back. Why?

Let us school at our school system. Go to ANY school, national, international or even inter-planetary. Ask them about their USPs. Yes, because it is a good business now. So USP. They start with ultra modern facility, combined with discipline, yoga, horse riding thrown in, and how their students develop in a wholesome manner. Ask them about liberty of thought expression, equality of status and opportunity and “assuring the dignity of the indibidual” and watch out for their answers. They would have no clue. Ask them about creativity, initiative, risk taking, countering failures, and Overcoming depression and countering abuse, they would have no clue. And yet, they proudly proclaims and parents happily dump their children in those schools because of the bragging scope they offer. I have the money or even look how I struggle to ensure “best education” for my children.

Let us put it all in perspective. In 2007, government of India did a study on child sexual abuse and found over half of our boys and girls are being sexually abused. That makes it over 20 crores of our children face this life-scarring experiences. And who is responsible for that? We, the Indians, and not just any but those who pose, show and dominate over the children as the near and dear ones including own father and mother. That’s the gist. And no place is a safe place for the child as a matter of functioning. It has to be ensured that it is safe. And it took us a concerned India, a full five years to come up with Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in 2012. But then, looking at the estimate and the reporting, we can see how, we the adults, make it ineffective. Often those actions like flashing or fondling the child was glossed over as “nothing actually happened”. Then there is a great concern for the abuser, a family person. What will the family do? And possibly the ugliest reaction is “the school’s ijjat will be soiled”. These are all so sickening. We, like the NCERT, are only passive onlookers.

Now, these schools claim to be safe places. Ask them about how bullying, abuse, ragging, gender discrimination, so called abusive dominance of seniors is controlled. Ask them how an abused and mentally bruised child is helped in their school. They would say we have yoga classes and tell them about good touch and bad touch. OK, and what happens when a teacher (any gender) gives the child a bad touch? How many teachers have been expelled for that that you get to know of?

Now NCERT has woken up to its responsibility maybe because the media has been pounding our conscience in some way that not enough is being done in the schools to protect the children. See, how beautifully they have skirted the issue. It appears that if the child is sexually abused, nothing much can be done. So, let us just talk about educational stress. The schools are there only for that.

There is so much more I could write about. But I restrict myself only to the NCERT study. I hope, the schools are made to employ proper school counselling psychologist at least who could provide the support to counter exam anxiety at first. And yes, it is not stupid nitisiksha but counselling with privacy and confidentiality fully assured. But the ultimate aim is to help them know, believe in and fight for their right to life with dignity as the supreme right of an Indian citizen.

Maybe when the rich children get the support, someday the government will have school counsellors in its schools as well.