National Summit of School Principals

True guidance is like a small torch in a dark forest. It does not show everything at once, But gives enough light for the next step to be safe.

Ms. Tania Joshi, Principal and Ms. Sukhmeen Kaur Cheema, School counsellor attended a national summit for school principals, Guidance- Based School Education The Emerging Concept. The summit was organised by the Institute of Counsellor Training Research and Consultancy on July 26th, 2016 at the India International Centre.

Dr. V. S. Ravindran, renowned educational psychologist, counsellor-trainer and teacher educator was the chief facilitator at the summit. He made the following points.

Children spend most of their formative years at school and therefore the task of bringing them up as mentally healthy individuals falls primarily on schools. For this, school authorities have to take a firm look at their guidance and counselling services. Guidance and counselling services are no longer luxury but a necessity. In the 1940s, the word 'guidance' was named in a formal way by the Kothari Commission and the National Education Policy. Students need to be guided so they do not take recourse with quacks. Every principal needs to be a guidance leader and every teacher needs to be a counsellor. For guidance-based education, we need to understand what students want and when they want it. Teachers, parents and students need to understand that 10 CGPA is no any indicator of success in later life. Schools need to have preventative programmes so that the wrong choice of streams does not occur. Hence, organising guidance programmes at the right time is important, preferably they should start around the class VIII level. Guidance programmes need to concentrate on analysing aptitude, interest, personality and value systems and then offer suitable career options. Students should be continuously guided with real life examples. Guidance should involve a human touch. Human connection and rapport are an essential ingredient for counselling. Counselling is not advice-giving but something which leads the child to know himself. Don't impose your own values on children.

Later, Ms. Goldy Malhotra, Director, MRIS Academic Excellence highlighted the need to prepare children at the senior secondary level for better adjustment in colleges and universities. She further added that students along with their academic skills should also aim to sharpen their listening, reading, writing and learning skills. Her speech was insightful and her views seemed to make an impact on those present.

The workshop was highly enriching and lent inputs to help strengthen guidance and counselling services.

Ms. Sukhmeen Kaur Cheema.