Counselling at the crossroads — Parvez Jamil

Given the fact counselling is mostly pursued by trends or fashion, the net result is choked creativity, escapist tendencies or violent outbursts 

As a business promotion strategy, a posh institution once experimented to modernise, revolutionise and revitalise education by following the western system of counselling blindly and making a mess of it altogether. The proprietor merely wanted to introduce counselling in order to give his institution a trendy, fashionable or modern disposition but his miserly, tight-fisted and penny-pinching psychology would not allow him to hire a full-time specialist to counsel the young ones. He assigned the additional role of counselling to someone who was already working as the course coordinator, besides being an excellent physics teacher. With teaching physics to five classes, overall course coordination and counselling an hour every day after school with no additional pay and mounting accountability by the management, the poor teacher was left in the lurch and left! He could deliver neither the quality nor produce any good results despite the excellence he possessed.

Let alone the credibility that most posh institutions cherish with counselling, guiding students remains vital in view of inconceivable dilemmas and difficulties they face. From the shy children unable to express and deliver amid teasing colleagues, neglecting teachers and busy parents to arrogant or violent ones disrupting and damaging or the adventurous types indulging in alarming disciplinary acts or health-spoiling habits, counselling remains the key to children’s problems.

What counts in the ultimate analysis is counselling not for the sake of fashion or trends or merely as a PR or promotional part but counselling with a purpose, a process that brings helpful change whether it is related to psychosocial plight or study and career fret of a student. Whether it is a social, behavioural, academic or career concern, a counsellor’s will, intention, technique, knowledge and understanding about a student and his/her dilemma/s determines the quality of counselling and the result it produces. The dilemma is that those who have the will to counsel do not have the technique and those who have the tact do not have the spirit, immobilising, procrastinating and leaving counselling at the crossroads. 

Given the fact counselling is mostly pursued by trends or fashion, the net result is choked creativity, escapist tendencies or violent outbursts. The counselling crisis reveals an unruly youth leg-pulling, mud-slinging, backbiting or cramming courses to fancy degrees, glamorous careers and hollow economy if not indulging in a lethal ‘hit and run’ spree. When there is no counselling or it is undertaken just as a formality or simply because it is the latest fad, the net result reflects in socio-economic flux as our youth does not deliver the kind of creativity and commitment required of a welfare society. Such areas of counselling as those pertaining to character, personality, lifestyle, education, career or social concerns continue to remain scanty and suffocating.

While it has been seen that a teacher-turned-counsellor or a formally positioned counsellor informally looking for a corner or a chair to sit and guide, the more business-like counsellors advise publicly on a private student’s concern, leaving the latter shy and subdued, embarrassed and looking for a way to escape. Imagine counselling turning into criticism of the counselled, turning the latter into a subject of mockery and leaving him or her in the lurch. Meanwhile, for many a counsellor the practice has become an affair of personal or institutional promotion and an exercise of rituals and records.

It is a question of carrying counselling at the crossroads of carelessness, confusion and chaos to new horizons in vim, vision and variety through a blend of nerves, brains and hearts. It is neither being intelligent and informative alone nor showing mere concern and feelings for the counselled but it is a harmonious blend of creative imagination and skillful interaction towards positive results in purposeful counselling. It is a matter of a counsellor’s emotional maturity, seriousness of purpose, penetrative thinking, problem identification, crisis management, communication skills and the ability to adhere to and capability to convince in objective counselling. It is a test of a counsellor’s commitment to the cause of counselling a student suitably, efficiently and effectively towards better and brighter results and following up on retaining or improving upon counseling results. 

Shy and subdued, study-fragile, career-confused and socially-distracted children call for behavioural, academic, social and career counselling. Such core concerns may be addressed through confidence building of the child. A clear and comprehensive communication between the counsellor and counselled would enable them to identify and address problems. The process needs to be in a trust winning manner so that it becomes a trendsetter for the better.

It is a question of converting, pleasantly, politely and positively, an escapist child into the mainstream of academic, career or social activity. It is a matter of clearing a confused mind ably and nobly about subject selection, peer problems, teachers’ mix-up or financial concerns. It is an issue of replacing pessimism with optimism, confusion with clarity, procrastination with action and mistrust with trust. It is a test of a counsellor’s moral, social and professional duty blended with ideas, insights and initiatives in counselling.

Counselling widens in scope at college with career-based study options unfolded and clarified by counsellors. Next, two-way traffic abounds between professional institutions and the corporate sector. The former guide students for placements and invite its well-placed alumni for job or career counselling. The latter even looks for on-campus short-listing and recruitment of talented and promising students. It then becomes a test of career convincing than career counselling!

Whether it is career counselling or career selection, the name of the game is business of the brands at the local, national or international levels. The more glare and glamour and the more professionalism and excellence, for example, a contemporary business school adds to career counselling and its corporate vibes, the more its business shines for the beneficiaries!

The writer is Manager PR, Students and Alumni Affairs and Faculty Advisor, Media Management Programme, CBM, Institute of Business Management, Karachi. He can be reached at parvez@iobm.edu.pk

Link to original article. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C07%5C19%5Cstory_19-7-2013_pg3_5