60 teachers were found wanting identified by the Director of Public Instructions
picture for representational purpose
Thiruvananthapuram: The inflexible attitude of government school teachers has frustrated an ambitious government programme to offer sustained emotional support to thousands of vulnerable school children.The project, tentatively called 'Souhruda', involved training and upgrading at least one teacher in every government school into a child counselor. “But the programme faltered right at the first step,” said social justice director V N Jithendran.
60 teachers who were identified by the Director of Public Instructions from various schools for a three-day training this year were found wanting. “Most refused to sit after 5 p.m. and there were many who came for the three-day training on the third day,” Mr Jithendran said. “The trainers found none who could be taken to the next level of training,” he added. The 'souhruda' experiment died. “To be a counselor requires a certain innate flair and commitment. If a teacher refuses to sit an extra 30 minutes even during training it reflects their lack of commitment. They approached the training in a very casual manner,” Mr Jithendran said.
However, Fr Philip Parakatt who had first mooted the project in 2003, said that the identification of teachers for the counselor training was done in an improper manner. “The schools were asked to nominate a teacher and they mechanically picked a teacher from the social science department without assessing the person’s aptitude or interest,” Fr Parakatt said.
He said that each school should have first constituted a selection committee having as its members representatives of teachers, the Parent-Teacher Association and even an expert psychologist. The committee then should ideally look for a teacher who had long years of experience, an instinct to pick out children in distress and who had also consistently shown the willingness to help them out. “If this process is followed, then we could identify the right people for the job,” he said. Both Fr Parakatt and Mr Jithendran strongly feel that empowering teachers is the best way to protect children.
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