Hyderabad: Dr. MCR HRD Institute, in collaboration with the Department of Intermediate Education, has trained 2500 Junior Lecturers as Student Counsellors, via virtual mode, drawn from Government and private Junior Colleges, from across Telangana State, from July 28 to August 14.
They were trained in seven batches, with the duration of each batch being two days. A number of eminent Recourse Persons from the University of Hyderabad, Osmania University, Indian Medical Health Association, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, etc. addressed the trainees on different aspects of Counselling Skills, including Study Habits, Examination Stress, Time Management, Management of Emotions, Parental Counselling, etc. In addition, the trainees had an added bonus of exposure to the soft skills modules, developed by the DoPT, Govt of India.
B.P. Acharya, IAS, DG of the institute & Spl. Chief Secretary stated that while the primary focus of Junior Lecturers on the students’ academic performance is important in its own right, the need of the hour is to simultaneously address the issues relating to their holistic development, in term of overall personality, management of emotions, and career growth. “Since Intermediate is a turning point in student Counsellors’ life and they spend more time with their lecturers, rather than parents, relatives, and friends, availability of a bouquet of professional counseling services will have a multiplier and beneficial effect on the nature and quality of their performance”, he stated and underlined the need for replication of similar services in schools too.
Chitra Ramachandran, Special Chief Secretary for Education Department, said that Intermediate students, who are in their teens, are required to deal with many physiological and psychological changes associated with their transition from childhood to adolescence, and also measure up to the high expectations of their parents to do exceptionally well in their academics.
“Availability of professional counseling and guidance services will empower them to put their best foot forward and to come out with flying colors at the challenging phase of their lives”, she said and added that the Education Department has conceptualized and executed a number of innovative initiatives, including the training in counseling skills, in order to address the multiple challenges thrown up by the contemporary scenario in general and Covid 19 in particular.
Harpreet Singh, Additional Director General of the Institute said that for most of the lecturers, communication with students is mainly a one-way lane. “For counseling to be meaningful, two-way communication should become a new normal in order to listen proactively and understand the problems of students in their true and total frame of reference and to find meaningful solutions to them”, he stated and called upon the Junior Lecturers to administer psychometric tests, wherever possible, to diagnose students’ problems in a systematic and scientific fashion.
Syed Omer Jaleel, Commissioner, Intermediate Education & Secretary, Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education, said that the training to the Junior Lecturers is not a one-shot affair. “The Department of Intermediate Education is committed to keeping their counseling skill sets current and up-to-date by arranging lectures by eminent persons on different aspects of counseling, at frequent intervals”, he added.
Dr. Kandukuri Usha Rani, Senior Faculty, Centre for Telangana Studies at the Institute coordinated the Training Program.
SOURCE: NSS
