Calling for Improved Counselling Practices in Schools
10 May— We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with students and call for an overhaul of the school counselling system, to protect the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of students and to ensure respect for their dignity.
Context
In recent weeks, former and current school students have come forth, sharing their experiences with teachers and school counsellors. Many detailed instances of sexual harassment, ignorance and an overall lack of sensitivity. This conversation succeeded one student’s revelation of her teacher making “rape jokes” within the setting of a classroom. This student’s plea for assistance from the school counsellor was met with great reluctance and a dismissive attitude. This sparked a nationwide movement demanding for safer schools.
School Counsellors and Mental Health
We strongly endorse the statements issued by various other organisations condemning the heinous culture of misogyny and sexual harassment being perpetuated in schools. However, we find it necessary to address the significant correlation between the unethical counselling practices and the mental wellbeing of students. Determined to shed light on the matter, KauOKTak provided students with platforms to share their encounters with school counsellors particularly — Instagram polls and a Padlet page. The data obtained through these surveys are not meant to be systematically representative of all Malaysian school counselling units. However, we believe that allowing these misconducts to affect even one child is one child too much. These lived experiences of students can be broadly categorised as follows :
- School counsellors have breached confidentiality by, among others, sharing students’ issues with other teachers and looking through students’ personal devices without consent.
- School counsellors have sexually violated students who come to them for assistance, physically and verbally.
- School counsellors have enabled a culture of victim blaming. They have also used derogatory terms in addressing students who identify as part of the LGBTQ community.
- School counsellors have displayed an unfavourable lack of urgency needed in attending to students who display serious signs of poor mental wellbeing. More often than not, counsellors limit their involvement to conducting EQ and aptitude tests and advising “problematic” students who violate disciplinary rules.
- School counsellors lack the sensitivity required in dealing with students. For instance, students who experience suicidal ideations are rarely taken seriously. Instead, they are told that their suicidal thoughts can be ‘shifted elsewhere’. This demonstrates a severe lack of attention towards the students’ mental state. Counsellors are quick to gloss over symptoms of mental illnesses but seldom address the root and cause of their mental health issues.
- School counsellors lack awareness on mental health related issues. Concerns of mental health illnesses like depression were quickly dismissed and labelled as “being possessed”. There appears to be a lack of initiative on the part of school counsellors in utilising widely available academic material on mental illnesses to further educate themselves.
We repugn this grave dereliction of duty many school counsellors have shown. School counsellors play a vital role in enhancing and protecting a child’s experience in school. Their duties extend far beyond career guidance and the bare minimum of conducting EQ tests. Instead, they are expected to remain proactive in ensuring that students’ physical, mental and emotional wellbeing are protected and promoted as best as possible. Counsellors must be adequately informed on matters pertaining mental health and mental illness, the proper interventions warranted, gender sensitivity and general ethics.
An unsafe school environment where teachers and counsellors are unempathetic and unsupportive have been statistically proven to increase the risk of mental illnesses amongst students. The accounts of students, both current and former, are deeply troubling. Students are bound to experience severe repercussions such as trauma, increased anxiety, low self-esteem and an overall deterioration of academic and cocurricular performance. Additionally, students are also bound to lose trust in the school counselling system and educational institutions as a whole.
The Way Forward
We stand in solidarity with all who encountered uncomfortable and traumatising experiences with school counsellors. We believe that every child has an inherent right to a safe schooling environment and this includes having efficient and ethical school counsellors. This is in line with Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which provides for quality education for all children. Therefore, we call for :
- Registration under the Board of Counsellors of Malaysia in accordance with the Counsellors Act 1998 to be a prerequisite to being appointed as a school counsellor.
- A critical review of counselling practices in schools by the Ministry of Education.
- The implementation of stricter enforcement mechanisms to ensure school counsellors maintain the code of ethics in exercising their roles.
- The active involvement of students, parents and teachers in ensuring unethical conducts of counsellors do not go unchecked.
References
Schulte-Körne G. (2016). Mental Health Problems in a School Setting in Children and Adolescents. Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 113(11), 183–190. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2016.0183.
Sahril, N., Ahmad, N. A., Idris, I. B., Sooryanarayana, R., & Abd Razak, M. A. (2021). Factors Associated with Mental Health Problems among Malaysian Children: A Large Population-Based Study. Children (Basel, Switzerland), 8(2), 119. https://doi.org/10.3390/children8020119
Ali Mohamed, Ashgar Ali and Sardar Baig, Farheen Baig and Trakic, Adnan and Mallow, Muzaffar Syah and Surajudeen, Ahmad Tijani (2014) Sexual harassment in Malaysian educational institutions: causes and solutions. In: International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (SOCIO-INT14), 8–10 September, 2014, Istanbul, Turkey.
Signatories
- KauOKTak
- Biji-Biji Initiative
- Bulan Sisters
- Connect Malaysia
- Demokrat Kebangsaan
- Empathy For Youth
- Hakam Youth
- Me.reka
- MINDAKAMI
- Misi Solidariti
- Monsters Among Us
- Undi18
- MYER Movement
- NSWD
- Rape Watchdog
- Solidariti Pendidikan
- Taylor’s Speaker’s Corner
- The Noeo Project