Guidance counsellors being sidelined, claims JTA secretary general
Published:Monday | December 11, 2023 | 12:05 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A senior member of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), Dr Mark Nicely, claims that guidance counsellors, who hold a pivotal and deciding role in the education sector, are being physically sidelined in schools.
The claim was made during the opening ceremony of the Jamaica Association of Guidance Counsellors in Education’s 25th annual general conference, held last Thursday at Holiday Inn Resort, where the members of the association gathered to discuss the theme, ‘Guidance Counsellors Championing Educational Success through Psychosocial and Emotional Services’.
According to Nicely, educational success is not assured without the work of guidance counsellors, and they must be positioned prominently on school compounds so they can easily be located rather than hidden behind school buildings or around corners.
“In schools, many counsellors are sidelined, and the sideline, if you look at it, is physical because where the counsellor’s office suggests that you are sidelined,” Nicely, the JTA’s secretary general, said.
“If somebody should come to the school, they have to dig deep and walk (up) and down the stairs and the corridor to get to the counsellor’s office,” he explained.
Nicely stated that, despite being widespread for decades, these conditions will need to change as part of the transformation of the education sector, and one of the things you’ll do is start considering practically changing the environment and location of your workspaces to an acceptable one.
“You need to look at the placement of the counsellor’s office, and I know where it is now, but I am saying to you that you probably need to start lobbying for a more prominent place for the counsellor’s office to be,” Nicely told JGCAE delegates and observers who were assembled in Montego Bay for an enrichment conference experience.
He said that, for the work that guidance counsellors do within the schools as a result of their cultural norms, where they are required to have a better and individual understanding of the students and be able to make decisive recommendations for their performances and wellbeing, prominent and suitable work stations or offices should be provided to facilitate a seamless process.
“Even though the principal is the chief disciplinarian in the school and you have a dean of discipline, your skills are supposed to come to bear to assess, analyse, evaluate, and make recommendations for the treatment,” Nicely added.