Dharamshala: The Department of Education, CTA organized webinar based Induction Training, first of its kind, for the School Guidance Counselors from August 24 to 27, 2020.

The training began on August 24 with the address of Mrs. Donkar Wangmo, Chief Counselor who welcomed the participants and introduced the two main resource persons, Dr. Jitendra Nagpal and Mrs. Rekha Chauhan for this training.

She further emphasized that this training will orient the counselors on their role and responsibilities as well as provides practical training to improve their efficiency and efficacy as professionals. She had also briefly updated the participants on the works done by the DOE Counseling section and quickly ran through the current counseling scenario of schools under the Department of Education. Ms. Wangmo also thanked Global Affairs Canada for funding the training. 

This was followed by the keynote address by Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, Psychiatrist & Senior Consultant, head of the Department of Psychiatry, Moolchand Medcity Hospital, New Delhi who spoke on the significant role of School Counselors in creating a happy learning ecosystem for the children in collaboration with the teachers and administration.

Dr. Nagpal also reminded another important role of guidance counselors in tapping the potentials of the children as early as possible. He lauded the Department of Education for striving hard to integrate Counseling services as part of the formal school curriculum and also for being the first one to organize training where the new role of school counselors as per NEP is being discussed soon after the launch of National Education Policy (NEP). 

Dr. Jitendra Nagpal also mentioned that he had shared the impressive work of DOE in respect to school counseling to the officials of CBSE in a meeting. 

After this, Mrs. Rekha Chauhan, thanked the keynote Speaker and introduced the session by welcoming Mrs. Geeta Mehrotra, who took the session on Life Skills which was later summarized by Mrs. Rekha Chauhan. 

During the four days training, some of the most important topics that will be covered are Introduction to 21st Century Skills; Understanding, Accepting, Managing, Expressing & Enhancing Self (Understand the development of Identity & how do I adapt to the New Normal?; Children, Adolescents & Youth well Being & Development (Emotional & Behavioral concerns in school children; Understanding the Flag Signs of Common Mental Health problems; Preventing High Risk Behaviours during adolescents viz aggression, substance abuse, bullying (including cyber bullying etc); Decoding Inclusion; POCSO ACT (Implications & Implementation; SOP; Discussions); Ethics in School Counseling (Dealing with different disciplinary & behavioural cases; Case Studies; Role Play; Informal Assessments & Informal scales); Role of School Counselor (Reporting & Documentation of cases & associated formats; Record keeping proformas; Referral process for counseling outside) etc.  

The methods employed are group work, presentations, interactive discussion, role play and Powerpoint Presentation etc. A total of 12 hour sessions of training (3 hours each day) will be held. 

24 School Guidance Counselors {(TCV (9), SLF (2), THF (2), STSS (7) & DoE (4)} & 11 Teachers (SLF – 3), (THF – 01) & (STSS – 7) attended a total of 12 hour sessions (3 hours per day) of training.

This training is funded by Global Affairs Canada.

-Filed by Department of Education