Educationists in Rivers state have called for the compulsory introduction of guardian counselling in secondary schools in order to help children going through traumatic experience to open up as well as help them with their career choices.
In an interview with a professor of psychology at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Joseph Kinanee, he said that the importance of having a guardian counselling section in schools cannot be overemphasize because it is a compulsory ingredient for personal and national development.
“proper counselling will help to incorporate daily lessons in the life of any child. While some section should focus on career path, another section should focus on the mental health of the children because if a child is not psychologically balanced, he/she will not be able to concentrate in his/her academics.
Also, students should be advised on how they can cope with different situations that they tend to face in their school life such as counselling them on how they can interact or socialize with their peers and how they can behave in certain situations they find themselves.”
On his part, a sociologist, Kingdom Nwaenyi said guardian counselling helps students in making right decisions and avoiding things that can jeopardize their future.
“the introduction of guardian counselling will help students to get comprehensive advice on issues affecting their lives particularly the youths. For example, talks on sex, drugs, child abuse should be discussed openly in order to help make the children better human beings. Also, students through counselling, can open up and share things bothering them which they may have found difficult to share with their parents.” He said.
