Port Blair, Jan 24: The Member of Parliament, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Shri. Kuldeep Rai Sharma has requested the Hon’ble Lt. Governor to appoint and post Counselors & Wellness Teachers in all the Secondary and Sr. Secondary level Schools in Andaman & Nicobar Islands as per CBSE guidelines.

In a letter addressed to the Lt. Governor, the Member of Parliament mentioned that appointment of trained counselors in schools is the need of the hour; as students are undergoing a paradigm change with families moving from a joint family system to nuclear families, especially in an era of humungous variety of social media networks with an increasing number of suicides among youth. As pointed out by the United Nation, one of the most important lacuna in our new social order is that we have very few empathetic listening counselors, he said. 

The Member of Parliament pointed out that we have 384 Government-run schools in Andaman and Nicobar Islands but, none of the schools have a student counselor appointed till date.

Due to the absence of proper counseling for the students in the schools through an expert in the subject, students are facing deep stress on account of untoward incidents occurring in their routine life such as getting less marks, being unsuccessful in CBSE board examination, natural calamities like COVID-19 pandemic, earthquake, cyclone etc. due to their intolerable situations.   

According to the circular released by CBSE in 2014, (CBSE/AFF/CIRCULAR/2014/675578), it is mandatory to have a full-time Student-Counselor in every school. The circular pointed that the exercise should be carried out to gauge the need and scope of support services available across the schools as social, interpersonal, physical and emotional problems, which the students go through need to be resolved.

Pointing out that about five batches of students have graduated in B.Sc. Psychology in the Andaman College (ANCOL) and many others have graduated in PG Counseling Psychology, the Member of Parliament said that this could be a win-win situation where the schools and college could have full-time student-counselors on one hand with all the benefits pointed above and employment opportunity for the unemployed graduates.

The Member of Parliament requested the Hon’ble Lt. Governor to issue necessary direction to the Education Department to make necessary arrangements for appointment and posting of Counselors and Wellness Teachers in every Secondary and Senior Secondary level school across the A&N Islands in terms of CBSE guidelines, to safeguard in the interest of the student community.