The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Currently, the number of school counsellors falls short of the recommended standard, which suggests having one counsellor for every 400 students.
The Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) has recently announced three vacancies for counsellors, but there were approximately 19 resignations in the counselling service during the first five months of this year.
Education Minister, Jai Bir Rai shared the steps taken by his ministry to tackle this shortage. One of the key initiatives involves the appointment of wellbeing focal teachers in all the schools, regardless of whether they already have a counsellor or not.
In schools without counsellors, one male and one female wellbeing focal teacher have been designated as a wellbeing focal teachers. To enhance their effectiveness, a comprehensive training program was recently conducted for 191 principals, 110 counsellors, and 358 wellbeing focal teachers from various Dzongkhags.
The training focused on implementing strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of students, as well as the students’ resilience development program. Wellbeing focal teachers were equipped with the skills to identify and refer individuals safely. These dedicated wellbeing focal individuals will play a crucial role in supporting students’ emotional and mental health needs.
The Ministry is actively working on increasing the intake capacity for counsellors from the current capacity of 10 to 30. Previously, the intake capacity had been reduced due to an adequate number of counsellors. However, with the recent resignations the ministry has taken steps to expand the intake capacity.
