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Student Counselling, need of the
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By Lavanya.M : Support systems that
include counselling cells can play a major role in preventing suicides in
colleges and help students have a smooth education experience.
The recent suicide of a Chennai college girl has turned the spotlight on the
need to address issues of depression, stress, harassment, culture-shock, and
pressure to perform, through counselling cells on college campuses.
“Very few colleges in the city employ the service of a full-time counsellor. In
colleges which have counselling cells, the counsellor-student ratio is very low.
Often, there is one counsellor for 2,000 students,” says Saras Bhaskar, founder,
Chennai Counsellor's Foundation. “In fact, the role of counsellors in colleges
is not as popular as in schools,” she says.
Ironically, every college must have counselling centres as part of a Student
Support and Progression criterion for National Assessment and Accreditation
Council (NAAC) accreditation. The University of Madras, as part of its
anti-ragging measures last academic year, sent a circular to colleges to set up
counselling cells. “Only about 25 per cent of these colleges say they have
exclusive centres within campus, and many have part-time faculty,” says
vice-chancellor G. Thiruvasagam.
Primarily, colleges require the services of counsellors mostly for the
first-year and final-year students. “For first-year students, it is to
facilitate the transition from school to college and the sessions are spread
over 21 hours. For final-year students, it is to help them face work, marriage
and real-world situations,” says Ms. Bhaskar.
At Shree Motilal Kanhaiyalal Fomra Institute of Technology, Kelambakkam, where a
student committed suicide last year, students say they are not aware of any such
facility available in the college. Says Ms. Bhaskar, “It is important to address
the entire class after the loss of a student.”
Read the full article from The Hindu
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