Desperate need of counsellors in Indian Schools
Growing up in New Delhi during the 2000s. I have changed three schools till my high school graduation. The first change I don’t remember. But I very clearly remember the second change. I was enrolled in the seventh standard in this new school and it was a big culture shock to me. The kids were confident, bold, outspoken and from well to do families compared to my earlier school. Pretty girls, Boys coming to school on their bikes you get the gist.
Yet, there was no counsellor in this school. I never noticed the absence of a counsellor because, to me, the concept of a counsellor wasn’t introduced until very late in life and not in a good setting. None of the other schools had it. At least not in the vicinity of my school.
So, here I am a twelve-year-old in crisp new uniform trying to adjust to this new life sitting in a class, zoned out with no clue what the teacher is talking about. So, I started chatting with my seat partner. He asks me if I like any girl in the class? I was excited but shy. I kinda liked a girl but I am not going to tell him, thinking he is gonna tell the whole class. So, I denied it. He kept probing and I kept saying no, no there is no one. I don’t really know anyone how can I? Blah… Blah…
But he didn’t give up and asked If I tell you who I like. Will you tell me then?
And this is where I fucked up, He told me and I told him as well, his first reaction was “she? … isn’t she a Muslim?” I said IDK, I guess. It took seconds for him to tell the guy/girl sitting in front of us. Very soon, the whole class heard it. And the girl whose name I just mentioned was now looking at me and laughed … not at me but with her “girlfriends”. I knew something bad had happened. The stare of all my classmates was terrifying.
Soon the bell rang and the period was over and lunch break started. I headed straight to the washroom to take a leak. While I was leaving, I saw a couple of boys approaching me and the first one asked my name with one tall and skinny guy behind him. I said “my name” and he said do you know “saying the name of the same girl”. I froze, He lifted me up by my neck and threw some insults at me and my parents. Which I am not mentioning here because I think is not relevant to the context here. I was threatened and told not to speak to her ever again. He twisted my arm behind my back and started pushing me all the way from the washroom to my classroom in front of her. I said sorry to her and came back to my seat. I was scared to the core. I think I cried for like the next one and a half periods I remember vaguely. I had no one to speak to about this. I was alone in this new school. I couldn’t tell my parents. Well, I could have and should have but didn’t. I guess I was scared of what they might say. Growing up I perceived loving someone as a “bad thing”, girls running away from their homes, boys marrying girls at court and bringing them home. “love marriage” used to be one of the hot topics those days and not in a good spirit.
This incident shaped my life for sure. I don’t know for good or bad. I never thought about this even once before writing this. This is one of the many incidents that happen in student life. A counsellor can provide assistance and healthy space for them to process their emotions.
The role of a counsellor is well covered in news, I won’t get into those details. This is my story and I have come up with a solution.
These private schools that can’t “afford” a counsellor can hire counsellors for short duration using platforms like Internshala and Linkedin. I am sure a lot of students would work on a voluntary basis. We can have qualified students who are there in their master’s work as a counsellor with undergrad students as their assistant. It not only solves the problem of lack of counsellors in school. But will give the opportunity to the budding psychologists.
These platforms are filled with paid internships, leaving students who want to work with no choice but to pay these pseudo psychologists who are grievously bad at statistics. They promote pseudo-sciences like NLP, Tarot and Astrology. Not only bringing wrong publicity to the profession but deteriorating the next generation of psychologists.
A quick search on Linkedin shows me this “advertisement”
It breaks my heart to search for an Internship. How do we expect this field to grow when we talk and practice techniques with no empirical evidence. Techniques that are not scientific in nature. Introspection is the key here, we break yearlong patterns in therapy. It’s time for us to break the patterns we are lost in and accept the changes we need to make because there is a problem here. Students have to indulge with these rich business people who think like an MBA and speaks like a psychologist. For them, their blood is blood our blood is water. Speak up!
Read more about the subject, start a substack. Share, have discussions. Till then have a good one.