Lae schools on right track

SCHOOLS in Lae will now have counsellors to deal with student issues after 41 teachers and chaplains graduated from a three-month programme last week.
The programme or workshop was jointly funded by the Papua New Guinea Church partnership programme, the Evangelical Lutheran Church education department and the Morobe education division, as well as the participating schools.
The training will now see all elementary, primary and secondary schools in the Morobe capital have permanent counsellors in schools to deal individually with students about their problems.
This is a positive move by the authorities in Lae and something that the National Department of Education should take note of.
School counsellors may not be priority positions in schools across the country but there has always been a need for them.
The programme was run as a joint measure by church and the provincial education division to tackle violence between students from different schools in Lae.
The efforts by the Lae schools and the church-run education agencies to train teachers and chaplains to help them deal with students on a daily basis is time well spent and furthermore should be  standardised across the nation in schools.
Lae has been known for the fighting among students from different schools and while the disruption of classes and learning has been an immediate effect, not to mention the notoriety, this behaviour has engendered the city and the province, there has not been a concerted effort by anyone in authority to find out the root causes of the behaviour and how it can be minimised and eventually done away with.
Getting students to talk about their problems to a person who is there to listen and offer constructive advice is surely a step in the right direction.
Rather than being reactionary and attempting to stem the tide of violence that periodically takes place between students from schools in Lae, those in positions to make a difference are taking a better approach – one that will seek to prevent the problems from arising or at the very least can identify who the potential troublemakers are and manage them before they get out of hand.
Students have to deal with a myriad of changes as they progress through the grades and often times they struggle to adjust or make the right decisions.
Having a counsellor, someone trained to identify issues and suggest remedial courses of action as well as monitor a student’s progress, makes a significant difference to how a child/student navigates his or her way through school.
Having that outlet is crucial when peer pressure, the pressure to conform or fit in or to be accepted, is at its peak and can influence students to make poor, short-sighted decisions.
Some might say that parents are the natural counsellors of their children and that is a point that is worth making but many parents do not spend the amount of time or indeed effort to steer their children on the straight and narrow.
Ironically, if one were to ask a parent the purpose of sending their child to school, one answer would invariably be for the child to learn discipline and to perform in a structured environment with schedules, deadlines, rules and so on to adhere to.
That mode of thinking is both flawed and unfair on schools and the students themselves but at least to a large extent the education system which has the students under its care from 8am to 3pm five days a week for around 10 months a year has in its blueprint of the school structure a position that allows them to fulfil that role of counsellor.
But that is not to say parents do not have a certain amount of responsibility in the matter as well. It must be noted that quite often a student will start to rebel and act up not because of the challenges he or she faces in school but because of what’s happening at home.
Going to school is and should be a positive experience but for some students it provides an avenue to behave in ways they wouldn’t otherwise and in many regards mob rule has sway in the school but students only follow if they are not given proper guidance by people they trust and look up at the home and on the school staff hence the need for counsellors.