One-year course for Counsellors (Express photo /Representational)The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is planning to launch a diploma course in counselling, which will fill in the growing need for counsellors in schools. Speaking to indianexpress.com, NCTE chairperson, Satbir Bedi said there is an acute shortage of jobs for candidates who have cleared BEd and TET, and that this bridge course will help them get jobs.
“We have the capacity to train 19 lakh teachers every year but only 2.5 to 3 lakh new jobs are created annually. The major source of these jobs is the retirement of already working teachers in schools. Above our capacity, we always have around 5 lakh extra enrolment across the country every year. To provide jobs for all these candidates is an acute issue,” said NCTE chairperson, Satbir Bedi.
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The NCTE believes that the course on counselling can work as an alternative for these candidates.
“Now it is compulsory for every school to have counsellors but there are not enough trained people available. Barring 2-3 short term courses, there is no mainstream full-time course in the same either. We are working out to formalise a new course to prepare counsellors to handle academic, behavioural, adolescent as well as parental issues,” said Bedi.
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She informed that the course will be available from the coming academic year 2021. Earlier, it was being speculated that a new BEd degree in counselling would be available. However, after a meeting of stakeholders held on Friday, it seems the course would first be introduced as a one-year focused course.
“The course is first to be introduced for BA Psychology students. Since these students have a deep understanding of Psychology already, it would be possible to sum-up all topics in one year. This it might be called a diploma course,” informed Bedi.
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“There is an increased need for counsellors in schools for academic, behaviour and career aspects. Teenagers also need counselling to deal with several issues. Such a need was not felt earlier. We have to create a new curriculum to train counsellors who can train the teens as well as their parents. We have started discussions on how to define and develop such a course. First candidates having Psychology in their bachelors will be eligible for the same,” said Bedi.
A council is deciding the syllabus and crafting the entire curriculum for the entire course along with other changes to be introduced in BEd curriculum. The HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had called for a revised teaching curriculum which is future-oriented to train the upcoming generations. He also gave nod to launching integrated BEd programmes to create specialist teachers.
