Counsellors exempted from exam-related tasks, to focus on mental health support for students

The Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT) issued an order in this regard for the first time Tuesday. These teachers have been appointed by the Maharashtra State Board as counsellors as they have undergone training for it and can guide students.

While these teachers help students ease stress by talking to them, they also provide career guidance in many cases. A lot of them also receive calls from parents of children appearing for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams.

The notice issued by Director of MSCERT, M D Singh, states, “Teachers who are working as counsellors should be kept free of all other exam-related duties. These include supervising, paper-checking and holding custody of exam centre among all. If they get busy with these tasks, there would be obstacles in providing proper guidance and support to students who will be calling them.”

According to the notice, the counsellors should be free of all other tasks in order to be able to provide better services to students.

One of the counsellors, Jaywant Kulkarni, welcomed the move and shared, “This is great as all counsellors will now be able to focus on the task at hand which otherwise would get affected if the said teacher was busy in any other work.” It was also pointed out that all schools should display the list of counsellors and their numbers in school so that more students are able to take advantage of the facility.

HSC and SSC exams are going to be held from March 4 to March 30 and March 15 to April 4, respectively. As most students have studied online during the pandemic, there is a demand among students that even board exams should be held online.