PCMC appoints counsellors for civic schools

To provide career guidance as well as help students cope with stress and pressure, PCMC has appointed counsellors for its civic schools

PUNE To provide career guidance as well as help students cope with stress and pressure, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has appointed counsellors for its civic schools. Officials said that the counsellors will help students cope with behavioural and scholastic issues by counselling them at the right time.

To provide career guidance as well as help students cope with stress and pressure, PCMC has appointed counsellors for its civic schools. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The PCMC has a total 128 civic schools out of which, 110 are primary schools while the remaining 18 are secondary schools. Initially, a total 21 counsellors have been appointed for the 128 schools with one counsellor for every five schools. These counsellors are experts in child psychology, psychiatry and sociology and have been actively involved in child welfare activities in the past as counsellors for children in schools and other institutes.

An official on condition of anonymity said, “The counsellors will visit the schools once a week, interact with the students, and look after their psychological and emotional health. The civic body has appointed counsellors after several incidents of students committing suicide on account of poor grades, parental or peer pressure, and stress in general.”

Shekhar Singh, PCMC commissioner, said that the aim of appointing counsellors is to ensure a safe and secure environment for students as the most common problems faced by children nowadays are scholastic performance pressure and lack of interpersonal communication. “The counsellors will help the children tackle various behavioural issues including learning difficulties among others. Counselling students at the right time will reduce the scholastic problems faced by students. They can perform better in studies and excel in their careers,” Singh said.

“We had also undertaken an infrastructural gap analysis in some of the PCMC-run schools in the past. Similar analysis will now be taken up for 67 more schools. The required upgrade and maintenance of the schools will be provided,” Singh said.