Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – About 80 percent of students have
problems that they want to share with others and want a private space in the
school to seek help and talk about their problems, according to the Ministry of
Education and Training’s surveys conducted in the capital city of Hanoi and the
northern province of Hai Duong.
Studies conducted in another seven northern provinces also
found that 20 percent of students suffered psychological problems that required
intervention.
In order to achieve a comprehensive education, it was
necessary to take care of mental health to help students overcome their
problems and enhance their learning, Nguyen Quy Thanh, Rector of the University
of Education (UE) under the Vietnam National University said at a recent workshop
on training school psychological counsellors held by the UE.
Thanh said psychological consultation was important and timely
advice could help ease negative feelings and deal with problems related to
school.
However, he acknowledged that school counselling is facing a
lot of challenges particularly in human resources.
“Most of schools don’t have qualified school counsellors who
have been trained in educational counselling,” Thanh told Radio The Voice of
Vietnam.
According to Thanh, psychological counsellors in
schools at present are teachers of Law, Literature, Psychology or History and
Geography. Although they have undergone training, their expertise is still
limited due to limited resources and capacity of consultant experts.
According to Bui Van Linh, deputy head of the
Department of Political Affairs and Student Management under the MoET, a
circular on psychological consultation, which took effect in February, stated
that every school must establish a psychological consultation group to assist
students in major issues relating to gender, reproductive health, anti-abuse,
career orientation or problems arising in social relationship.
The group consists of between three and seven
people led by a principal or a vice principal. All group members must have a
certificate to show they have undergone training on psychological counselling.
It is expected there will be about 70,000 psychology
counsellors who should be trained in the next three years.
Linh emphasised that much attention should be paid to
physical and of students.
Given huge pressure from daily life, students might suffer
such consequences as boredom, poor score in learning or severe depression, even
suicide if the problem wasn’t spotted and treated.
He said the colleges specialising in school psychology
training should offer more courses to help school counsellors. A network of
psychology consultant centres, which could assist those dealing with serious
cases, should also be established.
He also said the MoET had assigned the Vietnam Institute of
Educational Sciences to set up training programmes for psychological teachers.
In the coming years, school counselling service will be
reviewed to ensure physical and mental health for both teachers and students,
and teachers who have psychological difficulties will be assisted while
students will be empowered to cope with mental stress in general and psychology
in particular.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
