A regional summit for school principals was recently held at Sharada Mandir School, Miramar, Panaji. A joint initiative between Sharada Mandir School and Institute of Counsellor Training Research and Consultancy (ICTRC) under the ‘Project Paradigm’, the theme of the summit was “Students ‘At-Risk’ – Identification, Prevention and Intervention.”
The objective of the summit was to provide school counsellors, teachers and teacher counsellors with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitude to guide and counsel children and youth. At the summit, dignitaries of different regions were present for counselling and to find alternatives to deal with changing phenomenon in the students’ activities.
The keynote speaker, Director General of ICTRC Dr V S Ravindran, said, “Children spend most of their formative years in school and the task of bringing them up as mentally healthy individuals falls on educators.” Ravindran went on to add that all teachers need to become an integral part of the school guidance and counselling programme for the overall development of a child. Some of the other topics deliberated on included recognising students at risk, identifying the causal factors and consequences of students at risk, and the various programmes and practices that need to be implemented for at risk students
