Karnataka education department to appoint counsellors for schools this year | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: The department of school education and literacy has decided to appoint mental health counsellors for all schools this year. While a similar proposal was mooted last year, it did not roll out. The department hopes to roll it out by Term 2 this time.Counsellors will be appointed at a cluster level, so they will move on a rotation basis, attending one school per day. “Counsellors will be civic partners, it could be any organisation working in the field of mental health. We already have a few NGOs who have approached us. Moreover, there are a lot of psychology postgraduate students who have some practical experience. So we are also looking at tying up with many of these institutions,” said Rashmi Mahesh, principal secretary. The counselling will be available for students from class 6 onwards. For children in primary school, teachers will be trained to counsel them. “We have had this recent spate of suicides among students. In a recent high court hearing, the judge was also talking about mental health. So as a part of holistic schooling, we thought this was a very essential intervention,” she added. The counsellors will be paid a remuneration. The funds will be used from Samagra Shikshana Karnataka. The plan is to pilot in 10 schools and then expand further.