Counselling

The following are the reasons for providing counselling services to people:

1. Counselling services enable a person to realise his or her potential and to have self-direction;
2. They are helpful in self-development;
3. They enable people to change their behaviour so that they are accepted by society;
4. They enable people to have academic self-direction which enhances their learning process;
5. Counselling services help people to have a positive attitude when they are facing various life challenges; and
6. They enable people to live in harmony with people from other cultures

In the learning environment, there might be different academic difficulties facing pupils in their learning process. Counselling is needed to help pupils tackle those difficulties. The following are some academic difficulties which may lead someone to seek counselling services:

1. Failing examinations: A counselling service is needed to instill hope and confidence in pupils with poor academic or examination performance so that they may perform better.
2. Lacking good learning techniques: A counselling service is given to pupils so that they can plan their learning process. A pupil who has been given a counselling service may have a reading timetable.
3. Lack of necessary school requirements: Some parents or guardians may not be able to provide all the requirements to their children because they are poor. Pupils who come from such families need counselling services and encouragement on how to proceed with their studies.
4. Examination phobia: Sometimes pupils may fear examinations and even suffer from examination fever. Counselling may help them to be confident and take examinations.
5. Cross-cutting issues: These are issues which touch many areas such as drug abuse, corruption, HIV/AIDS, and globalization. These issues have negative effects on pupils. Therefore, counselling services are helpful in making them build confidence and know how to avoid or deal with them.
6. Communication challenges: Communication, that is, information sharing, is rapidly growing and spreading all over the world in such a way that the world now seems to be like a single village. Thus, counselling may help pupils to use means of communication like mobile phones properly.
7. Lack of confidence: Counselling helps pupils to build self-esteem and the ability to make decisions on how to address challenges in their environment. For example, one may avoid peer pressure by not engaging in sexual immorality or smoking marijuana.

Usually, people face various problems. They may be moral, psychological, political or economic problems. In a society, there are institutions with people who are specialised in providing counselling services to other people. They usually provide counselling services to people so that they solve and cope with the problems they are facing in their lives.

It is important that we do things that show that people are treated equally, regardless of their sex, level of income or origin. It is important to promote good relationships with other people by knowing the limits of the relationships and valuing others as human beings.