School violence: One counsellor for over 5,000 kids in Delhi govt schools

NEW DELHI: The grand strategy to deal with school violence has been to let a case run its course in the legal-judicial systems till the next tragedy. With the murder of a teacher in a Nangloi school in September, and of a boy in Shakarpur over a school-fight, it’s clear that even murder isn’t a one-off and the old methods aren’t working. Post-Nangloi, teachers have demanded a more robust counselling system.
Currently, the counsellor-student ratio in Delhi government schools stands at an abysmal 1: 5,300.Last year it was worse with about a 100 in a school system that serves 16 lakh children, many living in the most difficult conditions. For years, the process has been so little understood and neglected, that few know what counsellors do or why they’re even needed. As a result, there’s no mechanism yet for “prevention, redressal or rehabilitation.” “Aggression builds over time, the extremely violent are invariably repeat offenders. You have to work on early intervention and prevention,” says Monika Kumar, clinical psychologist from city-based NGO, Manas Foundation.
Reviewing Delhi’s counselling apparatus with the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and UNFPA, the NGO found “no systemic memory of any protocol or system in place, though students have always needed support,” says Kumar. That is now changing, she adds. About 200 new posts for counsellors were created this year – still far short of the 500 the reviewers recommend, but it’s a start.
Shortage isn’t the only problem. A sizeable section of school administrators believe counselling isn’t for kids from low socio-economic backgrounds, that it addresses “higher needs”, as Kumar puts it.
Consequently, even the few counsellors deployed -- and “shared” by schools – were frequently handed other duties. They taught, were engaged in administrative work, confused with career-counsellors and summoned to ‘discipline’ unruly students. “They’re expected to preach,” adds Kumar. In the absence of clarity, their work is assessed the same way as that of regular teachers.
Adolescence has been handled with unhelpful strategies like “moral policing, lectures, segregation.” “If you don’t understand the well-being of the child, they won’t develop the resilience to face psycho-social challenges,” explains Kumar.
There’s been no screening for violence or sexual abuse - on the rise, along with substance abuse, surveyors found - nor for anxiety or depression, both seen as discipline or conduct issues. There’s little understanding of even learning disabilities and IQ ranges. Training for counsellors has been practically negligible.
Some of the study’s recommendations echo the demands of principals after Nangloi - “infrastructural reform”, relieving academic stress through co-curricular activities, making the system “gender-inclusive.”
It recommends that schools start orientation from Class VI itself, provide space for confidential, individual counselling and allow six periods in a week for it.
The study also makes several suggestions to “professionalise” the role of counsellors - make the EVGC (educational and vocational guidance counsellor) bureau completely responsible for the service, including “recruitment, capacity-building and content development.” It recommends that a “systematic documentation of case records” be initiated and increasing the number of counsellors to “ensure one counsellor [for] two schools.”