The Roles of School Counselor
Based on the counselor’s log book listed 26 roles or responsibilities that must be done by a counselor. However, counselors are not necessarily bound by duties recorded because the scope of duties of a counselor is actually more than that. According to Mr. Zaifulnizam, role that can be played as a counselor must be based on knowledge of appropriate guidance and counseling so that they can deal with problems at school and managed to turn the actual functions of guidance and counseling.
The main role of the counselor is responsible in order to expand the potential of each student, this is because guidance and counseling services are structured activities will help students to examine, evaluate and choose a realistic personal goal and to ensure that they are desire to achieve their goals. Counselor’s role is not only to help students identify and achieve their goals but encourage and guide students to identify the right direction of life.
That’s mean counselor’s role is not only to students’ academic performance only but a student’s life as a whole in line with the philosophy of education. Mr. Zaifulnizam also stated, counselor also serves as a mediator between the outsider and the school. Outsiders can be parents, society and the authorities such as police. Therefore, the counselor is also responsible for preserve the reputation and good name of the school. Even, counselors also need to act as a mediator between teachers and students. In the some condition the teacher need assistance counselors to understand the students’.
Mr. Zaifulnizam also said counselors must be well-informed as they also act as an informer to all school community because, the counselor will be referred if something important happen in the school. Counselor’s role is not only limited towards the counseling process alone but also serves to plan and implement school activities throughout the year, especially involving student affairs. In other words the counselors also serve as planners, implementers, motivator, and advisor for the school community. Types of Services Provided
The guidance and counseling unit (UBK) are responsible for providing and coordinating all activities and services supported by the curriculum and co-curriculum activities. According to the Ministry of Education (KPM) in the books of Implementation Guidelines, Guidance and Counseling Services in Schools have outlined several principles. Among other things, guidance and counseling is an educational process, a process that is planned and ongoing. In SMKPM, apart from the annual program of activities the UBK also provide some guidance and counseling program that is planned as follows: a) Counseling Services Counselors provide the guidance and counseling services for individuals or groups. Individual counseling is the process of counseling to students who have problems whether they come alone or who are referred by other teachers. students usually come in person to get the consultation is that students who excel in academics, while the case was referred by the other teachers involving students who have problems in school such as not completing their homework and have no interest in learning.
But there are also cases where the counselors themselves will review student files such as academic file or discipline file and, where there are problems such as deterioration of academic achievement and student discipline misconduct, UBK themselves will call the student is to be consulted. Usually the individual counseling program is ongoing throughout the year. While Group Counseling is a process of group counseling in which all students usually have the same problem or issue for discussion.
This is to enable students to understand the situation and acquire the ability to act and to overcome the discomfort experienced. In addition to counseling services also provide consultancy services to teachers who are always facing issues related to student behavior, student relations and matters of personality development of the students at the school. b) Personality development * The counselor will be requested to solve disciplinary problems. The school discipline will refer students who commit disciplinary offenses repeatedly to a counselor to resolve.
Through individual counseling or group of students will be advised to change their attitudes according to the school rules. For example when there is a student who likes to bully their peers, the UBK will call for a consultation session, they will be given proper advice to the formation of their personal development towards a better and consequently remove the bad behavior. c) Motivation and learning skills * Students are given the guidance to keep their academic achievement. Counselor role to motivate students less confident of their abilities and given up with their academic performance.
Counselors also play a role in guiding the students to acquire the skills to learn, how to control stress, time management skills and effective learning techniques and answering exam questions. Therefore the Guidance and Counseling Unit has planned special programs such as ‘Program Maju Diri’, ‘Program Teknik Menjawab Soalan’, and ‘Program Motivasi / Bijak Belajar PMR dan SPM’. d) Career Development Guidance * The Guidance and Counseling Unit provide a variety of programs for students to expose them to the working world.
The main purpose of the program is to enable students to learn the things themselves so that the appropriate choice of careers can be made. Programs implemented are the ‘Program Hari Kerjaya’ and the ‘Pameran Kerjaya’. Such programs usually emphasized on form five students. e) Orientation program to the new teachers * The Guidance and Counseling Unit also responsible in managing the orientation program for the new teachers. These programs are specific to the new teachers to familiarize themselves with the school. f) Career development for teachers Responsible for handling the career enhancement programs for teachers. An example of career enhancement programs for teachers is LADAP (Latihan Dalam Perkhidmatan). Problem handled Problems handled by the guidance and counseling unit (UBK) in the scope of duties and responsibilities that must performed by a counselor. It involves any student in need of guidance and advice and has been classified these cases into eight categories such as Academic, personal, career, discipline, psychosocial, drug or cigarettes, family and HIV or Aids.
The highest cases handled by UBK is discipline cases, most common discipline offense committed by the student is skipping school and modes of dress that does not comply with the school rules. These kinds of cases are usually referred by the school discipline unit. Discipline is the highest cases because it involves a lot repetitive cases such as truancy and absenteeism. The second highest cases involves academic and career. Usually these cases are referred by teachers or students themselves voluntarily come to seek for advice, they usually have a good level of academic achievement.
Family problem and students personal matter among the popular cases handled by the UBK. Most of the students in SMKPM are from middle-income families. This caused many of neglected children less attention from their parents because they are busy to earn for living. Some even came from a broken family and parents with problems that affect their children indirectly. This causes the children do not interested in studies and always skipping school. They are usually referred by the class teacher for advice and counseling. Sometimes there are also students themselves who come to seek for advice on personal problems.
There are also the cases handled by UBK involving students who have problems in psychosocial. The psychosocial problems related with mental wellness of students such as spiritual and self-esteem. Such cases are usually referred by teachers or by parents themselves. Students who are involved in drugs and cigarettes were also handled by the UBK. Although drugs and cigarettes is not popular cases, the school authorities through UBK still take necessary precautions by conducting lot of programs that expose and cigarettes to students. So far there has been no case of HIV and Aids.
The pie chart above shows the percentage of cases handled by UBK. Discipline cases showed the highest record. Apart from discipline, other popular cases handled by UBK are academic and career of the students. While there were no cases of HIV and Aids. All the cases are for the whole month of January to September of 2012. Statistics for the cases above refers to the morning school session only.
