Awareness of Professional Skill Requirement among School Counsellors

Today’s fluctuating and composite world places increasingly superior demands on students in schools. Not only do students have academic pressures, they also face cultural, social, economic and family pressures. These pressures lead to different manifestations such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse, suicide, anti- social behaviours, dropping out of schools etc. A group of well trained counsellors with a good understand of professional skill requirement is increasingly becoming the need of the hour for Indian schools. But as far as India is concerned there are no authentic associations for school counsellors. This makes the process of identifying emerging skill requirements, enhancing these skills and monitoring the performance of counsellors very difficult. The article gives a detailed description of skills essential for the school counsellors. school counsellor’s understanding about the skill requirement in counselling. The study was conducted in schools under Central Board of Secondary Education and Kerala State Education Board in Ernakulum district, Kerala. Descriptive research design was used. Only trained counsellors in the field of social work and psychology were included in the study. It was a Census study using a sampling frame consisted of counsellors in high schools and higher secondary non-residential schools within Ernakulum district in Kerala. The population consisted of 118 school counsellors.