A holistic approach to school-based counselling and guidance services in Malaysia

The multi-faceted role of counsellors

Of the total 82 respondents, 74 counsellors (91.4%) were full-time, one worked as a teacher (1.2%), two worked as counsellor and teacher (2.5%), and one as counsellor and administrator. Three counsellors worked as counsellor, teacher, and administrator (3.7%). As one counsellor commented, ‘I have to teach, organize counselling activities, write reports and collect fees. Actually, the teachers and school administrator don’t have a clear picture of what counselling is about’. All the respondents mentioned that they normally had to plan, organize, and implement programs such as leadership training, talks on relationship with parents, anti-drug campaign, and presentations by police on gang activities. Besides running their own counselling programs, most of them also handled disciplinary cases (Gu, Lai, & Ye, 2011). Of the 82 respondents, most of the counsellors handled academic issues and disciplinary cases, personal issues, career guidance, and lastly family issues. The data suggested that the provision of counselling services in secondary schools are rather academic based and student-centred, while family and other issues were receiving little attention. The frequency and percentage of the types of actual cases handled by counsellors include, respectively, academic, 77, (93.9%); personal, 76, (92.7%); family issues, 65, (79.3%); career, 67, (81.7%); disciplinary cases, 77, (93.9%); and other, 22, (31.0%).

Lack of understanding and stigmatization of counselling services

There was a general lack of understanding about the nature of counselling services among school administrators and teachers. Counselling services were viewed as part of the disciplinary system that dealt with problematic cases. Besides conducting counselling activities, some also had to play the role of disciplinarian. Hence, some counsellors were assigned irrelevant tasks such as spot-checking of students’ attires, and photocopying and delivering Ministry of Education documents and reports. As one counsellor lamented, ‘Every day I’ve got to check the students’ uniforms, making sure that they wear ties and name tags … Everything such as police cases, fighting problems, canteen and even toilet problems are referred to the counsellor. I’m expected to do all these things; it sometimes hurts me even though I don’t mind’. Another commented that ‘we are given only two hours to run counselling program during school hours but some teachers are not willing to give us the time, they prefer to use those times for academic purposes’. Since not all full time counsellors were given any fixed timetable, some teachers regarded them as having a more relaxed time with ‘no need to do anything, sitting in the counselling room writing reports and only talking to the students’. In some schools, there was also a lack of collaboration and understanding between the counsellors and the disciplinary teacher. This lack of cooperation from school teachers increased the frustrations of some school counsellors who also had to prepare reports for students with discipline cases even though the discipline teacher initially handled the cases. Due to a lack of clear operating procedures in handling students’ problems, there is conflict between the roles of the counsellor and the disciplinary teacher. For example, ‘When there is a problem, they send to discipline master and when discipline can’t solve it, they push it to counselling … when counselling can’t solve it (they) then push back to discipline master’.

Other than a lack of cooperation among discipline and classroom teachers, some school counsellors also face tremendous difficulty due to lack of support from school administrators. Since the Malaysian school system is examination-oriented, schools are rated according to students’ academic achievement. In their quest to raise students’ academic achievement, some school administrators focus on academic work rather than utilizing counselling services. This failure to realize the positive effect of counselling in promoting students’ growth and development, including academic development, resulted in the appointment of teachers who were untrained in counselling. Of the 82 respondents, 11 (13.6%) were unqualified as counsellors yet were appointed by school administrators to provide school counselling services.

Furthermore, in the Malaysian school setting, students attending counselling are also stigmatized. Students and parents are reluctant to seek counselling services because they consider these services as only for problem students. This stigmatization causes a great deal of frustration for school counsellors. Some of the respondents were of the opinion that even students thought the services were unhelpful, while some parents viewed it negatively and were fearful of being stigmatized (Van Schalkwyk, 2011). Parents therefore refused to cooperate with the counsellors, and ‘if we invite them to come in when their children have behavioural problems, they feel we are against their child and they do not think they can play a part in their child’s development’. Another counsellor who also felt and shared the same view said that “some parents have this misunderstanding that having to meet with school counsellor is quite problematic … It’s no use, let my child just go through the disciplinary procedure’. In short, stigmatization is seen as a serious problem faced by most counsellors. Of the 82 respondents, 55 of them (70.5%) felt that stigmatization is one of the main barriers that restricted students and parents from seeking counselling services.

Need for collaboration

All the respondents mentioned that the root cause of students’ problems was in the family. They hoped parents could ‘keep an open mind about counselling’. They lamented that letters and messages sent to the parents were ignored or responded negatively. They believed that engaging parents in the school counselling activities would give them a feeling of participation and belonging. The need for collaborative relationship with school classroom teachers was seen as important in helping the counsellor create a safe, nurturing and effective school environment that was conducive to students’ learning (Fagan & Wise, 2007). One counsellor claimed that ‘teachers have the advantage of identifying students’ problems since they have to manage students’ inappropriate behaviours in the classroom’. Teachers’ responses and actions affected students’ behaviours in the classrooms more than school policy (Marachi, Astor, & Benbenishty, 2007). Besides, parent and classroom teacher collaboration, there was also a need to promote collaboration with other local community resources. These included government agencies, religious organizations, educational institutions, hospitals and the police. As one counsellor claimed, the school engaged the help of the local police to take actions on students who loiter in cybercafés during school hours.

Collaboration from the school community

The Malaysian school community comprises the administrators, teachers, and students. Collaboration and cooperation from all school members are essential to ensure successful implementation of counselling programs and activities. Of the 82 respondents, 68 (84%) felt that the school management provided sufficient support such as basic amenities and financial assistance for the guidance program, which allowed them to conduct safety- and mental-health campaigns, and provide anti-drug and anti-smoking presentations. As one counsellor commented, ‘the school administrator gives a lot of support in providing a conducive work environment such as providing a counselling room equipped with computer, printer and photocopy machine, thus making our work easier, faster and more efficient’.

However, since school counsellors do not have daily interaction with classroom students, they need to collaborate with classroom teachers in order to develop a comprehensive partnership program to meet students’ needs (Mitchell & Bryan, 2007). Teachers were able to identify problematic students whom they could not handle and could refer these students to the counsellors. Classroom teachers could also assist the counsellors by taking necessary actions in correcting students who misbehave and in promoting and encouraging students to participate in activities organized by the counsellors. In the Malaysian school system, most students were only able to attend counselling sessions during school hours. Hence, teachers should permit those problematic students to see the counsellors during their teaching hours. Teachers may be quite cautious if students were seen as using the counselling services as an excuse to escape from classes. However, this problem could be solved if there was better communication and coordination between the school counsellor and teachers. Research findings revealed that the influence of student problem behaviours on their academic achievement varies across countries (e.g., Gu et al., 2011).

Counsellors could also incorporate the assistance of peer group helpers. These would be students who were trained with appropriate helping skills to assist peers, intervene in conflicts between peers, and to provide supportive alliances for youths. Peer helpers can aid counsellors in promoting outreach programs such as an Education Fair, a Mental Health Exhibition and other activities. They can assist in the development of resistance and refusal training through role play and discussions to help peers avoid negative social influences (McWhirter, McWhirter, McWhirter, & McWhirter, 1998). Together, school administrators, teachers, students, and counsellors could work to plan for and promote peace, tolerance and understanding of differences in the school environment (Fusick & Bordeau, 2004).

Parental collaboration

Parent intervention would help overcome the barrier to help-seeking and stigmatization; recent research suggested that parental involvement is a core component in school psychology and counselling (e.g., Koutrouba, Antonopoulou, Tsitsas, & Zenakou, 2009; Van Schalkwyk, 2011). School counsellors should involve parents in forming parent support groups. Support groups could provide an avenue for parents to share and explore alternative strategies in handling psychological stress faced by their children. In addition, support groups could assist other parents in skill-building, understanding school and learning strategies essential to their children’s academic achievement. In a situation where family members are unable to come to school to discuss their children’s problems, members of this parent support group could assist the counsellor in conducting a home visit. A home visit could also enhance trust and communication between school staff and families (Cicero & Barton, 2003, cited in Mitchell & Bryan, 2007).

This open communication would also help parents to understand the school policies and availability of other community services and resources that they might need in assisting their children’s development and education. One interviewed counsellor who commented also emphasized this need for parental cooperation and involvement in dealing with students’ problems, indicating that ‘a lot of time when doing counselling is guessing what the students have gone through. It’s so much better if parents come and explain what the students are facing at home, outside and in school. They are the ones who know their children best’. Other than the introduction of parent support groups, school counsellors could also involve the school/parent/teacher association. In fact, it could be compulsory for all Malaysian public schools to set up the parent teacher associations where the committee members are elected from parents and teachers (Baba, 1993). Through these associations, school counsellors could engage in their discussion of issues related to social and educational development of the school children. These associations would serve as critical resource for school counsellors in their outreach program to create awareness of the counselling services among the school and local community. These associations could also assist counsellors and parent support groups in raising financial assistance such as conducting parenting workshop, family camps, and other parenting activities.

School counsellors need to reach out to parents to ensure that they understand the importance of their collaboration when organizing activities to promote their children’s mental and psychological development (Mitchell & Bryan, 2007). Results from over 30 years of research suggest that pupils of all ages and economic background benefit from parental involvement in their children’s education in both their academic skills and their social behavioural profile (Koutrouba et al., 2009). The purpose of parent-based intervention would be to facilitate strong bonds between home and school to prevent further alienation and mistrust of mental health services (Fusick & Bordeau, 2004). Furthermore, parents who are more aware of issues related to psychological well-being may help in developing more balanced socio-emotional environment for their children’s functioning and development (Haron, Jaafar, & Baba, 2010).

Local community collaboration

School counsellors should also promote collaboration with non-governmental and professional organizations, business, libraries, radio stations, colleges, universities, and faith-based organizations. They should identify and mobilize community resources to help meet the needs of students and their families (Epstein, 1995). Activities provided by these local communities might consist of community-based tutoring and mentoring program, school-linked services, career partnership and sponsorship (Tarroja & Fernando, 2013). Local colleges and universities are potential resources for the provision of mentoring and tutoring program. These educational institutions could also provide academic enrichment, pre-college academic preparation, and orientation programs for schoolchildren. For example, some Malaysian school counsellors have collaborated with private universities and colleges in organizing Education Fairs. These provided students with career information and guidance as evidenced by one interviewed counsellor, ‘universities and colleges will come, they have their own booths and we give time to different classes of students to attend this Education Fair’.

Furthermore, some university students choose to do their practical training in schools, thus learning and assisting the school counsellors in the organization and implementation of counselling services. School counsellors should also collaborate and coordinate programs with counsellors from other schools within the same town in order to form a cluster system. For example, counsellors from neighbouring schools could coordinate programmatic activities that use the same resources, such as venue and professional personnel for their Career Fair—eliminating redundancy, reducing costs and increasing staff in the organization of activities. Community partnership is not only a social responsibility of our society, but is an important part of comprehensive school psychological services (Mitchell & Bryan, 2007). It brings together the involvement of the whole community and creates an awareness of the need for collaboration in planning and facilitating activities for the holistic development of children, youth and families in school and school-related settings.

Government collaboration

The Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, police, and other government agencies should also be included in the design of a comprehensive school counselling programs. Although it is compulsory for all secondary schools to have full time counsellors, with the ratio of one counsellor for every 500 secondary school students, the uneven distribution of trained counsellors by the Ministry of Education results in some large schools not having sufficient provision of counsellors. Furthermore, of the 82 respondents, 59 (71.9%) were not trained as school counsellors, either in school psychology or educational psychology. However, some have attended short weekend training courses (79.3%) with limited exposure to actual school counselling practices. Hence, the Ministry of Education should set the standards for the provision of psychological services to schools and provide continuous professional development opportunities. The standards should comply with the school psychology frameworks to ensure best practice and effective services to all children. Through training, conferences, seminars and workshops, school counsellors will be better able to provide the services needed and have the opportunity to learn new skills and interventions. In addition, these opportunities could create space for peer discussion and open communication between policy makers and practitioners. These favourable conditions could further improve the counsellors’ self-efficacy and the provision of psychological services in school and school-related settings in Malaysia.

School counsellors could also incorporate the assistance of other government agencies such as the police, home and welfare ministry, anti-drug and anti-smoking agencies. These government agencies could assist the school counsellors in planning proactive and prevention-based programs. For example, as one respondent commented, ‘we understand that students need motivation … many of the social welfare officers from the Perak Family Planning want to train the younger generations with programs such as motivational camps’. Furthermore, in handling discipline cases such as school bullying, truancy, and gang fights, school counsellors could engage the assistance of the local police (e.g., James, Logan, & Davis, 2011). Students who were caught gang fighting outside the school grounds could be given stern warnings by the police before they were referred to the school counsellor for further intervention. Police personnel could also assist in conducting talks regarding the dangers of drug use and the importance of self-safety for students, school staff, parents, and the community. This model of inter-agency collaboration would further facilitate stronger bonds between the school, home, and community and is a way of avoiding alienation and mistrust (Fusick & Bordeau, 2004).