Counseling Students—Because Education Teaches Compassion

A school must give much more that knowledge from books; it must bestow to its pupils beyond the confines of a carefully thought-out curriculum; it should teach much more than things printed in black and white. It must do more than stimulate minds—it should touch hearts and heal souls.

Badri High School envisages that an education must enable a child to become the best version of himself; unearthing his potential; allow him to live a life of dignity in this world and contribute to society.

However, sometimes life puts young children in situations which they or their parents are not equipped to deal with. We see students struggle with learning disabilities, some coming from dysfunctional families and broken homes. All this takes a toll on a child and hampers his intellectual growth and ability to learn.

This is the reason why a student counselor is a part of the faculty of any reputed educational institute.

Since the Academic year 2017-18 a student counselor visited BHS one Saturday a month to help students who were seen struggling in school. Over 40 students were counseled in repeated sessions in the last year, and in most cases positive results were seen as students blossomed as sensitive issues were addressed.

This year, the need for a counselor was felt even more as awareness regarding the benefits of counseling were clearly manifested last year. Parents themselves requested for their wards to be counseled, feeling at a loss as to address many behavioral issues.

Thus in this Academic Year 2018-19, a qualified Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Syeda Urooj Zehra, who is also Psychotherapist and Speech Therapist, has been hired to come to school every Thursday to address the needs of students identified by teachers as having behavioural issues due to deeper, underlying causes.

The vision is to hold the hands of these children, give them a listening ear and give them objective advice to help them cope in the best possible way with the situation they are in.

Along with this, career counseling is an important agenda to help the students carve a road-map for their future. For this professionals have been invited to visit the school and give motivating talks to provide an insight into different fields and their scope to the students. The goal is to provide them enough knowledge about the world beyond the walls of the school so that they make informed decisions about their future careers.

One-on-one sessions with reputed educationists like Sh. Moiz bhai Sabunwala, who recently came to orient the students about their choice of subjects, will help the students chalk a game plan for their future.

BHS believes in leaving no stone unturned in helping and supporting each and every student to realize his potential and these counseling initiatives are surely a step in the desired direction.