Teachers’ As Counselor In Inclusive Classrooms

The Guidance and counseling services are very important for the holistic development of children. The provision of Guidance and Counseling services is unavailable in most of the schools due to varied reasons. The lack of availability of counselors is one of them. New B.Ed. curriculum lays emphasis on preparing a teacher who can handle inclusive classrooms. Inclusive classrooms will have students across disabilities and waiting for a counselor to solve the problems of the students will not be possible, hence the teacher needs to be equipped with ways of handling such situations themselves. The changing scenario of the Tech Savvy Indian society makes counseling inevitable for students at Senior Secondary level. In the Indian scenario, the policies are in place but not properly implemented. The significance of the role of a teacher as a counselor or the importance of a counselor is not understood by the parents or society as whole. Parents are not comfortable visiting a counselor as they feel that visiting him means their child is suffering from some mental disorder. One way of handling this problem is to empower teachers with the counseling techniques as they are more acquainted with students.