Govt falls way short! Only 1,012 of its schools have student counsellors

Govt hesitant to expand programme to more schools due to financial implications involved

- SHAINU MOHAN @T'Puram

AMID rising cases of suicide, drug abuse, and mental health issues among students, lack of proper counselling facilities in schools is becoming a major concern in the state. It is learned that student counsellors are available only at 1,012 government schools across the state. And all these schools have only a counsellor each.

The state has 12,644 schools, of which government schools number 4,504. There are also 7,277 aided and 863 unaided schools.

More recently, the state has witnessed a surge in incidents of violence, bullying, suicides, and drug abuse among children, re-emphasising the urgent need to enhance the school counselling programme.