Inadequate career counselling in schools

ISLAMABAD: Students in the twin-cities, barring those studying at elite schools, have limited access to career counselling services.

A career counselling office helps students choose subjects according to their potential and career aims. It also helps to ease the cumbersome and at times, confusing, process of applying to foreign institutions.

President All Private Schools and College Owners’ Association (APSCOA) Malik Abrar told The Express Tribune that counselling services at schools in the twin-cities are mostly limited to posh schools like Beaconhouse, Roots, Froebels etc. “[Only] schools charging high fees are giving up to the mark [career] counselling facilities to their students,” he said.

Farah Rahat, Headmistress of the Margalla branch of Beaconhouse School System, said counsellors are an integral part of their whole education system. “They help students at the most crucial times of their life [when they need to decide on a career],” she said.

Khadija Omair, Director Roots School System in Rawalpindi and the head of the career counselling team, said students also needed psychological counselling in addition to career counselling. Omair said it was essential to take the personality of the student in mind and build confidence with them before helping them in choosing a career.  “While guiding students, I first [try to understand their mindsets] and then make suggestions best suited to their aptitude,” she said.

According to APSCOA, there are an estimated 710 private schools operating in Islamabad and about 2,100 private schools in Rawalpindi. A majority of them do not offer career counselling to their students.

With the absence of such facilities at schools, many students have little choice but to rely on parents, uncles, friends and cousins to help them refine their career goals.

Taimur Anjum, a student of a private school in Rawalpindi, said his school lacked services that would help him choose subjects or help narrow down his career options. “There is no such facility being offered to the students in our school,” he said. “The students in 9th and 10th grades select subjects on their own.”

The government-run schools also fail to provide counselling services to their students. “In Pakistan, 60 per cent [of the schools] are public schools and unfortunately none of them are even aware of the term ‘career counselling’,” said Muhammad Murtaza Noor, Director Community Support Program Pakistan- an NGO that works on youth empowerment and development issues in the country. “[The students should be made aware of] options such as entrepreneurship as a career opportunity,” he added.

Noor went on to say that counselling services being provided by some schools in Pakistan were below par. Counsellors at these private schools, he said, lacked relevant information and did not have links with foreign universities and hence were ill-equipped to offer adequate counselling services to students.

The government has also done little to address about the lack of career counselling services at various levels in Pakistan’s educational system - despite including internships and job counselling as one of its goals in the National Youth Policy drafted in December 2008. Ministry of Youth Affairs spokesperson Arif Malik, when contacted, said the Ministry was “working on the issue”.  “We are trying to create awareness among the students about the significance of career counselling by arranging seminars and workshops,” he said.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2010.