Faculty counselor associates, who don’t want a license to be employed by the Division of Training, could assist broaden pupil entry to psychological well being companies
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines solely has round 4,000 licensed steering counselors, based mostly on 2022 information.
The extreme scarcity of steering counselors is a vital drawback amid the excessive prevalence of bullying in colleges and considerations about college students’ psychological well being.
Just lately, the June 22 Tacloban Metropolis faculty taking pictures additional underscored the significance of counselors in serving to the traumatized get better, and in probably stopping incidents of violence within the first place.
There’s already a regulation mandating the creation of college counselor associates to assist ease the burden — Republic Act (RA) No. 12080 or the Primary Training Psychological Well being and Nicely-Being Promotion Act, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed in December 2024.
Listed below are some quick details about faculty counselor associates:
What are the {qualifications}?
These certified to change into faculty counselor associates are graduates of a bachelor’s diploma in steering and counseling or psychology or graduates of any bachelor’s diploma with no less than 18 items of programs in steering and counseling, psychology, or behavioral science.
They will need to have 200 hours of supervised practicum or internship expertise in steering and counseling, ideally in a faculty or group setting.
One doesn’t want a license to be employed by the Division of Training (DepEd) as a faculty counselor affiliate.
Underneath the regulation, Faculty Counselor Associates I to V have Wage Grades 11 to fifteen.
What’s their work?
Faculty counselor associates can not conduct counseling, which solely licensed steering counselors can do.
They’ll help with coaching and advocacy, learner profiling and documentation, preliminary evaluation, and referrals. They’ll additionally maintain orientations for learners, dad and mom, and academics, together with awareness-raising packages to stop and deal with bullying.
If skilled, they will present psychological first assist. If they’re psychometricians, they will administer psychological well being screening instruments and refer college students to a licensed counselor.
Principally, faculty counselor associates render companies underneath the supervision of college counselors. If the college has solely a faculty counselor affiliate, college students needing counseling have to be referred to the colleges division counselor.
When does hiring begin?
Training Secretary Sonny Angara has stated that the DepEd would compress the hiring course of into 36 days. The method will start as soon as the Division of Funds and Administration points a discover formally approving the creation of the place.
The DepEd goals to begin deploying faculty counselor associates to public colleges nationwide by September — simply the primary batch which might be employed for the reason that signing of the regulation.
It was solely final July 1 when the training division introduced that the Civil Service Fee had already accredited the qualification requirements for the place.
What number of openings can be found?
Underneath the 2026 price range, the DepEd can rent 10,000 faculty counselor associates.
Training Undersecretary Wilfredo Cabral additionally instructed senators throughout a Senate listening to on Thursday, July 9, that the DepEd can be restructuring 4,400 unfilled steering counselor positions to create extra slots for college counselor associates.
However there are greater than 45,000 public colleges within the nation. Cabral stated they may prioritize the deployment of college counselor associates to massive colleges, campuses with excessive bullying incidence, and people who have logged incidents of violence or threats to security.
Steerage counselor scarcity nonetheless unresolved
The Philippine Steerage and Counseling Affiliation (PGCA) welcomed the creation of the college counselor affiliate place, saying it’s an “necessary funding” in increasing the college psychological well being system.
However the PGCA identified that the nation nonetheless doesn’t have sufficient steering counselors.
“The creation of college counselor associates ought to subsequently be accompanied by equally vigorous efforts to recruit, retain, and develop registered steering counselors,” learn part of the group’s July 4 assertion.
“With out adequate licensed faculty counselors and colleges division counselors, the system could change into more practical in figuring out learners needing skilled assist than in truly delivering the counseling companies they require.”
The PGCA additionally referred to as for a assessment of compensation, profession development, and retention insurance policies for registered steering counselors to encourage extra professionals to enter and stay within the public faculty system. – Rappler.com
