Back to: Guidance and Counselling in Education B.ed Notes, M.A Notes, IGNOU Notes
Aims and Purposes of Counselling in Present Day Education
Counselling is strongly dedicated to the self-direction and self-realization of the client. It is the development of the insights and understandings of the relations of self with environments, in a structured learning situation.
Its methodology varies with the needs of the client. It is primarily a voluntary preventive and remedial process. The main purpose of counselling is to assist the individual to enable him to understand himself, his problem and his situation in a meaningful and realistic way.
Main purposes and aims of counselling
- Voluntary change: The main purpose of counselling is to bring about a voluntary change in the client/student. For this purpose, the counsellor provides facilities to help achieve the desired change or make the suitable choice.
- Self-help: The goal of counselling is problem clarification and self-directed needs. The counsellor helps the student to understand the problems and helps the student to help himself.
- Face challenge: Counselling does not solve the problems but helps in solving and if solution is not possible, to help face challenges and to live with them.
- To disseminate the information on matters important to his success.
- To collect information regarding the students so as to see him through.
- To establish mutual trust and understanding between students and counsellor and to assist him to work out a plan for solving his difficulties.
- To help the student to know his interests, abilities, attitudes, etc. and to channelize it in proper direction.
- To assist in planning educational and vocational choices.
To conclude, counselling’s purpose is to increase the knowledge of the self. It helps to solve immediate personal problems. It reduces tensions, and frustrations and inspires successful endeavour towards the attainment of adjustment and happiness. It helps to improve the study habits and skills of students. In the words of Williamson, “the purpose of counselling is to offer a personalized and individualized process designed to aid the individual to learn school subject-matter, citizenship tacts and other habits, skills, attitudes and beliefs which go to make up a normally adjusted human being. Counselling aids individuals to eliminate or to modify those disabilities which act as obstacles to learning through the building up of basic skills including reading and social adjustment.”
