Page 340 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Guidance and Counseling

Notes for knowledge. They accept their teachers and fellow students with confidence. Others are less
fortunate, a few become home sick and emotionally brittle and question the value of the examination
system. Others become listless and seek various forms of retreat like day-dreaming, loafing, etc.
(Rao 1963, 1967).
To determine the nature and extent of the problems of students in the Sri Venkatesware University
area and also to sensitize faculty members to students’ needs and problems, a Problem Check List
(PCL) was administered to a sample of 2,338 male students enrolled in degree classes during 1964—
1965 (Rao, 1967). The data obtained point to an unenviable picture of the situation in which the
students in India in general, and those of the S.V. University area in particular, were placed. Of all
the problems reported, those in the area of finance were most important. The students seem to be
put to several hardships owing to the meagre financial resources available to them. The presence of
a large percentage of first generation students in educational institutions today, who have had no
necessary guidance with regard to proper and efficient methods of study, was highlighted by the
findings of the study. This makes it imperative for the institution to assume the (additional)
responsibilities of providing guidance and making available the necessary facilities for acquiring
desirable study habits and skills. Most teachers and administrators seemed to be under the mistaken
impression that the students would “somehow acquire the necessary study skills and practices as a
matter of natural development”. Unfortunately this does not seem to be true as a very large percentage
of students reported difficulties in this area. The students also reported problems in the area of
personal adjustment. The provision of necessary assistance may go a long way in easing emotional
tensions and anxieties which contribute to the debilitation and dissipation of student energies. The
results show that it is fundamentally wrong for the teachers and administrators to delude themselves
with the idea that the Indian student is irresponsible and apathetic. The fact that they (students) are
conscious of and are concerned about their parents’ anxieties and worries is sufficient indication of
their seriousness of purpose.
The disruption of orderly student life on campuses in India is not a result of the irresponsibility of
students. It is a symptom of a deep-rooted complex of maladjustment, which is enhanced by fellings
of personal insecurity, inadequate facilities for work and recreation, growing incertitude about the
future, lack of an optimum level of personal efficiency, etc.
If academic standards are to be raised and student unrest minimized, it is imperative that we provide
sound values through relevant and stimulating education. Students often acquire unworthy and
inappropriate values through associating and being influenced by undersirable groups. If a healthy
change in the value system is desired it may be accomplished through situations which provide a
desirable feedback. In this regard hostel mates and faculty members can help engender desirable
changes in the students’ value system. Students could be encouraged to establish a relaxed intellectual
relationship with a member of the faculty. Such contacts would help promote intellectual excellence.
Counseling would help mitigate the adjustmental problems and check the growing cynicism and
psychological inertia in students in lndia (Rao, 1967).

The child guidance centre, the school psychologist, the counseling centre and other such agencies
are increasingly being called upon to shoulder the responsibilities of giving succour to alleviate the
avoidable suffering caused by developmental hazards and tensions. No society can afford to ignore
the basic need to render help to the youth.

What is ‘transferance’ ?

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