Written by: Dr. K. Muralidaran, Mentor Helikx School Social Work & Research Department, Former HOD Social Work PSG Cbe
We all send our children to school. We expect them to study well. Each one of us at our home expects that she or he has to obtain the highest rank in academic subjects. Besides this, we expect our children to be a best sportsman, super singer, dancer, orator, a scientist and what not. We generally impose our expectations without taking in to consideration of the child’s wishes. If he or she is a grown up adolescent, then besides us the society has an eye on him or her. The teacher or the Principal expects them to be well disciplined. We even expect the school children to be patriotic. So expectations are always there on the boys and girls of school children.
The children also may have expectations from the friend, mom, dad, the teacher and the society at large. The children’s expectations are often over powered by others’ expectations. They don’t express but may react with or without their knowledge. As such we face the problem of poor scholastic performance and behaviour problems of school children. Generally the parents think that their child’s problem can be solved by the teachers. But this is a secondary duty for the teachers and their primary commitment is for imparting the education. The teachers are also over burdened by academic and administrative activities. Teachers expect the parents to look after their children for discipline and for fulfilling the ambitions of their off springs.
The school administration is very much concerned about the cent percent results and the related in flow of admissions to their school from the society. All these aggravate the pupil problems at school and at home. What is required at this juncture is ‘understanding and working with the children’. Whether the teachers and the administrators have enough time and resource for that is a related question remains unanswered for most of the time.
Social Work is a growing profession in India. It is not the mere social service. In U.S.A it is ranked equally with other professions. The social workers are generally referred as counsellors for layman’s under- standing. There is nothing wrong be- cause most of the time these professional Social Workers have to engage themselves with their clients through the process of counselling.
All the time counselling need not mean the person who is being counselled has a major problem, the counselling is done for motivation and development of the individual concerned. Social Work as a profession has its own principles, methods and approaches to uplift people who are not able to cope with their social psychological environment. The trained Social Workers are the persons who are best suited for “understanding and working with people”. Among the different fields of practice for Social Work profession, Schools have a scope for practice. School Social Worker’s presence will not disturb the normal academic performance of the school. In fact their presence and performance may facilitate the functioning of the school. The students will get rid of their grievances and mental tension and may not pass their tension to the parents and teachers. In the long run they may become the motivated better citizens of the country.
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