More 'medicines' to prevent disciplinary violations in schools

According to Mr. Hoang Duc Minh, Director of the Department of Students ( Ministry of Education and Training ), when students are properly cared for in a safe and friendly environment, disciplinary violations in schools will be significantly reduced.

School psychological counseling is not effective.

According to Mr. Hoang Duc Minh, in recent times, counseling and support activities for students in general schools have been carried out and a network has been formed to help students facing the risks of psychological and social difficulties in studying and training. However, the implementation in practice shows that there are still many difficulties and limitations.

Specifically, many educational institutions have not yet arranged specialized personnel, consulting activities are still part-time, lack funding, and facilities are not guaranteed; some places do not have separate consulting rooms or activities are still formal. Coordination between schools, families and society is not synchronous; knowledge and skills training for staff is limited.

Mr. Hoang Duc Minh, Director of Student Affairs Department (Ministry of Education and Training).

Faced with that reality, the Ministry of Education and Training has just issued Circular 18 regulating psychological counseling with many new points aiming to promote prevention, intervention, and support for students' difficulties in studying, health, and psychology. The Circular has many new points, differences compared to before, in which it is determined that the learner is the center, guaranteed legal rights, information safety and confidentiality, the right to participate, volunteer, and self-determination.

Consulting activities are conducted objectively, equally, and without discrimination; respecting personal characteristics, taking advantage of strengths and available resources of learners, families, and society; appropriate to regional socio -economic and cultural conditions; and especially must be timely and effective when learners encounter difficulties.

The Circular specifies the content of school counseling and social work in schools, including many important areas, closely related to the practical needs of learners. These include counseling and support on issues related to learning; gender, social relationships; psychology; life skills; emotional control skills...

Educational institutions are responsible for establishing a system for receiving and exchanging information; coordinating with families, society, and relevant agencies to promptly receive information about situations and risks of learning difficulties, psychology, social relationships, or other difficulties of learners.

Hold the leader accountable

The Director of the Department of Students said that the Ministry of Education and Training has also regulated the coordination between family - school - society in implementing school counseling and social work in schools. This content is integrated into the responsibilities of the head of the educational institution, based on practical conditions and the needs of learners, proactively deploying the content and form of school counseling and social work in schools appropriately.

“In the case of students who violate discipline, educational institutions are responsible for choosing the form of support/requirement they need to take during the disciplinary period based on the student's behavior, including school counseling,” he said.

The incident of students at Dai Kim Secondary School committing violence against their homeroom teacher is a serious violation, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.

Mr. Minh added that Circular 18 stipulates that the head of the educational institution must be directly responsible for establishing a consulting team or department, arranging a consulting room, assigning full-time or part-time personnel, developing an annual consulting work plan, and mobilizing legal resources for implementation. At the same time, it is necessary to have a plan for screening, early detection, and grouping of students who need consulting and support, especially with different situations of learners to promptly have appropriate and effective solutions.

In cases where students are disciplined, school counseling and school social work are used for educational institutions to make decisions on how to handle the situation or coordinate with relevant authorities to handle the situation appropriately for the student. Mr. Minh gave an example of a serious incident in which a 7th grade student at Dai Kim Secondary School (Hanoi) pulled the teacher's hair and pinned her head.

In this situation, it is necessary to evaluate students to advise and support them on many issues in a comprehensive way. The school can apply a 5-step process of advising and supporting students on psychological issues, life skills, policies, laws, etc. to help assess and classify students' problems; identify causes and difficulties.
From there, teachers determine solutions, forms of consultation and support appropriate to the problems students encounter; develop plans to support students in psychology, learning, life skills, law, etc. and report results to management levels.

Accordingly, the consultation and support process in this situation must follow these steps: receiving, collecting information, analyzing information and identifying and classifying the content that needs consultation and support for learners.

Responding to concerns raised by many people that the Ministry of Education and Training's regulations on reducing disciplinary measures could lead to an increase in serious violations by students, Mr. Minh said that when there are regulations that contribute to building a safe, friendly, and healthy educational environment, where learners are shared and supported to grow, cases of student violations will be limited.

In addition, the representative of the Ministry of Education and Training also said that recently, the teaching staff has also received psychological support through training sessions and guidance on skills to provide psychological support during the teaching and learning process.
In the coming time, the team of psychological counselors will be trained in basic knowledge and skills in professional activities to meet the job requirements of the professional title of student counselor. The main task of the student counselor is to do school counseling and social work in schools.

In addition, the regulations also require educational institutions from the general education level to ensure financial resources, human resources, arrangement, location, and facilities to serve school counseling and social work in schools.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/them-thuoc-phong-ngua-vi-pham-ky-luat-trong-truong-hoc-post1784802.tpo