Wednesday, November 28, 2007 2 councilors: Public schools should've counselors By Grace L. Plata
THE Davao City Council passed a resolution Tuesday requesting the Department of Education to shed light on the status of guidance counseling offices in public schools in the city.
Jointly proposed by Councilors Angela Librado-Trinidad and Maria Belen Sunga-Acosta, the move seeks to gather information that would be the basis for moves to strengthen guidance counseling in public schools.
In behalf of Trinidad, chair of the City Council committee on women and family concerns, who had to leave early due to an official trip to Manila, Acosta presented the resolution that she said was conceived in the wake of 12-year-old Mariannet Amper's death.
"The suicide of Mariannet Amper has highlighted the impact of poverty and vulnerability of sexual abuse among schoolchildren. The case also underscores the role of schools in not only providing academic education for students but for teachers and other personnel to also stand as surrogate parents, promoting the latter’s psychological and emotional well-being," Acosta said.
"The recent and initial data from DepEd reveal there are only 43 guidance counselors working in all of the 352 public elementary and secondary schools and catering to the needs of 243,996 students," Acosta added.
Acosta, who is chair of the committee on education, also said there is need to provide personnel and technical resources such as children experts and therapists to support emotionally burdened schoolchildren like Mariannet so that speedy intervention can be done immediately.
