Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang, Nee Soon GRC
Question
To ask the Minister for Education for each year in the past five years (a) what is the number of teacher counsellors employed in schools in Singapore; (b) what is the average percentage of teachers who are teacher counsellors in each school; and (c) how many hours of counselling training do these teachers undergo.
Response
1. Teacher Counsellors are part of an ecosystem of tiered support for our students, which includes School Counsellors, community resources, other teachers, peers and parents. Working together, they provide a caring environment for our students to grow and thrive.
2. For all students, in addition to imparting academic content, teachers impart important habits and skills to strengthen our students' social-emotional well-being and resilience. This is done through lessons and regular interactions with students. Among teachers, Form Teachers play a key role in supporting students' well-being and growth, through building a positive class community. Schools have also put in place peer support networks to enable students to offer social-emotional support to one another.
3. Students who require more specialised counselling support are attended to by trained School Counsellors beyond the peer support and Teacher Counsellor support frameworks. Every school has one to two School Counsellors, which can be augmented by Flexi-Adjunct School Counsellors, depending on the needs of the school. Students who require more specialised interventions are referred to health professionals and community resources like REACH and Family Service Centres.
4. Teacher Counsellors supplement counselling support in schools by taking on a few less complex cases, or support programmes that promote student well-being. There are also close to 800 Teacher Counsellors deployed in our schools today. Teacher Counsellors undergo relevant training to better support their students, such as a part-time Certificate in School Counselling course and other short courses, such as a one-day course on Psychological First Aid. To manage their workload, Teacher Counsellors have reduced teaching load and offloaded from other school duties.
5. We also believe that parents play a key role in helping their children acquire self-management skills, take responsibility for their actions and bounce back from setbacks. Schools will continue to work closely with parents to develop their children's social and emotional competencies, including through our Parent Support Groups.