The Intrinsic Nature of Counselling Persona

A moment of Truth - My eldest girl Goldie graduated from University of Otago with a Bacelor of Pharmacy in 2005.

Pic taken at The Octagon Dunedin NZ in front of a giant Christmas tree.

Since 1977, I used to be a trained secondary school Visual Art Education teacher who later gradually became the Sarawak State Kakitangan Sumber for PSV KBSM in 1988, JU for the same subject in 1994 and an examiner for Malaysian Examination Syndicate after that. An awesome experience which enabled me to interact with fellow teachers through out the country for so many years. Vowed to become a multi-disciplined teacher to produce multi-talented generations for the future, I decided to take up Guidance and counselling with UPM in 1996. Bet I had made a right choice because it was fun all the way until this very day.

I undertand that many school managers in the country are not particularly happy with the performance of their guidance and counselling teachers. Among the many unfriendly remarks I heard and the most cruel of all is that " Counselling teachers need to be counselled first."

I admitted that just like teachers, not everyone can be a counsellor and we are still in the process of learning through practising. A good counsellor should be pragmatic, creative and sensitive to the surrounding world. Beside the essential knowledge and theories, he first must possess the intrinsic plus altruistic nature of counselling persona.

The persona grata of a refined counsellor should start with what I call CUT APPLE SARAH which simply means

C - Caring
U - Understanding
T - Trustworthy

A - Acceptance without condition
P - Patience
P - Positive thinking
L - Listen
E - Empathy

S - Sharing
A - Appreciate
R - Respect
A - Acknowledge
H - Help

Counsellors should have high IESQ. Unfortunately many counselling teachers tend to have high IQ, average EQ and low SQ. This make some of us become a little bit selfish, sometimes over emotional, self centered, refuse to cooperate with others and show no integrity in works. Any way, our thoughts, our words, our actions, our habits and our characters will become our destiny and reflect who the actual self we are as the days move on.

Apart from that, do not forget our professional career code which is spelt as SEA i.e. Social, Enterprising and Artistic.

Good luck. Happy counselling.

The Essence of Teaching Professional

Strolling along the esplanade of St. Clair Beach at South Dunedin, East Otago, NZ in summer 2008.

The quality of education depends on the quality of teachers. After teaching for the past 30 years, I have a point to make. So many peoples out there agree with me that we do not see many great teachers who teach to inspire their students nowadays. Out of the approximate 370 thousand teachers serving in the country, majority of them are medicore teachers who teach for salary and also a signficant big number of bad teachers who prefer to complain rather than to perform. The rest are the good, better and best teachers who try to explain, to demontrate and to motivate their students beside teaching. Base on obervation, interviews with school managers and research questionaries, personally i feel that 3070 is the yard stick. In other words, only 30% teachers are good to great while others claim even less than that.

No doubt that teachers, lecturers and professors in this country generally enjoy bigger pays when compared to public servants from other sectors. This is a recognition by the government that teaching profession is vital in nation building. The quality of the students today will determine the strength and status of the nation tomorrow. If the students are the soldiers, then the teachers are the generals.

Unfortunately, despite the various incentives and numerous promotion channels created for teaching profession, we have yet to see any concrete positive returns. As mentioned by the Institut Integriti Malaysia, integrity among public servants in the country need to be more strictly observed. As a matter of fact, teachers and their counter parts should be placed in the fore front. The reason is simple. Every rakyat, who ever they are, will go to school for knowledge and character buildings at one stage of their life. The teachers are there :
To teach so the students will learn to know;
To teach so the students will learn to do ;
To teach so the students will learn to be ;
To teach so the students will learn to live together.

Qualified teachers are trained to teach. They are trained by lecturers in IPGM or professors in the varsities. Hence the quality of teachers reflects the quality of lecturers and professors. Lecturers and professors are the role models of the teacher trainees. As such, let pray to all the lecturers and professors in the country, especially those serving in IPGM, bless them with good health and abundant wisdom, and always working on the right track “ leadership by examples ”.

10 Basic Working Principles For Great Lecturers and Teachers

1.Being meticulous in carrying out your work.
2.Be punctual.
3.Accurate with your facts. Adopt “ Do it right the first time attitude ”.
4.Continously strive for excellent.
5.Not to discriminate against slow learners. Treat all students equally.
6.Be mentally and physically tough, highly resilent, fair and wise.
7.Be multi-skilled for multi-talented generation.
8.Do not abuse the working hours. Studying at your leisure time, not working
hours.
9.Never be complacent. Complacency is our greatest enemy.
10.Think effectively, cooperate. Be united at times of adversities.