Page No 25-36
S. Venkatesan, and H.R. Shyam
All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore
The deployment of counselors in schools remains as an elusive phenomenon in the
country. An exploratory cross sectional study was conducted on the availability of
school counselors, profi le their expected and actual on-site work activities in a sample
of national and international h igh schools located in Karnataka. Their offi cial websites
showed 19 out of 101 schools have counselors on their rolls. From another sample
of 74 respondents, 1000 activities (Mean: 13.51) that described their job profi le was
elicited. Content analysis show that counselors want to focus on student problems and
issues, while parents and teachers want them to undertake academic advising, student
discipline, confl ict resolution, crises intervention, career choice and guidance. The school
administration and students expect them to liaise, handle admissions and conduct staff
enrichment programs. They prefer counselors who give low priority for advocacy, equity
and child rights or community issues, which is what counselors themselves want to
do. In totality, the wide disparities between the ascribed, expected and actual roles of
school counselors are at a risk if compared to their optimal job performance in Indian
school settings