Workshop for Tibetan School Counselors on Developing Healthy Habits and Skills in Adolescents Inaugurated
By ATWS Staff Editor
ATWS Dharamshala, September 18, 2023: A five-day workshop on developing healthy habits and skills for Adolescents organized by the Department of Education kick-started this morning from September 18 to 22 at the Administrative Training and Welfare Society, Dharamshala. The opening ceremony was inaugurated by Chief Guest Education Secretary, Mr. Jigme Namgyal la, in the presence of the department’s Counselors and officials.
Around twenty-two counselors from various Tibetan Schools in India and Nepal; TCV, THF, STSS, and SLF are participating in this workshop. ATWS is facilitating the training with all the venues and other service facilities. Dr. Ali Khawaja and his team from Banjara Academy based in Bangalore are leading the workshop. The workshop aims to guide the counselors on understanding skills and developing healthy habits for adolescents.
Chief Guest Education Secretary Mr. Jigme Namgyal la said that the department gives due importance to the role of counseling with the appointment of full-fledged school counselors today in all the Tibetan schools under its jurisdiction who are being given workshops from time to time to promote holistic development of the students. “Post COVID, several behavioral changes like intolerance, difficulty in reading and writing , and inability to get along with peers, were observed in the school children. Here, the school counselors can help the students overcome these problems. Counselors must pay equal attention to upgrading children’s academic performances and do academic counseling rather than confining themselves only to career counseling. ,” said Secretary Namgyal la. Further, he spoke about how the participants can play multiple roles like counseling parents to help them recognize their children’s true potential and accept them as they are, removing social stigmas about pursuing vocational studies, developing in students discernment, creativity, critical thinking, and research mindedness when they grow up and most importantly instilling in them a sense of one’s nationality and working for the Tibetan community and Tibetan cause. Sharing an anecdote of having received a letter from a Tibetan student who happened to face difficulty in academics in college despite being a topper in school days, the Secretary stresses the need to revisit the current teaching-learning processes being followed in Tibetan schools to enable the students to reach the world-class standards. He then sincerely urged the participants to exchange ideas and learn maximally from the professional trainers in the coming days and apply their learnings back into their schools, given all the efforts and the financing that went into organizing the training.
Mr. Jamyang Wangyal la, the Deputy Chief Counselor, said the workshop was specially organized after a long post-COVID gap of several years to empower the school counselors especially the new ones with adolescent-related knowledge. The need-based workshop that includes topics mainly chosen by the participants themselves is to enable the holistic development of adolescent students in adaptation to multidimensional adolescence-related changes occurring in them. Following this, there was an introductory round by the participants.
The ceremony concluded with a vote of thanks from Deputy Secretary Mrs. Tenzin Paldon la and a group photo session. In the coming days, the participants will be covered various important topics like Early Child Development, Behavioral changes in teenagers, Career Guidance, Counseling, Special Needs, Emotional needs, and all related skill-building exercises.
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Tibetan Schools’ Counselors Receive Training on Developing Healthy Habits and Skills for Adolescents