 Let's talk. Let's talk. Hello and welcome to another edition of Let's Talk. My name is Villaleptu. In today's broadcast, we speak about the upcoming activities as it relates to school counseling week. And we first will discuss this topic is Coordinator of Guidance Counseling, Joyce Lynn Eugene, and District 5 Counselor, Mr. Gerard Colger. Welcome to the program. Thank you. Of course, school counseling is a big part of the education sector. And of course, we see that work has been done to continue growing this area. Can you tell us when is school counseling week and what is the objective or motive behind undertaking activities as it relates to school counseling week? Thank you very much. School counseling week will be observed this year for the first time from February 5th to the 9th. And it is in keeping with the International School Counselors Week. We are hoping that through this event this year that we would be able to sensitize persons to things that have been happening in terms of school counseling and the developments over the years. School counselors have been in schools for, well, we had four school counselors or guidance counselors, I would say, from 1992. They were in four schools, four districts. And since that, we had 30 counselors serving the entire island of San Oshia. Wonderful. So we can definitely say that has been growing and we have a lot of district counselors. Now, of course, we have a district counselor with us here today. Mr. Koljian, how important do you believe this initiative is? Oh, very important. I think there is a need for people to recognize how significant the counselors are in the education system. Actually, we make a tremendous difference in the lives of the children. Maybe some people don't know because, you see, the whole idea of the confidentiality of the counselor, students refer themselves, come to us with a challenge or they simply want some feedback on the behavior and maybe they have some struggles at home or in their community. And they ask us what we think and we guide them as to how they can relate to others. Sometimes they have personal issues and we help them deal with it. So we play a very important part in the life of the student. Wonderful. Before we touch on the activities that will be undertaken, can you tell us how do you think celebrating School Counseling Week will impact the students? I think celebrating School Counseling Week will give students another opportunity to come face to face with the counselor. As Mr. Koljian mentioned, you think of counseling and you think of confidentiality and you think of it as something you do not want people to know that you are accessing a service that you do not want people to really know that you are accessing. But School Counselors serve in many different roles, many different areas of development in the lives of the students. And so I think it would give them an opportunity to take stock, to reflect on how their exposure to a School Counselor, how these counselors have impacted their lives and also give them an opportunity to give back and to show appreciation for what the counselors have been doing for them over the last many years. And what are some of the activities that will be undertaken as to do this part of it? Okay, so this is the very first time that we are undertaking this. Our first main activity is an ecumenical service and branch which will be held on the 5th of February. This, of course, will see many stakeholders and persons whom we collaborate with with regard to counseling being a part of that service. During the course of the week, we have some other events. We have a counselor's conference which is specifically geared to the counselors in terms of counselor development and other areas concerning counseling. There is also an audio recording that will go out to every school, primary and secondary where I will be addressing the students about Counseling Week and giving them a little bit of information and sharing. We are hoping that that could be played at assembly so that students will hear a little bit more about what we are trying to do. Later on in the week, we have what we refer to as self-care. The counselors take care of others. We go out of our way to ensure that the mental health, physical development, social development of students and everything and sometimes we ourselves are left in the dark. We do not get the kind of care that we need and so we do want to have some self-care activities on their behalf on the Friday. There is supposed to be a dinner on the Saturday evening. Of course, this again is to give them an opportunity for us to come together in one venue and to really just have an opportunity to celebrate ourselves and the work that we have done. We have been doing. And of course we can say that although the students will benefit from the activity also getting the counselors will be benefitting as well and being appreciated for their work. Definitely. Because the counseling program really has no value if there are no students to work with. Great. And for you, Mr. Cauldron, as a district counselor, what role do you expect to play in the whole activity? Okay, definitely I would like to help students become more aware of the whole importance of counseling and how they can access it more. Because there is sometimes a fear of going to counselors because the perception is a counselor might tell people my business. That sort of thing. But one of the things we always insist on, we always let them know is the whole idea of confidentiality where as long as the child's life is not in any jeopardy, we are not allowed to reveal anything concerning that child. The only time there is a limit to it is when the child's life is in danger. Wonderful. While we are due for a break, when we return, we will continue our discussion about the activities as it relates to school counseling. We'll be back in a moment. I'm so fed up with my 14-year-old child. She's driving me crazy. I just don't know what to do. All that child needs is some good legs to wake up. Alice, ignore the counseling pants she's giving. Government employees have free access to professional counseling services under the Employee Assistance Program known as EAP. EAP? What's that? Not me that telling people my business. Listen to me, Alice. I was struggling with my child. I made an appointment to see an EAP counselor and I was very satisfied with the service that I received. And you know what? Up to a day like today, my information remains confidential. Cox, how come nobody in the office knew anything about your counseling? Ah, that's because EAP counselors, they work under strict clauses of confidentiality. I know you know what confidential means. EAP providing professional counseling services? How much is it? The counseling is free. Free for you, free for your child. And you know what? Your information remains confidential. Call the EAP unit at the Ministry of the Public Service. Telephone number 468-2269 for more information. EAP Works, let it work for you. Welcome back to Let's Talk. We will continue our discussion with Joyce Lynn Eugene and Gerard Kaldren discussing the upcoming activities as it relates to school counseling week. Of course, as these activities would be happening, we know for sure there would be a theme. What is the theme that is the activities would be guided under? And what will it highlight? Our theme this year as a start is school counselors touching lives, creating change for success. And so when we looked at this theme, we spoke about the impact that we have on others of working with others touching lives and creating change also. We are looking at change for ourselves as well because we as counselors, so counselors are supposed to develop themselves professionally as well. And of course our ultimate goal is for these students to experience success at school. It can be very difficult, very trying at various levels of your education system. As students are in school, they go through so many challenges. At the end of the day, whichever area this child is able to excel in, the school counselor wants to be able to be a part of that, to encourage their success of the child. You mentioned change in terms of the theme. How would you say that the present situation has to do with the counselors in terms of doing the job? Because we've changed what is the situation like now and what would you like to see happening in the future? I think one of the major changes we would say that we recognize now is that we do have one counselor in each education district. We have one counselor in each secondary school. What we would like to see is a counselor for primary school in some instances because of the number of students that are in some schools. So if you have schools where the student population is well above 300 and we're talking about the primary schools, at present the district counselor, for example, Mr. Calderon, would have a number of primary schools in his district. Ten primary schools in his district that he serves. He's the one counselor and he goes to each of those primary schools at different times during the course of the term, meeting the students, meeting the needs of the students, working and collaborating with teachers, planning and implementing programs to ensure that we contribute towards the academic professionals and social development and current needs of the students. So I'm guessing with the week of activities, it also allowed the district counselors and also the counselors, it would give them the opportunity to reflect, right? Yes, definitely. And one of the things, how would you say the plans are going so far as it relates to the activities? Well, I would say that the plans are going along steadily. We have been making arrangements and so on and you can well imagine as you start working the plans, new things seem to be surfacing and so on, but we have been able to manage, we have gotten the support of the Ministry of Education in ensuring that we have access to some of the resources that we need in order for us to be a successful event. We have also sought sponsorship because we serve the community indirectly, so we are hoping that we would receive favorable responses from our sponsors and of course the counselors themselves are very excited about this initiative. We are hoping it will be an annual celebration like Teachers Week and Teacher Appreciation Day and of course we are looking forward to building that and to doing more exciting things. Wonderful, great. And Mr. Colton, any final words you would like to give on the upcoming activities? Well, we are very looking forward to it. One of the things I am very looking forward to is like we have a conference coming on and which will have a speaker, Miss Nicole Edgecom and her theme really is building future ready students and I am looking forward to that because we will be educated as to some of the ways we can do that even more. I am looking forward to receiving that information which will help the students so I will go to my schools and really be enthused with that information so that I can be more helpful to students and so on. And I believe that as counselors another thing I am looking forward to is the self-care activities because many times we don't take care of ourselves, we give out a lot, we give to people and we don't take care of ourselves. So if we don't take care of ourselves we cannot be as effective as we want to, you know? So we need to sometimes spoil ourselves, sometimes have fun as well, you know? Yes, definitely. Well, I want to thank you so much for being part of our program, Joyce Lynn Eugene and also Jared Colgent. It was definitely a pleasure and we want to wish you all the best with all the activities for School Counseling Week. Thank you, thank you. With that we've come to the end of Let's Talk for Today on behalf of the entire production team. I am Phil Neptune. Thank you for watching. Until next time.