DepEd urged to hire more guidance counselors to deter bullying in schools

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to prioritize the hiring of guidance counselors in elementary and high schools to stop incidence of bullying in schools.

Gatchalian made the call following the DepEd’s disclosure that more than 22,000 cases of bullying happened in School Year (SY) 2017 to 2018.

The senator said that while this record showed a significant decrease from the 32,129 of SY 20152016, the number of bullying cases remained nevertheless alarming.

“I was shocked that the number of bullying cases was that high. Obviously, there is a large room for improvement in terms of support for the mental well-being of our

students and teachers,” Gatchalian said in a statement.

The lawmaker said it is imperative that school authorities ensure that schools are safe for children, and one way to do this is to add more guidance counselors in schools.

These guidance counselors, he said, can provide support not only for the victims but also for the bullies themselves.

“We need to correct the behavior and of course, our guidance counselors are better equipped in handling that aspect,” he said.

He also said guidance counselors are essential in schools as their presence and supervision can prevent students from becoming children-at-risk (CARs) or children in conflict with the law (CICLs) or juvenile offenders.

Gatchalian said he will file a measure, amending Republic Act No. 9258 or the Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004 to enable the DepEd to hire more guidance counselors in the 18th Congress.

The senator said he was keen on modifying the qualifications for the guidance counselor licensure examination as provided in Section 13 of the law to relax the requirements for those applying for a license.

DepEd requires public and private elementary and high schools to hire one guidance counselor for every 500 students. But the Philippines only has 3,220 registered guidance counselors as of July 2017 since the first batch of licensure examinees in 2008.

Gatchalian said the strict requirement under the law was one of the main factors why many guidance and counseling graduates are disinterested to be one.

The lawmaker also said he would be revisiting the guidance counselor to student ratio requirement to be able to arrive at a realistic number, both for the counselors and the funds needed for their salaries.