TEACHERS URGED TO IDENTIFY POTENTIALS OF STUDENTS (PAGE 11)

TEACHERS in second-cycle institutions have been challenged to identify the needs and potentials of their students and actively nurture them to enable the students to achieve their lifetime ambitions.
A Guidance and Counselling Coordinator at the Ashanti Regional Education Office, Mr Joe Kwarteng, who threw the challenge, pointed out that students would feel emotionally secured if they were always equipped with the requisite information that would guide them as they developed their potentials.
He explained that since teachers served as consultants in their respective schools, they stood the chance of easily identifying the special needs of their students and would therefore be in the position to provide useful information that would guide students to address their needs.
Mr Kwarteng was addressing a cross-section of teachers during a workshop organised by the Amansie East Municipal Directorate of Education at Anwiankwanta.
The workshop was intended to build the capacity of the participants to enable them to acquire the requisite skills to plan and develop meaningful guidance and counselling programmes for students in their respective schools.
Mr Kwarteng noted that it was the responsibility of teachers to ensure that the school environment was always safe, healthy and conducive for their students.
This, he said, would be the yardstick to facilitate effective teaching and learning.
He said it was equally important for teachers to develop the appropriate tools and indicators for monitoring and evaluating the impact of guidance and counselling services offered to their students.
This, he said, would be the only yardstick to measure the success or otherwise of the services being provided their students.
He also advised teachers to address problems such as laziness, poor time management, drug abuse and alcoholism among others that undermine the effective and efficient development of their students’ potentials.
The Amansie East Municipal Coordinator of Guidance and Counselling, Rev. Baah Yarney, identified pressure from parents, teachers, peer groups and ignorance among others, as factors that affect students in their quest to build healthy careers.
He advised that in choosing their careers, students needed to critically examine themselves and identify their ability, potentials and aspirations to enable them to make the right choices.