History & Effectiveness of School Counselling in Malaysia - A Critical Study

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GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING

(HMEF 5063)

DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL COUNSELLING

SERVICE IN MALAYSIA

&

SCHOOL COUNSELLING EFFECTIVENESS IN

MALAYSIA

By:

Name: Zulheery Bin Ismail

Matric No: CGS00766606

Lecturer: Dr. CECILIA CHAI MING SHING

OPEN UNIVERSITY OF MALAYSIA

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Chapter Page Number

Question 1: Development of School Counselling Service in Malaysia 3

1. Introduction 3

2. History of School Counselling Development 4

3. Conclusion 8

Question 2: School Counselling Effectiveness in Malaysia 10

1. Introduction 10

2. Counselling Effectiveness in Coping Personal Issues 11

2.1 Features and Causes of Personal Issues 11

2.2 Challenges in Counselling Process 12

2.3 Interview Result with a School Counsellor 13

2.4 Increasing Counselling Effectiveness 14

3. Counselling Effectiveness in Coping Educational Issues 15

3.1 Features and Causes of Educational Issues 15

3.2 Challenges and Approaches in Counselling Process 16

4. Counselling Effectiveness in Coping Vocational Issues 18

4.1 Features and Causes of Vocational Issues 18

4.2 Challenges and Approaches in Counselling Process 20

5. Conclusion 23

References 25

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Question 1

Development of School Counselling Service in Malaysia

1. Introduction

Malaysia is a multiracial country with almost 30 million of current population. As the process of

modernisation takes place, new social challenges emerge that would put the people into situations

never encountered in previous era. This is caused by technologies, particularly communications ones

such as internet, mobile phones and computers. Yet, since no current technologies could yet replace

the old-fashioned direct communication, many messages were misunderstood and unfortunately could

be conveyed to a large group of people in a short time. Thus, it would lead to the social challenges

mentioned just now that would lead to certain problems such as personal issues. For example, texts

and images posted in the popular social networking network such as Facebook can be exploited by

irresponsible individuals by converting them into degrading notions or obscene photos, which can

severely harm the youth’s self-esteem. Children and youth nowadays are vulnerable to these

problems. And the role of school counselling service, which is available for these people, is required

more than ever.

In this article, we shall observe the initiation of the school counselling service throughout the

humble years before independence in 1957 and the surge of the development in consecutive phases

until the modern times. We shall observe the role of the government through Ministry of Education in

boosting the process through various suggestions and circulars. More importantly, we also shall

observe the role of school counselling service itself, which seems to mature as the time progress with

these circulars that widen its scopes and functions.

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These statements show that the school counselling is indeed becoming more relevant to the

students in Malaysia. Still, this might be true for the current school counselling development. What

about those times in the 60s until 70s when the nation was still new and developing? What were the

factors that drive the progress of the school counselling service? It is hoped that this first part of the

assignment would deliver some answers.

2. History of School Counselling Development

The emergence of school counselling in form of guidance services in Malaysia was

evidenced in 1939, when the British in Malaya published a booklet titled “Panduan Kerjaya

di Tanah Melayu bagi Ibu Bapa, Guru-guru dan Murid-murid”. This initiation was later

supported in 1955, when the government of Federation of Malaya published the Annual

Report of Education. In the report, the government stated the recommendation of guidance

teacher to be appointed in each school in Malaya. It demonstrated the government’s

recognition for guidance services which could be implemented to assist the school students

evaluating their future career in the newly born nation.

It was in 1963 when the government through the Ministry of Education (MOE)

realized the importance of school guidance. MOE established Guidance & Counselling

(G&C) Section within the Educational Planning & Research Division of the ministry. This

statement is supported with a circular being issued in 1964, stating explicitly the importance

of school guidance and recommendation for a definite course of action. This leaves a

significant impact to the development of school counselling service in Malaysia. As a result,

the ministry commenced training workshops and short courses to the teachers regarding

vocational guidance. Also, in 1968, MOE issued a circular to direct all states education

department to appoint guidance teachers in schools throughout the states. To survey the

school guidance services, an officer from MOE was appointed specifically for this task. We

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can observe that the government took concrete actions rather than suggestion which was

made earlier in 1955.

Nevertheless, within ten years, it is reported that the training had gone awry due to

lack of sufficient fund (Ng and Ching, 2010). For example, the short courses were

discontinued in 1973 due to UNICEF funding cut (Glamcevski, 2008). However, it did not

possess as a hindrance to the overall progress of school counselling in the country. This can

be observed in 1975, when a new circular was issued to regulate the counselling services in

state level. Also, in 1976, a counsellor training program was introduced as a part of Master of

Education postgraduate degree in Universiti Malaya (UM). It heralded the beginning of

counselling services which was also being taught in the tertiary education institute other than

workshops in the MOE.

So far we observed the role of school counselling services mainly catered vocational

guidance. The scope was brought to attention in 1979 when MOE issued a report titled

Report of the Cabinet Committee on the Study of the Implementation of the National

Education Policy. The ministry recommended that school counselling services should go

beyond career or vocational guidance and provide a broad range of mental health service to

the schools (Othman and Awang, 1993). This could leave a significant impact as the school

counselling service is perceived having a potential role to help in building the inner

characters of the students, particularly positive psychological characters, rather than catering

the need to find suitable future jobs.

This impact is observed in 1980. MOE announced the need for G&C teachers as

important agents to control the drug abuse problem which began to infest among the youth in

the country (Ng and Ching, 2010). The role of school counselling teachers are acknowledged

when a group of college and school counsellors founded Malaysia Counselling Association in

the same year. MOE required secondary schools to reorganize their priorities of activities

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particularly regarding the controlling of drug problems in respective secondary education

institutes. This problem would concern the country since Malaysia was located in the vicinity

of the Golden Triangle in Indochina, which was one of the main drug manufacture and

distribution hotspots in the world.

The evidence of the level of concern can be assumed in the same year, when G&C

Section came under the jurisdiction of School Division of MOE, instead of Educational

Planning & Research Division. This organisational shifting of the G&C section was made in

order to achieve good quality of school counselling, by placing the G&C Section under an

organisation which directly managed the schools in the country. By 1981, a special officer

was assigned to the G&C Section to specifically organise the preventive drug abuse

counselling and educational programs. Also, this transfer of jurisdiction led to increase of

training in school counselling services. This can be seen through universities and teacher

training institutes, which began to offer G&C courses. First example was the Universiti

Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), which offered 1-year diploma of counselling program through

its Department of Psychology started in 1980. This was regarded as the best counselling

course during that time (Scorzelli, 1987). Second example was in 1981, when Universiti

Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) offered bachelor’s degree of Educational Guidance and

Counselling. Third example was in 1982, when Specialized Teacher Training Institute

offered 1-year certificate counselling program.

The existence of these institutes proved beneficial to the counselling teachers. For

example, in 1982, Teacher Education Division of MOE commenced G&C courses for in-

service counselling teachers. The counselling teachers then would have the opportunity to

obtain Specialist Training Certificate after completing 8-week in-service training

requirement. Upon the completion, they could continue their counselling study in the higher

education institute like the diploma in UKM, degree in UPM or even postgraduate degree in

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UM. The result had been encouraging. For example, in 1985, 888 teachers classified as

counsellors were produced. 17 or 2% of them had master’s degrees in counselling.

Nevertheless, counselling teachers were still having dual role of teaching and counselling, a

trend which continued until 1996.

Until that year, other than trainings and counselling educations, some initiations and

suggestions were made to increase the professionalism of school counselling. For example, in

1982, G&C Section of MOE implemented three mandatory requirements concerning

teaching-counselling hours and duties. First, the counsellors-teachers taught only for 12

periods per week to give more time for counselling duties even it was still regarded as

secondary compared to teaching. Second, all secondary schools had at least one guidance

teacher or teacher-counsellors. And third, the numbers of teacher-counsellors are allocated

according to school size. Glamcevski (2008), who interviewed Louise in 2004, concurred that

these mandatory rules left the Malaysian schools a significant impact that would be felt in the

1990s. Finally, in 1984, MOE issued a circular that suggested all primary and secondary

schools to appoint G&C teachers instead of merely secondary ones.

In 1993, MOE published a guidebook titled Guide towards the Implementation of

Guidance and Counseling Services in Secondary Schools (Panduan Perlaksanaan

Perkhidmatan dan Kaunseling di Sekolah-Sekolah Menengah). The publishing of the

guidebook showed the formalization of school counselling services, but the effect would be

superficial as the overall structure of school counselling was still intact, such as the teachers

were still required to teach and it was limited to secondary schools.

It was in 1996 that the structure of school counselling in Malaysia was substantially

altered and its quality uprated. MOE issued a circular requesting both primary and secondary

schools principles to appoint full-time counsellors. Also, the circular stated to achieve the

ratio of one counsellor to every 500 students. In 1997, another circular was issued declaring

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that school counsellors must prepare record books in order to increase professionalism. These

two years were indeed gave a boost to school counselling professions, as government

declared Mental Health Policy in the same year of 1997. In 1998, Malaysian Board of

Counsellors issued Act of 1998, mentioning that counselling practitioners must have

accredited certificate which was proven by Board of Counsellors. Again this would boost the

school counselling professionalism as it was acknowledged by an authoritative body of the

profession. By 2000, all schools had at least one full-time counsellor, or properly addressed

as “guidance and counselling officer” (Ng and Ching, 2010). In 2003, MOE started

counselling courses for teachers attending post-bachelor degree teaching courses or Kursus

Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah (KPLI) in teaching colleges. The teachers were required to

complete 14-week counselling courses which were designed for counselling in primary

schools.

2. Conclusion

Malaysia is similar to United States, which the counselling services began in the schools.

Also, according to Suradi and Rafidah (2005), the “development of counselling services in

Malaysia is closely related to the history of guidance and counselling in the schools”. Hence,

it is imperative to analyse the development according to periodical phases. We observed the

development of school counselling service in Malaysia which was commencing in three

phases. The onset of the first phase was in 1963, when the government, particularly the MOE

realized the importance of school counselling in building the mind of the youth from school

level which was concurrent with the building of the newly independent nation. The task of

school counsellors was mainly to cater the vocational guidance to these youths. However, the

progress was not without challenges due to the lack of local expertise in counselling, formal

counselling courses and financial resources.

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Yet these would not impede the progress of the second phase, which was initiated in

1980. We observed the rise of formal counselling courses being offered in many local tertiary

education institutes. As a result, more school counsellors are produced and the

acknowledgement of the profession was seen in the establishment of Malaysia Counselling

Association. The threat of drug abuse also boosted the need for more effective school

counselling service. The best point was the more holistic counselling approach than merely

lending vocational guidance in the first phase. However, the dualistic nature of counsellors

who also had teaching job seemed to impede the profession to attain full professionalism.

The third and recent phase can be concluded in 1996, which genuine professionalism

of the school counselling profession was attained by two aspects. First, it was the attaining

the full-time job which the school counsellors or G&C officers, could allocate more time for

counselling endeavours. Second, it was having full-time school counsellors in both primary

and secondary schools. By having counselling exposure since the formative years in primary

schools, it is expected for the school counsellors to have a crucial task of embedding positive

mind and attitude.

Currently, the development is a continuation of the third phase, which emphasizes

professionalism of the task and its holistic approach. Based on the interview conducted with a

counsellor in a secondary school in Batu Caves, Selangor, the author concludes that the

profession is required more than ever in the history of school development in the country.

Nevertheless, the question remains regarding the effectiveness of the counselling process

being conducted by present counsellors. To what extent is the school counselling effective in

helping students to cope with various issues? This would be discussed in the next question.

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Question 2

School Counselling Effectiveness in Malaysia

1. Introduction

Counselling service is quite new in Malaysia (Zakaria & Asyraf, 2011). This can be stated

especially for the school counselling service. It is supported with the recent introduction of

full-time school counsellor in 1996. This statement can be paradoxical since school

counselling had been prevalent in Malaysia since the early years of independence back in the

1960s. This, we can deduct that school counselling in this country progressed rather slow yet

gradually improved over time. The modern times possess a challenge to people especially the

ones living in the city. According to Johari Talib (2009), 55% of the population of Malaysia

live in the urban vicinity. The high living cost could lead to problematic families with

problematic children, which they possess personal, educational, or vocational challenges,

which are as complex as adults’. Also, the schools are crammed with 35-50 students per

class, exposing them to problems due to lack of attention by teachers. Due to this fact, the

need for school counselling is more pressing than ever. This would lead to more effective

counselling training courses that would produce highly effective school counsellors.

According to Ng and Ching (2010), this could be materialized by:

a) competition, due to the substantial number of new counsellors graduating from

local and overseas institutions.

b) market demand due to the pressing challenges of the modern world.

c) clarification and tightening of licensure requirements (Master’s-level holders are

licensable compared to their bachelor’s-level colleagues).

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d) demand for increased professionalism, which due to increase in number of

practitioners with Master’s and doctoral level holders.

e) influence from the internalization movement of the counselling profession, as the

profession could be regarded not just a regular job, but an agent of the development of

human psyche, which the clinical discoveries could be shared and discussed with

counsellors all over the world.

Hence, the career of school counselling in Malaysia provides a promising profession

nowadays and the coming future. The questions remain, to what extent is the effectiveness of

the current school counselling service in the country coping with students’ problems

regarding their personal, educational and vocational issues? Are the counsellors are capable

enough in addressing the mentioned issues? What are the other factors involved that would

contribute to the current level of counselling effectiveness? And finally, what would be the

suitable steps need to be taken in order to increase the level of effectiveness?

2. Counselling Effectiveness in Coping Personal Issues

2.1 Features and Causes of Students’ Personal Issues

According to Mills (2000), personal issues are those that individuals deal with themselves

and within a small range of their peers and relationships. Examples are parent divorces,

significant loss experiences such as parent death, identity and role confusion, interpersonal

relationship problems, gangsterism and sexual problems such as incest, homosexualism,

premarital sexual activity and teen pregnancy. Some issues are novel coincident with the

current Internet Age, such as internet addiction and virtual social relationship problems. The

causes are due to their cognitive and emotive personal perceptions, which are largely

influenced by the environment of their upbringing. In this case, social influence and dictation

they received from their social upbringing proved to be significantly critical. Parents, peer

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pressure, and local communities are the potential factors since they are part of the

individuals’ social circle.

This personal issues suffered by the students can be explained through Erik Erikson’s

Theory of Psychosocial Development. It elaborates the virtues developed by individuals

through social interactions they conducted throughout their lives. Five of the virtues, which

are hope, will, purpose, competence and fidelity are exclusively outlined for children and

adolescents. The success or failure of the achievement of the virtues could be explained, thus

providing theoretical background for the counsellors to design suitable help systems and

manage the problems that originated from the failures.

2.2 Challenges of Counselling Process in Coping Personal Issues

However, counselling approach to coping personal could be a challenge to the school

counsellors. According to the school counsellor who the author interviewed, personal issues

prove to be the biggest challenge compared to educational and vocational ones. First, not

many personal issues are reported and brought to the school counsellors’ attention. It is due to

the nature of the issues being highly intimate and personal. Thus, the effect could only be

seen through the projection of the students’ negative feelings via unfavourable behaviours

and poor academic achievement. Second, even the personal problems were being managed,

the students were largely being uncooperative and merely divulged the causes which were

made up or superficial. This could be due to inferiority complex developed by the students

which according to Erik Erikson’s theory, the individuals feel themselves unworthy of

attention, thus reluctant to seek help. As a result, even with the counsellors’ help, the effect

would be not profound. Finally, some of the personal problems were outside the capability of

the counsellor. According to Johari Talib (2009), counsellors could handle Category 1

problems, mainly catering the in-school issues such as laziness, and low motivation. The

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same could not be said to the Category 2 problems, which are more serious, out-school issues

such as physical and sexual molestation, incest, juvenile criminal offences and child

prostitution. There are four reasons that lead to the incapability of the school counsellors to

handle the Category 2 problems, which are counsellors’ low efficacy, bureaucracy hindrance,

school and community’s attitudes towards counselling services and the effectiveness of

counselling courses attended.

2.3 Interview Result with a School Counsellor

School counsellor’s low efficacy is due to their young age thus lack of experience, and low

educational level which most of them do not have master’s degree and above (Zakaria and

Asyraf, 2011). To give the example, most of the four reasons stated above can be observed on

a school counsellor being interviewed in a secondary school in Batu Caves, which happened

to be the author’s alma mater. She herself was young and recently graduated from a local

university with a bachelor’s degree on counselling less than five years ago. When asked

about her predecessor, she said that her predecessors left the school to pursue higher

education or private counselling practice. She also professed that the teachers in the school

were sometimes being jealous because she doesn’t have teaching jobs. In other words, she

holds a position which she could be close to the students without having to teach in the class.

Besides, she has to do mostly administrative jobs rather than clinical one which is more

related to counselling task. This would cause her to spend less time on the counselling

endeavour, and thus having less experience. Ultimately this would lead to, according to Zuria

(2005), a cyclic pattern of ineffective counsellors. This pattern revolves around the

counsellors were given irrelevant job specs, which leads to poor performance, which leads to

low expectation by the school administrators, which in return give another irrelevant job

specs. She also shared with the author an account regarding one of her predecessor which

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happened to be a male counsellor. He was discharged because he sexually harassed a female

student who had a personal issue of being socially isolated by her peers due to her ‘crime for

being pretty’. This shows that supervision of counsellors is imperative to prevent unethical

counselling conduct, especially involving counsellors and students of different gender. She,

being a Malay lady, sometimes faces few problems dealing with Malay female students,

especially when her counselling process is overlapping with the Islamic guidance exerted by

the ustazah or female religious teachers. She also faces a few problems in dealing with male

or non-Malay students, due to gender and cultural-linguistic problems. Finally, she said that

most of the serious cases would be handled by authoritative government bodies such as police

and welfare department, rendering the counsellors with minimal intervention.

2.4 Increasing Counselling Effectiveness in Coping Personal Issues

In order to increase the effectiveness among the school counsellors in coping the students’

personal issues, few steps need to be taken. First, the counselling profession need to be

recognized as one of the crucial pillars for the school development. This can be realized by

the image of the counselling profession as the agent of change regarding the students’

character-building experience in the schools. The administrators and teachers should see the

school counsellors’ tasks which are as important as teaching not just in developing the

character and the future of the students, but also the future of the nation.

To achieve this, second step need to be considered. The school counsellors are

supposed to have at least Master’s-level education complete with licence acquired from the

Malaysian Board of Counsellors. Each school in the country is required to have at least one

counsellor with this qualification. This counsellor can provide guidance, training, and

supervise new ones with bachelor’s-level degree. This approach would be similar to the

newly graduated medical doctors who are supervised by the medical specialists. Ultimately,

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this would exhibit professionalism in counselling profession, lending credibility and

reliability to its services.

Also, the counselling process should involve all factions of society, particularly

teachers, parents and communities. Teachers and parents might prove a challenge since they

would claim that they are closer to the students. Yet, they should realize that the school

counsellors are professionals who deal with the human psyche complete with years of

training and experience. The role of the society is to aid in the counselling process by having

confidence with the counsellors and providing valuable information about the troubled

students. The society needs to pay heed to the counsellors’ advice. This can be regarding

parenting skills for parents and supporting the students in the class for teachers. It is known

that the communities, particularly the Malays are suspicious about anything with Western

origin (Sumari and Fauziah, 2008). The counsellors could explain that counselling process is

universal and most of the theories and techniques in counselling are congruent with the

Islamic values, particularly about muhasabah or self-evaluation, which is about exploring

one’s own psyche or beliefs that caused the negative behaviour to materialize in the first

place.

3. Counselling Effectiveness in Coping Educational Issues

3.1 Features and Causes of Educational Issues

Educational issues involve the school and learning-specific challenges such as study

motivation, inability to cope with studies, inability to read and write satisfactorily, selection

of courses, time management, adapting to school social environment, and language

difficulties. The cause could be personal issues that we discussed before, and socio-economic

issues such as peer pressure and family conditions. Among the challenges, according to the

school counsellor the author interviewed, study motivation proved to be main issue

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concerning the majority of the students in their education endeavour. The statement could be

a matter of concern to the school since study motivation would influence the students’ overall

academic achievement.

Academic achievement is closely related to learning styles and motivation (Vijaya

and Zanaton, 2012). Learning styles are individual’s preferences to mode of information

presentation or study approaches. Motivation is the psychological drive to commit to certain

behaviour, in this case, the drive to study. Learning styles and motivation should be

congruent to the students. For example in learning style, it is a common statement that

students prefer learning environment that could stimulate all their senses (visual, aural,

kinaesthetic). So, the teachers should present the information with colourful images complete

with audio sample and genuine materials for the student to see and touch. For motivation,

theory of Expectancy-Value could be applied. Expectancy is the students’ belief in achieving

success and Value is the importance of that success to the students. Thus, the teachers should

present the information in a convenient way that it causes the students to believe they could

excel and increase the learning experience’s value by positive reinforcement.

3.2 Challenges and Approaches of Counselling Process in Coping Educational Issues

An obvious challenge would arise for the counselling process involving this issue – is it the

job for the teachers or counsellors? This is due to task for increasing the effectiveness of

learning styles and motivation mentioned above which is preferably conducted by teachers

than counsellors. Also, the teachers are close to the students in their respective class and who

are given responsibilities to supervise the students’ academic progression throughout the

year.

Thus, the real challenge is to delineate the task of counsellors and teachers regarding

this issue. A solution can be outlined, for example the teachers’ scope of helping these

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students could be class-based and group-based. The counsellors’ scope could be school-

based, personal-based and occasionally play an important part for the group-based

counselling. Thus, the teachers initially manage the students’ educational problems, acting as

the class counsellors. The group counselling can be conducted in a special class for those

having difficulties in reading, writing or language. The counsellors could intervene to support

the students emotionally. Also, the counsellors could teach them specific techniques. First

example is the goal-setting technique, which is highly useful to give the students the sense of

purpose in their study endeavour outlined by their teachers. Second, the counsellors could

teach them essential study skills such as note-taking and time management skill. The

techniques and skills should be on par with their thinking process. This is crucial to develop

self-efficacy, which is a favourable belief system they develop regarding their own control

over their study endeavour. The students would be referred to the counsellors personally if

the students were realized to have more profound problems such as personal issues which the

students are required special attention. Conclusively, we could observe that teachers and

counsellors share the responsibility in assisting the students coping with their educational

issues. Thus, the effectiveness of the counselling intervention could be fully achieved only

with full cooperation of the class teachers.

For the school-based counselling programme, the counsellors could hold a

motivational seminar for the whole students who are sitting for the significant examinations

such as UPSR, PMR and SPM. The school counsellors that the author interviewed expressed

disapproval regarding the previous and current motivational seminars. This is because most

seminars are conducted by outside speakers who frequently exploited the negative emotions

by showing the videos of an adult lifestyle due to failure to achieve good grades in school,

baby being born to arouse the feeling of remorse, and war-torn countries. Thus, the

motivation should include more inspirational materials to induce positive emotions, such as

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the success story of the school alumni, which is more viable to increase the students’

motivation, particularly intrinsic motivation. Also, a programme such as award-giving

ceremony could be held, which is already popular in schools in Malaysia. The counsellors

could arrange special awards, such as the “most hardworking” or “the most grade

improvement” regardless their final result. These awards are meant to recognize the students’

effort rather than the usual awards that focus on final grade. The time in the school could be

exploited by the counsellors organizing ‘special’ days. We already observed the schools

holding Speak English Day, Science Day and other academic-based days. The key is the

students’ full participation. This could be attained by stating the value of the day, which is

part of Expectancy-Value Theory discussed just now. With this students’ participation, a

positive peer pressure could be generated which the students are inclined to join and

contribute the day since all his/her friends are doing the same. Also, positive reinforcement

should be given in form of praises, written recognitions and prizes for students who

contribute significantly to the mentioned day. The reinforcement should be made visible to all

students. Hence, the positive learning environment could be created and maintained, thus,

increasing the students overall study motivation. As a result, counselling effectiveness on the

school-level could be positively achieved.

4. Counselling Effectiveness in Coping Vocational Issues

4.1 Features and Causes of Vocational Issues

Vocational issues involve the students making the right career choice and having the right

attitude to prepare for the working world. It is a challenge required to be managed properly

by the students in shaping their career development. As Saviks (2003) summed the term

career development:

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“…as one that fosters vocational development and work adjustment of individuals at each life

stage by engaging them in life planning aimed at psychological integration of individuals’

abilities, interest and goals with the work roles structured by the community and occupations

organized by companies.”

The term ‘life stage’ can be defined the phases of the students’ life which the career

preference is shaped. Hence, it begins during the primary until the tertiary education level.

The career of choice should be congruent to the students’ abilities, which are the students’

academic or non-academic strengths, interest, which is the students’ emotive predilection and

goals, which are the set of plans that provide the students a sense of purpose.

However, the features would be made ineffective if the career of choice is not

available in the job market. Recently, Malaysia is plagued with the issue of university

graduates having difficulties in searching for job after finishing their study. How is that so?

According to CIA World Factbook (2013), Malaysia’s unemployment rate for 2012 estimate

was remarkably low with merely 3% or ranked 176th position among the 201 countries in the

world. To be specific, the unemployment rate for youth (15-24 years old) was 11% or ranked

99 among 130 countries. Adults in some developed countries are left more jobless than those

in Malaysia, such as Japan and Austria with both unemployment rate of 4.4%, Germany

(6.5%), United Kingdom (7.8%), United States (8.2%) and France (9.8%).

Coupled with the throng of immigrants coming to our country, some with illegal

means, shows that the prospect of getting jobs is relatively positive. Yet, Malaysian

university graduates are said to be choosy with their career choice. In spite of their youth and

inexperience, they prefer highly professional jobs and demand high starting salary, which

most of the companies reserve to the senior and experienced workers. If the companies hire

the freshly graduated students, it was only a selected few who excelled outstandingly or

graduated from overseas institutes. As a result, the available jobs are eventually filled by the

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immigrants. Ultimately, the students are forced to turn to the jobs not corresponding to their

preference or throw themselves to the mercy of the government.

The cause could be found in the students’ formative years during their primary and

secondary schools. For example, the parents and the teachers focus too much on their

children and students getting good grades without providing them a sense of direction for the

future. This would lead the students making poor career choice due to lack of knowledge and

guidance. Next, the non-academic skills such as communication skills are largely ignored,

which could be a highly advantageous to the career development when the students become

proficient with them. Also, the cause is found in the nature of the career itself. For example,

the rapid and continuous changes of career landscape contribute to the poor career choice due

to the modern technologies, which in turn create much new type of careers. Hence, it is a

challenge to evaluate the suitable careers not just according to the students’ abilities,

preference, and goals, but to the changing time.

4.2 Challenges and Approaches of Counselling Process in Coping Vocational Issues

Vocational issues are the central focus of the school counsellors. In fact, the school

counselling was first established in order to help the students discover the careers they wish

to pursue and outline the necessary paths to achieve the goals regarding the chosen careers.

Recently, the counsellors’ approach is more student-based, which they focus on students’

initiative to explore and determine their own preference and career paths (Phillips & Sharifah,

2007). In short, the role of counsellors nowadays is more into supportive and consultative

rather than directive, which was synonym with the counsellors of the early years in the

history of counselling.

However, tackling the vocational issues comes with its own set of challenges. For

example, career counsellors in technical and vocational schools assume that the students have

21

already chosen their career (Rosenbaum & Pearson, 2003). This is because the students

attend the school which they are taught certain technical skills that can be explicitly utilized

in their future world of works. The counsellors should realize that the skills ought to be

correspondent to the students’ interest as well. Furthermore, the skills obtained might be

applied diversely into plethora of profession types. Hence, the counsellors should guide the

students into these professions and discover the specific one that would be compatible to the

students’ preference.

Another challenge is the students in Malaysia are generally having no sense of

direction even 11 years of compulsory education (Glamcevski, 2008). According to

Glamcevski as well, this is due to the ‘school counsellors who lack of adequate assessment’

to evaluate the students’ abilities, discover their interest, and determine their goals. The cause

can be traced from the statement of Malaysian schools which mostly have inexperienced

school counsellors, as discussed in the previous personal issues section. The students have a

potential set of abilities and interest. Yet, without purpose and career opportunity, their

potential would be rendered ineffectual. That is why experienced school counsellors are

highly favoured in order to design counselling programmes to bring the best of the students’

experience of finding their suitable future careers.

Finally, the challenge might come from the parents. Students might already recognize

their career abilities, interest, goals and available career opportunities. Yet, the features above

would be rendered ineffectual as well if the students do not receive significant amount of

support from their parents. In this case, the counsellors could outline the best alternatives for

both parents and students to come into agreement regarding the career choice. Also, the

counsellors could share to the parents that there are many respectable jobs, not just ‘doctors,

lawyers, engineers.’ Still, as mentioned before, the role of school counsellors should be

strictly consultative and supportive, not directive.

22

To conduct the vocational counselling process, some programmes could be suggested.

For example, a Career Day could be held in schools. This is a popular approach in Malaysia.

The key is to make the event as profound as possible to the students. The counsellors could

organize talks that would share crucial scopes regarding the career of choice such as job

requirements, market, prospect, lifestyle, income, and local/international opportunities. Also,

the counsellors should organize a session for questionnaires or psychometric tests. This is to

induce self-exploration and self-evaluation, where the students would critically analyse

themselves and this could be an important first step in their career search endeavour.

Fortunately, this is one of the routine programmes being conducted in schools throughout

Malaysia. One important precaution is that the result obtained should be treated as useful

guidance, not definitive result. For example, after the tests, the student finds that his or her

personality is suited to work as a film director or actor/actress, but his/her interest reveals

otherwise. Next, the counsellors could invite companies and universities in Malaysia to open

their booths and share success stories regarding their workers or alumni. A career show could

be organized by showing a simulation of a job being re-enacted in a fun, aspiring way. For

example, graphic artist drawing a masterpiece, race drivers on racetrack, pilot skilfully

operates an aircraft, doctors treating a critical patient, or teachers/counsellors inspiring a

group of students. This approach is best conducted for the primary school students in order to

raise their interest to certain jobs that caught their attention. Finally, a mock job interview

could be held. The students’ verbal proficiency would be put to the test, shared and evaluated.

The counsellors and students could discuss what techniques could be learnt in order to

increase their communication skill. As a result, the students would gain new skills and

confidence, a highly favourable combination to form the positive attitude in order to prepare

themselves for the working world.

23

The programmes outlined above could be conducted in combination for the Career

Day, or held separately on their own accord. The key is the programmes should be conducted

by experienced counsellors or inexperienced ones under supervision, and involve all factions

of society such as parents, teachers and communities, which both details have been discussed

in the personal issues section.

5. Conclusion

According to Lapan et al. (2007), professional school counselling is crucial on maximizing

the students’ success. In this article, it is the success of the students in managing their

personal, educational, and vocational issues. This success is also credited to the counsellors

who provide support and consultation. We already discussed the challenges faced by the

counsellors and specific steps to deal with them. Remarkably, most of them are controllable

and manageable. Thus, we can conclude that the effectiveness of the school counselling

process is largely depended on the competence of the counsellors.

We already discussed that according to Zakaria and Asyraf (2007), most school

counsellors in Malaysia are lack of experience due to young age and minimum qualification

(bachelor’s degree). I wish to reiterate the statement by the same evidence, which reasserted

that counselling practitioner in educational setting were mainly women, young, and

inexperienced. Also, most counsellors in Malaysia were not registered and did not have

‘practicing certificate’. They added that the counsellors operated mainly in schools and ‘did

not use proper theories’, which unfortunately ‘affect counselling as a whole’.

However, it is too early to conclude that the school counselling in Malaysia is largely

ineffective. According to a study by Bakar, Mohamed and Zakaria (2011), school counsellors

in Malaysia have ‘moderately positive work value’, which means the counsellors relatively

esteemed their profession in a favourable perspective. Hence, the overall effectiveness of

24

school counselling service in the country is potentially positive. It could be improved through

the suggestions outlined by Ng & Ching (2010), which were:

a) applying reliable assessments through systematic theoretical framework

b) discovering more empirical findings through research

c) discovering more actual clinical findings through direct practice.

Coupled with the increasing the credibility of the counsellors through education

(Master’s-level and above), and the involvement by all factions of society through full

cooperation, the credibility and reliability of the school counselling could be further

improved. Ultimately, it is hoped that this will increase the effectiveness of this most-

misunderstood yet wonderful profession.

25

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