Bhaktapur, October 4

The government has started psycho-social counseling training for government teachers in four districts worst affected by the April 25 earthquake.

Shiva Prasad Upreti, deputy director of the Department of Education, today said that the government started training teachers in four districts in association with various non-government organisations.

“The main objective of the training programme is to establish a psycho-social counseling unit in schools to help identify students, teachers and other staff with psychological problems and refer them for clinical treatment.”

CMC Nepal is providing training to teachers in the pilot phase in four districts — Kavre, Dolakha, Gorkha and Rasuwa.

As per the training schedule published by the DoE, CMC Nepal conducted psycho-social counseling training for 16 teachers from Dolakha, 26 teachers from Kavre from September 27 to 29, while it is planning to train a female teacher and a male teacher each from ten schools in Gorkha and Rasuwa from October 27-31.

“The training on psycho-social counseling is a one-and-half year project, which will be implemented in various districts in association with various NGOs,” he said, adding, “The training to teachers was guided by the directive on psycho-social counseling in schools.”

A memorandum of understanding was signed between DoE and CMC Nepal on July 16. As per MoU, CMC Nepal will provide technical and financial support while the district education offices will coordinate between teachers and trainers.