Interviewing Indian Counselor

Background of the counselor

Teacher Devaraju comes from South Indian Tamil ethnic. His father comes to Malaysia in 1851, after colonial period. He speaks Tamil and believes in Hinduism. He has been working in Sekolah Menengah Seri Gombak for 13 years, now he is the Head of Counselor there.

Education background:

1.       SRK (Tamil) Ladang Hopeful
2.       Maktab Perguruan Seri Kota (Pengajian Tamil)
3.       UPM Serdang (Kaunseling)

Job experiences:

1.       Posting at SRJK (T) Ulu Ramis

2.       SMK Raja Muda Musa (1999 – 2002)

3.       SMK Seri Gombak (2003 – now)

Challenges as Indian counselor

• ·         He feels that the situation is so irony when the society propagates religion hatred – referring to the current issue that is happening. This is because, he said the teachers in school have always taught student about unity, but sadly there is religious bigotry after half decade of Independence. It is a challenge for him to counter the mistake of the society, because it is a sensitive issue. He himself respects Islam as a religion while practicing his religion.
• ·         There is a case where students involved in gangs of two different races, Malay and Indian fight with each other until it has been a police case. However, it is not because of racial sentiment, it is just because of some conflict at the canteen.
• ·         Like Indian students prefer to deal with Indian counselor, some Malay students also find it is not comfortable to counsel with him. But majority of them feels okay towards him; in fact they are close to him.

Challenges may be face in counseling Indian students:

• ·         Most of them do not understand Malay so counselor must be really fluent in English.
• ·         According to teacher Deva, they are more comfortable with Indian counselor (because they can speak in Tamil).
• ·         Most of Indian students are very scared of their parent because their parent is so strict. They will be punished by the parent if teacher inform the parent about their bad attitude. Thus, counselor must be very wise in way of informing the parent.
• ·         The opportunity of tertiary education is not as equal as Malays, so the counselor has a big task in motivate them to study.
• ·         Low socioeconomic status.

Common issues of Indian student:

·         As we know, most of Indian has low socioeconomic status (effects of Divide and Order policy by British). This gives rise to many issues such as students play truancy because they need to work to help the family.

·         Other than that, they have low motivation of studying because for them, working is more important for them to survive.

·         Extreme case, some of them involve with gang. One of the reasons gang happens is because weak students seek protection to the ‘powerful’ one. In the case of Indian students, some of them that need money seek help with gang.

Do’s in counseling Indian students:

·         Consult with Indian counselor (if have)

·         Understand the main issue that relate with them – socioeconomic status

·         Help them if they have financial problem

·         Motivate them to study

·         Discuss with them first if you were to inform their parent

·         Speak the language that they understand

·         Alert with discrimination among the student

·         If you feel not competent to counsel them, refer to other counselor

Don’t in counseling Indian students:

·         Do not inform the parent about any misbehavior without discussing with the student

·         Do not discriminate them