Schools across Cameroon, Friday, October 18, 2024, celebrated the national guidance counselling day with a call for parents and teachers to be exemplary to children and to help them manifest their talents.
Celebrants marked the 22nd edition of Guidance and Counselling Day with the theme, “Guidance Counselling and its Services in Schools.”
The government instituted the event to highlight the importance of career orientation and celebrate the vital role guidance counsellors play in the education sector.
During celebrations in Yaounde, the Secretary of State to the Ministry of Basic Education, Dr. Vivian Asheri Kilo, urged parents, teachers and educational stakeholders to guide children by fostering safe, secure and inclusive learning spaces that will help them manifest their talents.
Advice to Parents and Teachers
Dr Asheri Kilo told parents and teachers to be watchful of their language, appearance and conduct when around children in order to set the right example for them to follow.
“It is important that we make children know, at a very early age, what their orientations are. It is very important as teachers to be able to spot the talents of children as young as they are and give them guidance towards where their career paths should go,” Dr Asheri told CRTV.
This year’s guidance counselling day emphasised inclusive learning, achievable when children have a sane environment to study in.
“This year’s theme, we notice, is about having children in a clean, sane, and protective and inclusive environment where every child is important. A child may face challenges, but that doesn’t mean the child lacks value. Find an orientation for that child that encourages them to use their other aptitudes.
“The Ministry of Basic Education prioritises including every child and instructs teachers, who also serve as counsellors, to exercise patience. We will provide them with the necessary training to support these children and guide them towards a future they can be proud of,” she said.
