According to data recently presented by Department of Education Assistant Secretary Dexter Galban, a shortage of guidance counselors could be hampering their efforts to protect student’s mental health, adding to fears of more student suicides this year.
In data released by the DepEd for the first time, it was found that 404 students died by suicide in 2021 while 2,147 attempts were recorded.
“It is our belief that even one suicide case is too much,” Galban told lawmakers at a Senate hearing. “And this is an alarming rate that continues to go up.”
The numbers are a grim reminder of the urgency for DepEd to implement mental health programs and interventions in schools, but Galban added that schools already face a shortage of guidance counselors to respond to students’ mental health concerns.
“While we do have mental health programs, while we have funding, if we have a limited capacity to onboard additional personnel, the effectiveness of our mental health programs will be affected in a negative way,” he said.
Galban also said that the transition to face-to-face classes is expected to put a “strain” on students, just as the abrupt pivot to distance learning impacted their mental well-being.
There are only roughly 2,000 guidance counselors and around 28 million students, translating to a ratio of one counselor for every 14,000 students. For reference, the ideal ratio is 1:250.
DepEd data also showed that more than 775,000 students sought guidance services in 2021 – representing just 2.85% of the total student population. However, this data is likely massively underreported due to the shortage of counselors available to attend to student’s needs.
The shortage of guidance counselors can be traced to the pathetic pay being offered, where government requires a master’s degree but the corresponding salary grade of SG-11 is lower than the entry level salary for nurses (SG-15). This makes them among the lowest paid in the school system.
Vice president and concurrent education secretary Sara Duterte has said that the agency will lobby for a pay hike for guidance counselors to increase their numbers in schools.
Hopefully the DepEd can do it quickly enough and raise the salaries significantly enough to make a dent on the number of attempted and successful suicides by students which could’ve been prevented if professional, competent and qualified help were only available in the country’s schools.*
