VietNamNet Bridge –  Psychological counseling in schools has not been an official part of the education program and students still do not know where to turn when they experience difficulties in life.

One month ago, two high school students in Nghe An province vowed to kill themselves after they felt they had reached an impasse. The two students loved each other, but their love was not supported by parents, who feared that their love would affect their children’s study.

The students committed suicide because they thought there would be no solution to their problem.

In December 2014, two female students were found dead in a guesthouse on Hoang Van Thu street in Da Lat City of Lam Dong Province.

Both of them were excellent students at Thang Long High School for the Gifted. They reportedly killed themselves because of problems in their love.

A teacher of a high school in Hanoi said that high school students, who are in a sensitive period of their lives, cannot get advice when necessary.

“They don’t know where to go and whom to meet to take advice,” he said.

The psychological consultancy centers recently set up in large cities like Hanoi and HCM City are not places where students think they should go, because they lack information about the service quality provided by the centers.

In some cases, the teacher said, students hesitate to share information about their private life with anyone. In other cases, students fear they would be seen as patients with a mental disorder if they go to consultancy centers.

Bui Van Linh, deputy director of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) Students’ Affairs Department, believes that if the students had consulted with someone  and found solutions, they would not have committed suicide.

A parent in Cau Giay district in Hanoi noted that high school students tend to share their thoughts with classmates, or chat with friends on social networks, rather than reporting their problems to parents or teachers.

“My daughter once told me that I do not have enough deep knowledge about modern students to help her,” the parent said.

Meanwhile, high schools, with limited resources and staff, find it difficult to be good counselors to students.

“As far as I know, some schools in Hanoi have psychological consultants, but they are just like other teachers, because they are not trained in this field,” she said.

Nguyen Hiep Thong, deputy director of the Hanoi Education and Training Department, said that MOET needs to allow schools to set up schooling psychological consultancy units, as this is a part of modern education.

Chi Mai