Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk commented about the Regulation on the Counseling and Psychological Guidance Services which came into power after its publication in the Official Gazette.

 

Noting that the Ministry has been working in order to reconstruct the counseling and psychological guidance services in line with the 2023 Education Vision Document, Selçuk said that the regulation was published as a part of this concept.

 

Minister Selçuk stressed that the regulation which was prepared in order to simplify the previous regulations include new developments and updates concerning counseling and psychological guidance services.

 

Minister Selçuk said, "The new regulation made the definition of school/psychological counselor in a way that covers the title of counselor as well as all the services they give. School/psychological counselors will not be assigned as on-call teachers as they continue to provide their counseling and guidance duties during breaks and even during lunch hours. We tried to prioritize a progressive and preventive approach that communes with education and training and supports children's development in counseling and psychological guidance services offered in our education institutions. In line with the updates in the regulation, we have prepared the "Counseling and Research Center Instructions and Counseling and Psychological Guidance Services Ethics Directive".

 

Counseling and Psychological Guidance Services will support the learning process and will be carried out in line with overall development of students. These services will be based on a progressive and preventive approach.

 

Progressive needs of students will be planned, implemented and assessed according to the school and environmental conditions.

 

Counseling and Psychological Guidance Services will be carried out in pre-school, primary school, secondary school and high school and lifelong learning institutions in order to support the social, emotional and academic development of students. 

 

Counseling and Psychological Guidance Services in education institutions will include progressive and preventive services, remedial services and support services.

 

Counseling and psychological guidance services will carry out activities such as individual or group psychological guidance, psycho-education programs, peer based studies, implementation of individual recognition techniques, organization of seminars, panels, conferences, courses and visits, class counseling and publication preparation. In case of a need, these services can be carried out online by using information technologies.

 

Counseling and psychological guidance services will be founded in state and private schools, formal education and life time learning centers in order to carry out and coordinate counseling and psychological guidance services. In order to carry out an effective counseling and psychological guidance services, this department will be located in a place where students, parents, teachers and other personnel can easily reach, should have suitable psychical conditions, should be equipped with offices supplies and necessary tools and devices needed for individual and group studies and should not be used for purposes other than counseling and guidance. 

 

School or psychological counselors in education institutions will take duty in progressive and preventive services, remedial services and support services.

 

Upon demand, school or psychological counselors can work in central examinations or as tutors but they cannot be assigned to on call duties.

 

Teachers who were not assigned as school counselors will also support counseling when needed.

 

Weekly work period of school/psychological counselors assigned to the counseling and psychological guidance services will work 30 hours.

 

School/psychological counselors can be assigned to work in choice counseling and student identification process during summer holidays in case of a need. In such cases, summer holidays of school/psychological counselors cannot be shorter than one month.