A professor of Counselling Psychology at the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Abiodun Gesinde, has called for the inclusion of the fundamentals of Psychological virus in teacher training curriculum.
He said this had become imperative because teachers were potential abusers and so needed to be trained in things capable of mutilating children’s minds as well as to empower them to easily identify children being abused.
The don disclosed this in a chat with our correspondent after delivering the 13th inaugural lecture of the university entitled, “Psychological Virus Undermining Children and Adolescents’ Development: The Antiviral in Counselling Psychology.”
According to him, the prevalence of all dimensions of the child abuse syndrome had become worrisome, both at home and the school environment, which is subjecting the victims to emotional misfortune, thereby promoting personality maladjustment in children.
The expert added that teachers were employed in schools to perform specific roles that would support students’ crave for academic excellence, and for the students to realise this, the academic environment must be devoid of psychological disturbances and intimidation.
He, however, said that studies had disappointedly shown that emotional abuse existed in schools and the perpetrators included teachers.
Gesinde said, “It is also interesting to note that in the school of psychological abuse there are events or occurrences that will not cause pain at all or cause immediate pain, but have controlling power over the direction of your future behaviour.
“Ironically, an individual tends to derive pleasure in such events, but the harmful effect on the soul is inevitable in the nearest future.”
He further disclosed that parents or caregivers were the first set that the neonate has to relate with and as such, they had greater tendency to influence his or her emotional status.
“It has been pointed out that parents exert so much emotional power over their children and this has significantly contributed to the emotional turmoil and abuse being experienced by the adolescents,” he said.
Due to this, he, therefore, urged government and religious bodies to organise periodic training and retraining for parents.
Gesinde said, “Also, since ignorance has been identified as one of the causative factors of psychological abuse, the government and non-governmental agencies should intensify their efforts in educating the public on the dangers inherent
in it.
“Premised on my strong belief that all human problems cannot be spiritual, I want mission schools to review the way they under-utilise counselling services in their respective institutions with a view to maximising its overall benefits.”
The don also recommended, “As we have family doctors and pastors, there is the need to have family counsellors, who will diagnose the existence of psychological virus in families, among other professional responsibilities.”
This, he said, would go a long way in reducing, if not totally eradicate the issue of child abuse, which has become an everyday occurrence in the country, because, according to him, virus in the soul would be more dangerous than virus in the
computer.
