SINGAPORE, Oct 5 — Fewer than two in every 100 primary students require counselling for mental health issues, a proportion which has remained stable for the last five years, Minister of State for Education Gan Siow Huang said in Parliament today.
Gan was responding to questions by Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Member of Parliament (MP) Darryl David and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh.
David had filed a parliamentary question on whether the number of primary school students requiring counselling for mental health issues has risen in the last five years, as well as how such students are managed when they transition to secondary school and beyond.
Singh then asked for the number of primary school students who required counselling last year.
Gan, in her response, revealed the data to be about 16 per 1,000 students as of 2021.
She said that while the number of primary school students being referred to school counselors for mental health related issues was stable between 2017 and 2021, some of these students “may require counseling support even after they graduate from primary schools”.
“The school counselors facilitate this by engaging parents to discuss how the counseling support can be extended to the child’s new school,” she said.
And with the consent of parents, information such as the strategies to support the child and the child’s challenges will be shared with the receiving school.
“Such information will be managed sensitively, and will only be shared on a need to know basis,” she added.
David asked if the sharing of such sensitive information could go beyond the walls of the Ministry of Education (MoE), and be shared with other Government agencies as well. He gave the example of a male student graduating and enlisting into national service.
He asked: “Would (the Ministry of Defence) have accessibility to that that kind of information, which is typically, I’m assuming, held by MoE?”
Gan responded by saying that the government is “very concerned about the continuity of mental health care and support for our young people”, noting that an interagency task force for mental health had been set up last year.
“MoE is plugged into this task force and we are discussing in greater depth on how we can provide continuous care, as well as to do so in a manner that respects the need for medical confidentiality and also to respect the wishes of the individuals as well as their parents,” said Gan.
MoE previously said that in 2018, around 10 out of every 1,000 students overall at schools and institutes of higher learning received counselling support for anxiety or stress-related issues.
TODAY has asked MoE for updated figures. — TODAY
