Role of Teachers in Providing Educational and Career Counseling to the Secondary School Students in Gilgit- Baltistan of Pakistan

This article presents the findings of a study conducted to explore the role of teachers in career counseling in secondary schools in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan. The key findings illustrate that teachers have vital roles to guide students for their careers; they voluntarily act as informal counselors guiding students in their choices of subjects and career paths. In addition, students also see their teachers as role models and attach high value to their advice and guidance related to the subjects and career selection. Practices such as the educated parents providing career guidance to their children and students seeking career information from media are common in both the Government Education Department and the NGO-run private schools in Gilgit-Baltistan. However, the findings reflect that the NGO-run private schools have better quality career services for students than the Government Education Department-run schools. Likewise, students in both the education providing systems face numerous challenges related to their career choices. For instance, access to quality and timely information and the scarcity of appropriate resources for career counseling seem to hamper students in both the education providing systems. Hence, career guidance and counseling is a major issue in the context of Gilgit-Baltistan hindering students in making right choices for their future careers.