Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said the establishment of the department would enable counsellors to pool their energy and expertise, hence bringing their career to another level and with a clearer direction in tackling social ills.
"It's high time for such a department to be set up with standards and a specific code of ethics drawn up to provide better counselling service to the community," she said after closing the three-day National Counselling Convention 2010 organised by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, here, Tuesday.
Shahrizat said her ministry would invite relevant parties like the National Board of Counsellors and Malaysian Counselling Association to study the setting up of the Counselling Department.
She said after the study had been completed, the matter would be brought to the Cabinet for further action.
"We have organised a number of programmes this year where we received feedback from counsellors for a counselling department be set up to help in their career in terms of standards, code of ethics and training."
Shahrizat said currently there were 5,000 counsellors in schools and 1,827 registered ones nationwide, besides 350 at public and private higher learning institutions, 126 with non-governmental organisations and 99 with private organisations.
In a related development, Shahrizat said the ministry would invite counsellors to together go to the ground to tackle social problems at the grassroot level.
The National Counselling Convention with the theme, "Quality Counselling Service the Foundation for Community Development", was attended by about 200 people from throughout the country.
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