AN integrated counselling scheme has scored a success by turning around the lives of a group of ''difficult'' junior students.
The students, once weak in their school work and with a reputation for misbehaviour, are now showing more interest in studies and displaying a willingness to talk with and confide in family members after joining a scheme run by a youth agency in co-operation with their school and families.
The students are also showing greater confidence in themselves and, in general, demonstrate a much more positive outlook.
Social workers said the success of the programme highlighted the importance of co-operation among those surrounding and working with the child, which include family, school and child and youth centres.
The one-year counselling scheme for junior secondary school students, organised by the Breakthrough Counselling Centre last academic year, aims at helping both young people and their parents to lead a ''positive'' life.
Ten Form 1 and 2 students from Lai Chack Middle School were chosen for the programme. The children had been observed to be lagging in their class work, playing truant and not getting along with their classmates.
The programme involved individual counselling, group work, tutoring, exercise training, visits to homes for the elderly and selling flags for charity.