The Urgency of Social Skills and Problems of Personal-Social Guidance and Counseling Services in Elementary Schools

Social skills are essential competencies that need to be developed from an early age, especially during primary education. These skills play a crucial role in building students’ character, improving communication abilities, and fostering healthy social relationships. However, personal-social guidance and counseling services in elementary schools still face various challenges in their implementation. This study aims to explore the urgency of developing social skills among elementary school students and to identify the problems found in the implementation of personal-social guidance and counseling services from the perspectives of teachers and students. The research used a descriptive qualitative approach, with data collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis, including data reduction, categorization, and drawing conclusions based on key themes. The results show that the implementation of personal-social services is still not optimal due to limited time allocation, a lack of understanding from classroom teachers regarding the function of the services, and low student participation. On the other hand, students showed a high need for social skill development, especially in aspects of empathy, assertive communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution. Referring to the social-emotional learning framework from CASEL (2020), this study highlights the importance of revitalizing personal-social guidance and counseling services in a more systematic and collaborative way to support the development of students’ social skills from an early stage