On another forum, a student who completed her O levels and is awaiting posting results for JC/poly, wondered if JC or Poly (diploma in psychology) is a better route for her, with her main interest in psychology.
It turns out (as her later post revealed) that, "actually i jus wan to be a school counselor, seeing student turn into a better person give me a sense of sastisfaction".
I advised (this is to all students interested in studying psychology specifically because you want to be a school counsellor) the following :
As a school teacher, you're also an informal school counsellor. And you can reach a much wider group of students whom you can counsel as a school teacher, than as an 'official' school counsellor.
Being a teacher pays better too (nowhere as much as a banker of course, but a school teacher gets the chance to counsel students, unlike bankers), and teaching as a job is more secure than being a school counsellor. Consider the employability ratio - every school only employs 1 counsellor compared to 50+ teachers.
So if school student counselling is what you're interested in, you should consider teaching as a profession. Study in a JC, then on to NUS (eg. to obtain a degree in Phys, Chem, Math or Econs), then on to NIE, then on to teaching and counselling full time.