Perception of Teachers on the Effectiveness of Guidance and Counseling Programs in Secondary Schools
Chapter One
PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of the study would be to ascertain whether guidance and counselling programme is being rendered and the types of service rendered in the secondary schools in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State. The study investigated the ways teachers and principals and students perceive guidance and counselling programme in secondary school in the Local Government. Finally, the study assessed the impacts of the guidance service in the secondary school.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
The Guidance and Counselling activity in the secondary school settings is gaining a new dawn. As the educational mission in Nigeria has expanded to include Guidance and Counselling services in elementary, secondary and higher institutions. In Nigeria junior secondary school starts after successful completion of the 6th grade or primary six. A child will complete three years of classroom instructions and be able to sit for the junior school certificate examination. The successful completion of JSS III will lead to enrolment in SSS I. The students who start the junior secondary school are predominately early adolescents, who made successful transition from the primary six grades. The early adolescence period is a turbulent period for the developing child. Let us look at our society today; the most endangered age group is the adolescence. Those who drop out from school join the antisocial groups, committing all forms of crime across the entire country. The secondary schools have turned out to be the recruitment grounds for antisocial groups (Eremie, 2006). These children not only join the dangerous antisocial groups, but also do hard and illicit drugs (Effiong, et al 2005). They are highly influenced by peer group pressure which leads to juvenile delinquencies across the nation. Some of these students drop out of school due to lack of adequate guidance and counselling services in the school system. We cannot watch daily, seeing our students get wasted on the streets and in jails awaiting trial or already sentenced. There is a great need to reclaim these students through effective guidance and counselling at the junior and senior secondary school level. The Federal Ministry of Education in response to such needs of the students has spelt out guidance and counselling objectives in the Blue Print for educational institutions in Nigeria. The recognition of such needs by the Federal Ministry of Education, if carried out effectively by school guidance counsellors will help to focus the students’ attention on their academic work. Guidance was the father of counselling as it was practiced during the period of Frank Parson. The focus of guidance in the days of Frank Parsons was to guide an individual to make choices in the areas of choosing classroom instructional activities, and also to prepare the individual to enter a given vocation or occupation. A guidance counsellor is to assist individual to make choices in selecting and planning of courses in the school setting. While, counselling is the process whereby a person (counsellee) enters a helping relationship with a professionally qualified counsellor to help the counsellee in making choices and decisions leading to desirable development and growth throughout the life span (Gladding, 1988; Anagbogu (1988) and Corey (1986).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to examine the perception of teachers on the effectiveness of guidance and counseling program in secondary school.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information for the study perception of teachers on the effectiveness of guidance and counseling program in secondary schools. 200 staff of selected secondary schools was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to examine the perception of teachers on the effectiveness of guidance and counseling program in secondary schools.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of teachers perception on the effectiveness of guidance and counseling program in secondary schools.
Summary
The level of awareness of teachers on the effectiveness of guidance and counselling service in the primary school is both positive and encouraging. The implications are, therefore, that teachers are aware of the effectiveness of guidance and counselling services in primary schools. Therefore, if counsellors are posted to primary schools in Nigeria, to establish guidance and counselling units , the implementation, running and execution will be very smooth as knowledge and awareness of the services have already been established. This will, no doubt, help the UBE programme to record a success towards the development of primary education in this millennium in Nigeria.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that students and teachers generally have a positive perception about the necessity of counseling services in secondary. However, the services are not adequately provided and in some schools they were nonexistent, it can also be concluded that resource availability both financial and non-financial are crucial in the provision of counseling services. However, in most schools, both financial and non-financial resources were inadequate. It is concluded that talent availability both in terms of commitment and level of awareness are very crucial in the provision of counseling services in secondary schools.
Recommendations
The recommendations were made as per the findings and conclusions on each objective of the study. It was recommended that, if counseling services are to be improved in secondary schools in Pallisa District. Both the children and parents need some guidance in order to understand and appreciate these differences and live amicably. The parents should be made to realize that the times are fast changing and they have to gradually change from the old ways. The children should also be made aware that they should not push their parents too fast because as old times the culture shocks they receive take time. More resources both financial and non-financial should be availed to schools by the Ministry of Education and Sports, parents, the community and Non-Governmental Organizations especially to schools in rural areas to enable teachers offer counseling services to the students. Guidance and counseling services should be implemented in secondary schools and to other areas of Nigeria both rural and urban in order to change students and teachers perception, as it has positive relationship with shaping the students discipline for good of teachers and their parents.
Reference
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- American School Counselor Association – ASCA (2007) Careers / Roles Retrieved January 4, 2014, from http://www.schoolcounselor.org.
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