The need for functioning guidance and counselling centres in secondary schools- Salami

It is quite unfortunate that guidance and counselling centres have been in a state of dilapidation in most secondary schools. Nearly all secondary schools do not have a counselling centre; let alone professional trained counsellors who will man these centres. In fact, few schools that have these centres do not employ professional trained counsellors, they assign the duties of a counsellor to class teachers. Meanwhile, everybody can guide but not everybody can counsel.

Salami Wasiu

Guidance and counselling started in Nigerian secondary schools with a view to giving a career guidance and counselling service to final year students pioneered by St. Theresa College Ibadan in 1959. 

The programme produced an effective result as all the final year students who later applied for various jobs were employed. Ever since then, the Federal Government has given attention to the need for Guidance and Counselling service in secondary schools via the National Policy on Education that was revised in 1981. Pathetically however, reverse is the case now. Very little attentions and recognition are given by the government and school heads to the development and practice of Guidance and Counselling in secondary schools.

In any learning institution, counsellors form an essential part of the organization since they serve as key persons to whom students can turn for help on matters related to general challenges facing a teenager both in school and out of school. With the too-academic-oriented educational system characterized with exam cheating and results irregularities, students are likely to find themselves faced with difficult decisions to make concerning career choices. Pressure from parents, lack of proper guidance and scarcity of jobs in preferred sectors can be quite overwhelming for a student unless guided appropriately. Apart from career choice, the students are also faced with other adolescent challenges such as relationships, rapid growth and physical changes, peer pressure, addiction to drugs and alcohol and the need for identity.

Many a student has been performing woefully in his academics due to improper guidance and counselling. A student who just finished his junior secondary school education and wants to proceed to the senior category has to be properly guided in choosing a department - Science, Arts or Commercial - vis-à-vis his capacity or strength. Many students’ academic challenges emanated from making a wrong choice of department. A lot of students choose the department their friend(s) choose(s).

To nip the menace of poor academic performance which could be influenced by wrong choice of department in the bud, an aptitude test has to be conducted for students who want to proceed to senior secondary school by a professional trained counsellor in order to know where they should be placed. Proper guidance should be given to students to develop good study habits and gain enough confidence to prepare and sit for exams. In some cases, the counsellor has to give specialised attentions to manage crises such as lack of concentration, poor performance, difficulty in comprehending certain subjects or just lack of interest in schooling on the part of the students.

It is one thing to pass exams and another thing to have a career that allows one to meet the demands of the job, market and society at large. As noted by Phend (1999), counseling has become more focused on developing students’ competency not only on academics but also in careers. 

To plan and build a career, students must be helped to form an integrated picture of themselves and their roles in the professional world. Investing in education becomes meaningful when the end product gives returns to the individual, government and the society. Students must therefore be helped by a professional trained counsellor via guidance and counselling service to have a clear perspective of the changing society and realise their assets and limitations so that they set attainable goals and make their education meaningful to individuals and the society at large. This would go a long way in curbing the high level of educational inefficiencies where graduates lack employable skills leading to the unemployment of the educated that the current education system is experiencing.

There are a lot of students who are having personal problems that can only be revealed to a professional for confidentiality. This issue of personal problems has led many students astray since there is nobody to confide in to counsel them. These cases may be as varied as the total number of students in the school. When students fail to live up to expectations, they are likely to develop feelings of incompetence and insecurity that can easily disturb their mental equilibrium resulting in low achievement. 

The counselor must be prepared to deal with such problems and appropriately guide the student towards a meaningful development. The most common of these problems include disappointing memories, strained relationships with teachers, parents or other students, inferiority complex, emotional conflicts and lack of sense of belonging.

A school being a place where people from heterogeneous background meet for a common goal, lack of adequate counselling centres therein gives room for inadequate social adjustment to the students. In this regard, there is need for functional guidance and counselling centres  our secondary schools where the counsellor will make proper arrangements to give adequate social adjustment to the students. The students must be well equipped to face and rise above the situations they encounter in relationship to peer pressure, social behaviour, making new friends, being leaders among themselves among others.

Having functional counselling centres in our secondary schools could also help curb indiscipline among students. It is no more news that there are cult members among students of secondary school. 

Most of the cultists were even initiated when they were in secondary school with the influence of peers and environment. If there are functional counselling centres in our secondary schools, the rate of indiscipline and cultism will not be as much as it is in our schools today. The counsellors will have to be intimate with the parents, teachers, students and community elders for effective task.

It saddens to read in national dailies that secondary school students engage in drug abuse; rape and other sexual abuses; cultism and other social vices. 

The negative sense of thought of students will be redirected if there are adequate counselling centres equipped with professionals in our secondary schools. In some schools that are having counselling centres, they lack personnel. Using teachers who are not trained in the field of Guidance and Counselling for counselling service is unprofessional. Hence, it cannot bring out expected results from the students. Teachers should however work with the counsellors as a committee not as counsellors. Teachers should be used to teach, while counsellors should be assigned the duty to counsel.

Essentially, guidance and counselling is to reach out to all the students and ensure integrated development of all aspects of a child’s life irrespective of his displayed characters. Although the Federal Government has put emphasis on it as a means of strengthening discipline in schools, institutional, situational and attitudinal challenges have continued to undermine its role in shaping the character of students. 

The big question therefore still remains: who is to be blamed for the series of unrest in schools; is it the child for his/her riotous behavior; the teacher for his/her laxity; the governments’ directives; or the too liberal society in which the child lives? 

Has guidance and counselling failed? 

These questions need responses and I opine that if there is functional guidance and counselling in our schools, the service will curb unrest in schools even if a child has riotous behaviour. If a teacher has the attitude of laziness, if the government has poor directives or the too liberal society, a professional counsellor could still use skills and techniques to get rid of unrest in schools.

Salami Wasiu is a 300level counselling psychologist, Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin

You can reach him through;

wizkiu@gmail.com

07063539580