Perceptions of head teachers, teacher counsellors and students on the effectiveness of guidance and counselling programme in enhancing students’ personal, academic and career competencies: A case of secondary schools in Baringo District, Kenya.

Abstract

Guidance and counselling programme in Kenyan secondary schools is critical because of the psychological, social, educational and economic problems the youth face arising from the rapid changes in the society. In 1977 the Kenya government through the Ministry of Education institutionalized a policy for the implementation of guidance and counselling programme to provide personal, academic and career advice to assist the students. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of the perception of the head teachers, teacher counselor and student on the effectiveness of guidance and counseling programme in enhancing students’ personal academic and career competences. The study adopted an ex post facto research design. The target population included 36 head teachers, 36 teacher counsellors and 2387 form III students in Baringo district. Stratified random sampling method was used to obtain a sample consisting of 8 schools (2 girl-schools, 2 boy-schools and 4 co-educational schools). The sample constituted 331 students who were distributed across the 8 schools. Simple random sampling was used to obtain the sample of boys within boys’ schools, girls within girls’ schools while proportionate random sampling was used within co-educational schools. Head teachers and teacher counsellors in the 8 selected schools, were included in the sample. Three sets of questionnaires (head teacher questionnaire (HTQ), teacher counsellors’ questionnaires (TCQ) and student’s questionnaires (SQ)) were used to collect data. The questionnaire contained items measuring perceptions of the respondents on the effectiveness of guidance and couselling in enhancing students’ personal, academic and career competencies. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of the computer based Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 11.5. The descriptive statistics included frequencies, percentages and means. Inferential statistic involved the use of one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient (r). The results were accepted at the significance level of alpha (α) 0.05. The results were presented using tables. The findings of the study indicated that head teachers, teacher counsellors and students perceived that guidance and counselling was effective in enhancing students’ personal, academic and career competences. The findings of this study provided useful information on the effectiveness of guidance and counselling programme in enhancing students’ personal, academic and career competencies. Based on the finding of the study, it was concluded that head teachers, teacher counsellors and students had positive perceptions on the effectiveness of guidance and counselling programme in secondary schools.