EVALUATION OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA

EVALUATION OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA

Concept of Guidance and Counseling
Various authors have used the terms “guidance” and “counseling” either to mean different things or to mean the same thing. Due to this, many texts use the term interchangeably. However, the consensus among professionals is that guidance is an umbrella name for all helping services. To a layperson, guidance simply means to guide or direct someone toward a certain goal but to the professional guidance counselor, it involves a much deeper meaning (Oladele, 1987).

Guidance
Ipaye (1983) sees guidance as an umbrella term that covers all the means whereby an institution identifies and responds to the individual needs of students, thereby helping the individual to develop his/her maximum potential.

Durojaiye (1972) views guidance as a complex process that encompasses the total needs of the individual student to be directed or guided. The, he said is available to the individual’s educational, emotional, vocational, health, social and physical needs as well as the individual’s preparation for a suitable occupation or career.

Various authors, collectively view guidance as:

1. A concept (mental image) that connotes the utilization of a view to help an individual.
2. An educational construct (intellectual synthesis) refers to the provision of experiences that help students understand themselves.
3. A service (action taken to meet demand) involves the processes organized to achieve a helping situation.
4. (Idowu, 1998)

Guidance is perceived as a process because it involves a series of actions or steps progressively moving toward a goal.

Help entails assisting to reduce human difficulties, “individuals” refers to students in a school setting or clients, in a non–school setting.

Understanding of self and world means coming to know who they are as individuals, becoming aware of their identity, perceive the nature of their person and person and the people with whom they interact. As individuals, they should be able to know what opportunities are open for them in their world.

The assumption is that individuals who understand themselves and their world will become more effective, more productive, and happier human beings (Adams, 1998) through guidance individuals achieve greater awareness not only of who they are but also of who they can become.

Guidance is not a haphazard activity but a planned and systematic approach towards helping individuals to be able to make wise choices or decisions. Guidance aims at aiding the recipient to grow in his independence and ability to be responsible for himself. It is seen as a service that is universal, not confined to the school or family. It is found in all phases of life, in business, industry, hospitals, homes, government, and anywhere some people need help the central idea of this definition is that it does not dictate solutions to individuals. Realizing that with appropriate guidance the counselee directs himself.

Inferring from the definitions of guidance, it is clear that its purpose is to help students understand the totality of their personal
experiences, the opportunities available as well as the choices open to them and also helping them to recognize, interpret, and act upon their personal weaknesses, strengths, and resources.

Understanding oneself can effectively lead to a student’s wise choice of curriculum options and appropriate occupational aspiration that would lead to the discovery and development of potential for personal happiness first and then social usefulness.

Counseling
Counseling involves a wide range of procedures including advice-giving, support in times of need or trouble, information-giving encouragement, and test interpretation. Counseling is perceived as part of the guidance program involving a more personalized process that involves a one–on–one relationship or small groups. Counseling deals more intensively with personal and emotional issues, it is very private and confidential.

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