THE EFFECT OF IMPROVING THE PROVISIONS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING IN THE PERFORMANCE OF SS1 STUDENTS OF FILKOM SCHOOL
ABSTRACT
This research assesses the effect of guidance and counseling on the academic performance of SS1 students in Filkom School, Kaduna. The population of the study was made up of forty students in the study area. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study. Forty questionnaires were distributed to the students to fill and each questionnaire contains twenty items which they later returned after filling it.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 General Introduction
Guidance and Counseling as the third force in education along with instruction, is an integral part of educational system. Guidance is a program of services to individual students based on the needs of each student, and understanding of his immediate environment, teachers, peers, parents and people generally and the effect of their influences on the students.
Counseling is a process in which one person assists another in a person to person face encounter. Counseling provides an atmosphere within which one person or group of persons are provided with counseling services. Counseling is concerned with creating opportunities and suitable environment for personal, social, educational and vocational growth of the individual. The central purpose of counseling is to assist students to explore and participate in their own development towards becoming purposefully self directed.
1.1 Background to the Study
A guidance counselor is therefore a professionally trained person in the act of guidance and counseling that provides help to individual student based on the need of each student. Guidance and counseling assists all students in assessing and understanding their abilities, aptitudes, interests and educational needs. Guidance and counseling is a formalized educational service aimed at helping the individual with understanding himself well enough to be able to make appropriate decisions. These decisions may include educational or vocational choice and solutions to personal and social problems. Guidance and counseling can be regarded as a service to education which aims at helping students understand themselves in relation to their potentialities, aptitudes, talents, educational or vocational decision making.
Educational guidance involves helping students to decide what course or subject they take and what co-curricular activities best fit his needs.
The School guidance and counseling is aimed at providing students with opportunities to acquire skills and attitudes necessary to develop educational goals which are suitable to their needs, interests, and abilities, information that would enable them to make decision about life and career opportunities. This complements learning in the classroom and also to enhance academic performance or achievement of students.
Therefore, this project focuses on the realities of the effect of guidance and counseling on the academic performance of SS1 students, the feeling, thinking and the factors affecting the ability of the student to choose their career. Guidance and counseling is a vital component of any level of education as the absence or the non-utilization of these services in the present day SS1 students had led to the wrong choice of career and wrong subject combination among other issues.
The stage in SS1 class is a very crucial stage in which the students need to be properly guided and counseled in the importance of choosing a career or subject combination. The major problem of the student is that of choosing a career that will be of benefit to him. As a result, he need to be properly directed, guided and counseled to choose the right career and subject’s combination which will enable them to achieve what they anticipate to be in future. On the other hand, if not properly guided they will not be able to make a good choice of career.
Generally, guidance and counseling is the process of helping individuals understand themselves and lead to a better understanding of the other aspect of their lives. Therefore, it should be done by a professional counselor. This type of skills used in counseling students is important for effective counseling to take place.
Since there are varieties of careers or disciplines, it will be helpful to know their future ambitions and goals as the counseling is aimed at creating a brighter tomorrow in the life of the SS1students.
Hence, counseling is enhanced when the students are in group or even individually. It is paramount that before a pupil gets into secondary school, he should be properly guided and counseled. The guidance and counseling which should be given to SS1 students should be done by a professional career counselor.
When students are properly counseled, they will be able to:
- Choose the right subject combination.
- Establish habits and develop attitudes towards positive contribution in the field.
- Put more efforts and carry some problem-based loads and cognitive loads in the field.
The questions which should be addressed as the counseling program is established are:
- Area of interest of the individual.
- The age of the SS1 students.
- Health condition of the students.
- Students/Parents financial strength.
- The cognitive, affective and psycho-motive ability.
The counselor should provide a proper balance between counseling, guidance, and follow-up. In striking this balance, the counselor would find these factors important. Some of these factors include:
- Student’s ambition.
- Academic performance.
- Ability to manipulate things.
- Cognitive strength
- Student’s area of interest.
It is the wish of the researcher to let the parents know that it is not the best thing for them to choose career for their children and wards. The SS1 students should be given room to make choice of career.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Guidance and counseling program of SS1 students on career choice and subject combination is assumed to be neglected in majority of schools. It has been noted that students face a number of problems during adolescent stage and the secondary school students happen to belong to the adolescent group, therefore, the need for effective school Guidance and counseling service becomes compelling; thus there is need for effective school counseling of students to achieve excellence in academic performance.
The menace of vices, poor academic output and performance at work in the society has been a source of concern to all stakeholders in education that is, the government, teachers, parents and society at large.
The society cannot exist without making mention of the school which is the major agent of change. In addition, the view of the school as a context where students experience a number of problems as well as the increased number of problems they face in the modern society, have prompted the researcher to investigate the effectiveness of the school guidance and counseling services in the SS1 class in relation to their academic achievement.
The counseling offered to the SS1 students should be understood as a counseling given to someone who doesn’t have direction and knows not how to go ahead.
It is based on the above premise that the study to examine the notable impact on the effect of the school counselor on the academic performance of SS1 students in Filkom Schools.
1.3 Significance of the Study
This study is mainly set out to examine the effects of Guidance and counseling on the academic performances of SS1 students of Filkom Schools in Kaduna.
The study intend to
- Determine the effects of Guidance and counseling on the students’ academic performance.
- Identify Guidance and counseling services available to the SS1 students in Filkom Schools.
- Determine the adequacy of human and material resources for effective counseling in Filkom Schools.
- Identify the problems faced by Guidance counselors in the provision of effective Guidance and counseling services in Filkom Schools.
1.4 Purpose of the Study
This study is meant to be an expository on the role of Guidance and counseling on SS1 students’ performance and it is envisaged that the study will benefit school counselors, students and researchers.
School counselors will have set criteria to evaluate their guidance services. Furthermore, they will also have the information needed to make a number of decisions related to what guidance and counseling services to students to be provided, how these services are to be provided and when to provide them. Such information will make the school counselors more effective in the execution of their duties, thereby maximally benefiting the students and also improve the service delivery of the schools.
SS1 students will benefit from the increased awareness of the available guidance and counseling service in the school they will have information needed to weigh the value of guidance and counseling services the school offers them. Students will also be allowed to suggest improvements in the guidance and counseling services and how they are implemented. This study will add to the limited literature in Nigeria on the effectiveness of school guidance and counseling services on the academic performance of students.
1.5 Scope of the Study
This project work will attempt looking into the areas which SS1 students will be guided and counseled. It is limited to the choice of career and the effect on academic performance. It will also assess the adequacy of human and material resources for effective provision of guidance and counseling to students and as well examine the problems faced by guidance and counseling in the provision guidance services to students in Filkom Schools.
1.6 Limitation of the Study
The following limitation were inherent in the study. First, the respondent sincerity of purpose were not sure since what was conceived in the mind were hidden.
Secondly, due to time constraints, the ability to reach out to many secondary schools for the collection of data was hindered, and the area which the study was conducted at that time was congested.
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Tagged with: Guidance and Counseling, Performance, Provisions of Guidance and Counseling