A study of secondary school headteachers involvement in guidance and counselling Programme in Keiyo district

Abstract

The major purpose of the study was to establish the extent to which secondary school headteachers are involved in implementation of guidance and counseling programmes for students in Keiyo District. The study also sought to determine whether the age, administrative experience, type of school headed by headteacher and training of headteachers had any influence on their involvement in guidance and counselling programmes. The study further sort to determine the problems headteachers face and the areas in which they are involved in guidance and counseling programmes. The literature review was organised under various sub-headings: the meaning of the terms guidance and counselling; the scope of the guidance and counselling programme which covered vocational; psychological and educational guidance and the role of guidance and counselling in facilitating school administration. Literature was also reviewed on the involvement of headteachers in guidance and counselling programmes and the need for headteachers to be trained in guidance and counselling skills. In this study two questionnaires were used as research instruments. The questionnaires targeted secondary school headteachers and teacher-counsellors as respondents. The headteachers questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part sought demographic information of the school and headteachers. The second part tested the headteachers involvement in guidance and counselling and problems which they encounter during implementation of the programme. The teacher counsellor questionnaire sought the involvement of headteachers in guidance and counseling programmes. The study was ex-post facto in design. The subjects for this study were 21 headteachers and 24 teacher counsellors drawn from public and private secondary schools in Keiyo District. The respondents were from girls, boys and mixed schools. Before the main study, a pilot study was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the instruments. --The pilot study was conducted in four schools randomly drawn VI from the mixed school category, which had the majority of the schools in the district. The pilot study led to the modification of the research instruments. Some items were dropped. The reliability of the involvement items was 0.9. It was hypothesized that headteachers' personal qualities such as age, and administrative experience played a significant role in their involvement in guidance and counselling. It was also hypothesized that there was no significant relationship between the type of school headed and headteachers involvement in guidance and counselling. The last hypotheses of the study was that training of headteachers in guidance and counselling skills did not influence their involvement in guidance and counselling programme. A two-tailed t-test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the set hypothesis. The 0.05 alpha level of significance was used for both tests as a standard for rejection or acceptance of the null hypotheses. The study established that headteachers' personal qualities like age and administrative experience had no significant effect on their involvement in guidance and counselling programmes. The study also found that there was no significant relationship between the type of school headed by headteacher and their involvement in guidance and counselling. However, there was a significant relationship between training of headteachers in guidance and counselling and their involvement in guidance and counselling programme. Trained headteachers showed a higher involvement in guidance and counselling services than untrained ones. It was found that head teachers faced a number of problems during their participation in guidance and counseling programmes. These included: students related problems, parent related problems, un co-operative teachers, untrained personnel, too many administrative duties, high work-load, lack of organisation by teacher-counsellor and lack of resources including financial, and material. It was further established that headteachers participated in a number of areas during their involvement in guidance and counselling programmes. These areas included: planning of guidance and counselling services, staffing of guidance and counselling programmes, involving other people in guidance and counseling prograrmmes ,provision of materials and other facilities for guidance and VB counselling, encouragmg students to be guided and counselled and, finally, establishing peer counselling service. The study found out that headteachers involvement in guidance and counselling services is not influenced by their age, administrative experience, the type of schools headed but by their training in guidance and counselling. Further, it was realised that headteachers regarded guidance and counselling as a way of enhancing students discipline. The study concluded that guidance and counselling has not been given the seriousness it deserves. Therefore the following recommendations were made: i) Headteachers should be trained and oriented in guidance and counselling through regular inservice courses, workshops and seminars. ii) Headteachers should provide materials and facilities for guidance and counselling. i) That teacher counsellors should be assigned lighter teaching load and sponsored to attend inservice course in guidance and counselling. ii) That peer counselling should be strengthened in all schools iii) Headteachers should establish referrals for difficult cases iv) The Teachers Service Commission should appoint more heads of guidance and counselling department. v) The headteachers should use participative leadership and avoid using students as their spies against teachers