LECTURE SIX

SCHOOL GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING

Introduction

Guidance and counselling in schools is a joint venture that is carried out by various players in
the school set-up. In this lecture, we will look at the problems which are dealt with during
counselling in schools and the roles of the key players who are involved in the process.

Objectives
By the end of this lecture, the learner should be able to;
1. Problems presented for counselling in schools
2. Names the key players in school counseling
3. Roles of the key players in school guidance and counseling

Problems Presented in School Counselling Environment

There are very many different types of problems which are presented for counselling in
schools. They include:

1. School problems: school inadaptability, absenteeism, grade/class repetition, school

abandonment, truancy, poor academic performance, substance abuse in school,
behavioral deficiencies as ADHD etc.
2. Familial problems: Familial low socio-economic status, students from single parent
families, divorced parents, bereaved students, students abused
physically/emotionally/sexually by partners, stepparents, neighbors etc.
3. Disciplinary problems: violation of school rules and regulations, bullying,
aggression towards opposite sex, self-aggression (suicide attempts), juvenile
delinquency, violence, destruction of school property etc.
4. Identity and self-knowledge problems: self-searching, self-analyze, the need to
understand his own identity, peer pressure, behaviors and personal expectations from
others and themselves, personality disorders, hysteria etc.
5. Health issues: HIV/AIDS infection, narcolepsy, diabetes, sickle cell anemia etc.

Key players in School Guidance and Counseling

In a school set up, guidance and counselling is a collective responsibility which is conducted
by the following key players:
1. Teacher counsellors
2. Class masters
3. Peer counsellors
4. Parents
5. School administration
 I. Teacher Counsellors
In Kenya, a teacher counsellor is person who is appointed by the Teachers Service
Commission (TSC) to head Guidance and Counselling Department in a secondary school.

Roles of a teacher counsellor are as follows:

1. Identifying and assisting learners to overcome their problems
2. Assisting the learners to develop their potentials and abilities
3. Organizing guidance and counselling sessions and seminars in schools
4. Providing career guidance to students applying join universities and technical colleges
through Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS)
5. Making referrals to specialists on students’ problems he/she is unable to handle
6. Providing information to students required for social, moral and spiritual development
7. Maintaining general and confidential guidance and counselling records in school
8. Liaising with other stakeholders (teachers, parents, school administration) to enhance
the development of the learners

A teacher counsellor can collect information from the clients in the following ways;
1. Conversing with clients formally through scheduled interviews
2. Visiting homes where clients come from and consulting with their parents/guardians
3. Observing clients’ positive and negative behaviors in school
4. Conferring with other teachers on problems facing students/clients in school
5. Asking clients to write autobiographies or end unfinished stories
6. Interacting closely with clients/learners inside and outside classrooms

II. Class Masters

A class master is a teacher who is appointed by the school administration be in charge of a
class/form/grade.
1. They are mandated to look into academic and social issues affecting students in the
classes they represent.
2. They work closely with teacher counsellors and school administration to mitigate
factors affecting students at classroom level.
3. They help in identifying and understanding the causes of students’ problems at
primordial level.
4. They reduce the number of cases that finally reach the teacher counsellors’ attention
by helping students solve their problems at classroom level.
5. They call a teacher counselor’s intervention only in severe situations.

III. Peer Counsellors

Peer counselling is a helping process that involves one-on-one interaction or interaction
between members of a group, who have several things in common. In a school setting, peer
counsellors are students who willing to help their fellow students deal with a variety of
problems that face them.  Student peer counselling groups are formed by teacher counsellors
or by school administration to help fellow students deal with their problems. Thus, peers are
those who belong to the same group, share interests and needs. Usually, in a school setting,
peer counselors are students who have volunteered to undertake training in order to offer
support to other students experiencing certain problems. Peer counselling entails the
following:
1. In peer counselling, the counsellor and the counselees see each other as equals and
can therefore easily confide in each other
2. Peer counselling can be carried out on the basis of class, club, dorm, house, hostel or
religious affiliation.
3. Peer counselling refer to the concerted efforts to harness the capacity that peers have
to console, appease, befriend one another, to mediate in conflicts and to reconcile
those alienated from each other.
4. Peer counseling operates on the premise that the peer counsellor provides a role
model, serves as a link between the person seeking help and the service provider e.g.
the teacher counselor.

The role of a peer counsellor includes:

1. Promoting peer education and acceptable behavior change
2. Make arrangements for time and place of counselling
3. Initiate helpful counselling programmes
4. Sensitize the peers about the available G & C programmes
5. Show empathy towards other clients’ problems, be able to listen, communicate, be
direct, sincere.
6. Should support persons or be rescuer or protector of the vulnerable
7. Enhance participation towards high achievements
8. Inculcate a sense of responsibility
9. Enhance a sense of appreciation and recognition of each other’s talent
10. Shape thoughts, feelings and behavior
11. Encourage the youth to discuss their fears and frustrations in the hope that they will be
motivated to seek help
12. Helps parents and teachers to understand the ways in which young people think and feel
13. Provides an opportunity for young people to talk about their aims and goals in life
14. Provides new ways of dealing with peer pressure
15. Helps in the formation of young role models

Why peer counselling approach effective in schools?

1. Peer counsellors have had or have similar problems
2. Peer counsellors can meet without the assistance of a professional leader
3. Peers trust each other and can communicate freely
4. Peers can educate each other on issues they are shy to share with any other person
5. Peers can reach each other easily
6. Peers can help reduce stress caused by career related problems

Aims of peer counselling in schools

 Promote personal development in helpers

 Create a positive influence on the emotional climate in the school environment
 Provide a bridge between the troubled peers and friends, by listening rather than
necessarily giving advice
 Offer basic skills in supporting the other peers who might need psychosocial support e.g.
the bereaved, alienated, drug users etc
 Enable the individuals to meet personal needs in order to be more fully functional and
take control of his / her life, in different settings
 Reduce the amount of bullying in schools by supporting those involved
 To act as an additional service to that provided by the staff – complementing rather than
competing with it.
 To provide support to pupils to act as half – way house for situations which may need to
be dealt with by those further up the school hierarchy.

Issues commonly discussed in Peer Counseling

Poor academic performance, Peer pressure, Negative behavior, Social problems, Spiritual
issues, Career choices.

Models of peer counseling

1. The Generalist approach
- First identify one person amongst the peer counselors who can work as the conact
person in the program
- This person is placed at the intake level or is the first person to come in contact with
the person seeking help
- It is the responsibility of this counselor to feel out the nature of the problem,
determine who could best work with this individual and for how long.
- The generalist approach works for a very short time with the individual and then she /
he refers the client to someone who is more specialized
2. Instructional counselor approach
- This approach basically involves the teaching of skills.
- The counselor is called peer educator
- The main objective of this type of counseling is to help individuals to make that
transition from being totally dependent to being as independent as possible by giving
training in the areas that the individual seems to be lacking e.g. social skills,
functional needs and academic skills e.t.c.
3. Outreach approach
 This type involves going out to people to make known to them what the peer counseling
is all about
 This type of counselor meets with people who do not have the ability to reach out
 In some ways they have become too accepting of their situations and do not realize there
are other ways.
4. Advocacy approach
 The main function of this type of counselor is to help people work their way through
systems so that they can get what is rightfully theirs.
 This can be looked upon as more of a teaching role

Training Peer counsellors

1. Identify and define the skills in behavioral terms – breaking it down to smaller steps
2. Demonstrating or modeling both effective and ineffective examples of the skills
3. Practicing the skills with supervision and feedback until minimum competence is
achieved
4. Practicing learned skills with supervision in real counseling situations
5. Training peer counselors should include issues that should be referred and the signs for
transferable problems
6. Favour group sessions over individual sessions. This reduces the chances of dual and
dependent relationships forming
7. There should be on-going professional supervision
8. There should be continuous in-service training
9. There should be regular meetings where the peer counselors discuss their progress,
challenges and obstacles as they implement various programs

IV. Parents
Are the first caregivers and should augment what the school does in helping students solve
their problems

They can do this in the following ways:

1. Having a co-operative and understanding relationship with the school
2. Providing the required support and showing sensitivity to the emotional and physical
needs of their children
3. Building self-confidence in their learners by avoiding discouraging remarks
4. Provide the school with accurate information about their children
5. Keeping confidential information received from school about their children
6. By being updated on the progress of their children
7. Disciplining their children so that they display acceptable behaviour
8. Discussing with their children issues that are affecting them so that they can provide the
necessary support and encouragement
9. Participate in school and out of school activities so as to foster mutual respect and
appreciation
10. Being role models to their children
11. Liaise with teacher counsellors and act on referrals.

V. School Administration
This is the decision making organ of the school and therefore its support is necessary for the
efficient running of guidance and counselling programmes.

The school administration should:

1. Provide leadership and promote harmonious working relations in school
2. Encourage teachers to be involved in policy formulation and provision of G & C
3. Co-ordinate the work of the staff so as to meet the individual needs of the learners
4. Provide the necessary resources e.g. office space, print and electronic materials etc
5. Be role models for the school community
6. Show sensitivity to the needs of teachers and learners
7. Recognize and use individual differences among the staff and learners
 8. Provide opportunities for guidance and counselling to both staff and learners

Establishing G & C services in schools

The following are considerations that can help establish effective guidance and counselling in
schools;
1. Needs assessment
2. Commitment
3. Counselling office
4. Time-table
5. Records
6. Referrals
7. Evaluation

Guidance and counselling in schools may be affected by the following:

1. Lack of trained and qualified teacher counsellors in schools
2. Lack of necessary resources for counselling e.g. office space
3. Lack of support for counselling from the school administration
4. Lack of support to teacher counsellor from other teachers in school
5. Conflict of roles between teaching and counselling
6. Lack of adequate time for counselling
7. Negative attitudes of students and staff towards counselling