The Role Of School Administration In Promoting Effective Guidance And Counseling Services In Secondary Schools

Project Report from the year 2017 in the subject Sociology - Work, Education, Organisation, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, language: English, abstract: The study sought to establish the role of school administration in promoting effective Guidance and Counseling services in secondary schools in Bungoma West Sub-County. The specific objective of the study was to find out how the school administration promotes effective Guidance and Counseling services that addresses the needs of all students including special needs learners. The study was carried out in 8 secondary schools and the education office in Bungoma West Sub-County. The research design used was descriptive survey design. Purposive sampling, stratified sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the study sample. The target population included school principals, teacher counselors, Education officers and students. The sample size consisted of eight principals, eight teacher counselors, five education officers and three hundred and fourteen students. The study area was Bungoma West Sub-County. Questionnaires, interview schedules, and observation checklist were blended together to capture exhaustive data. Quantitative data collected was sorted, classified and analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques. Qualitative data was recorded in verbatim, transcribed and organized into themes and sub-themes. The study revealed that the school administration has a direct influence in promotion of Guidance and Counseling services in schools through appointment of heads of department to co-ordinate counseling activities as well as the counseling committee, provision of basic counseling facilities, advocacy and publicity of the services, and monitoring and evaluation. However, it was also revealed that in many schools, the administration accords low priority to Guidance and Counseling services since many schools lacked basic facilities for Guidance and counseling like offices and reference materials, teachers in-charge of Guidance and Counseling are overloaded with their teaching subjects and emphasis is put on attainment of good mean grades. It is recommended that there is urgent need for the school administration to prioritize counseling services of all categories of learners as they go hand in hand with holistic development of the learners. The Ministry of Education should put disciplinary measures against school administrators who do not implement viable and sustainable Guidance and Counseling services that cater for all learners in secondary schools.