Students’ and teacher-counsellors’ perceptions towards usefulness of sexuality counselling services in secondary schools in Nandi North Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The effectiveness of any counselling service has been attributed largely to the prevailing climate of opinion towards such a service. While studies have been conducted on the perception of students and teachers on guidance and counselling in general there is limited literature on students’ and teachers counsellors’ attitudes towards the usefulness of sexuality counselling services in secondary schools yet sexuality counselling services play an imperative role in the social lives of students. Sexual relationships among students are on increase and common in schools and the outcomes of such are schoolgirls’ pregnancy, poor academic performance and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV infections. These concerns necessitated the researcher to conduct this study determine the students’ and teacher counsellors perceptions towards the usefulness of sexuality counselling. The study was grounded on The Health Belief Model. Both a survey design and a comparative study design were used to conduct this study. The target population in this study comprised of students and teacher-counsellors in public secondary schools in Nandi North the sub county. The sampling was done using stratified, simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. The researcher used questionnaires to collect data. Quantitative data was collected. It was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Tables, percentages, frequencies and means were used to determine the perceptions of both students and teacher counsellors. T-test was used to determine the significant difference in means. The study found out that both students and teacher counsellors had a positive perception towards the usefulness of sexuality counselling. Further, there was a significant difference in the means. The study recommended that sexuality counselling services should be strengthened in secondary schools since both students and teacher-counsellors have positive perception towards the usefulness of sexuality counselling.