Students’ Perception Of the effectiveness of guidance and counseling in managing discipline in Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

Secondary schools are responsible for ensuring strict compliance to the rules and regulations amongst learners to provide the society with disciplined and academically sound youths. In response the Kenyan government through the Ministry of Education implemented guidance and counselling in secondary schools to abate indiscipline and positively shape their growth. However, there is a rise in student indiscipline cases in Kenya despite the government efforts to strengthen guidance and counselling. Thus, students’ maladjustment to the social, personal and academic demands should be attenuated by effective guidance and counselling. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to assess the students’ perception of the effectiveness of guidance and counseling in managing discipline in public secondary schools in Kenya within Kapsabet sub – county, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to: Analyze the relationship between students’ perception of counselling type and effectiveness of guidance and counseling in managing discipline, asses the relationship between students’ perception of counsellors personality and effectiveness of guidance and counseling in managing discipline, evaluate the relationship between students’ attitude towards guidance and counselling and effectiveness of guidance and counseling in managing discipline and analyze the relationship between students’ perception of demography of teacher counsellors and effectiveness of guidance and counseling in managing discipline in public secondary schools within Kapsabet Sub – County, Kenya. The study was premised on James Gibson’s theory of direct perception and Richard Gregory’s theory of indirect perception. An explanatory research design was adopted for this research with a target population of 35 teachers – counselors and another approximately 2,200 students in their third form. The teachers were not sampled because of their low numbers while 327 students were sampled by use of the Krejcie and Morgan table hence a total sample size of 362 and purposive sampling with simple random sampling method. Two sets of questionnaires were used to gather the primary quantitative data from both students and teacher counsellors. Piloting was done for purposes of ensuring validity and reliability of the instrument. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques and presented by use of tables, and graphs. From the findings the dimensions of the variables under study students’ perception of counselling type, students’ perception of counsellors’ personality, students’ attitude towards guidance and counselling and students’ perception of demography of teacher counsellors have a positive and significant relationship with effectiveness of counselling in management of discipline in public secondary schools. Based on Pearson chi-square value which had p values less 0.05 all the null hypotheses were rejected. Thus, all the determinants of the student’s perception of guidance and counselling significantly affects effectiveness of guidance and counseling in managing discipline in public secondary schools within Kapsabet Sub – County, Kenya. In conclusion, that there is a relationship between students’ perception of the effectiveness of guidance and counseling and the management of discipline in secondary schools in Kenya. This implies Policy makers should ensure that all schools have a functional guidance and counseling department students’ and enhance positive perceptions towards the use of guidance and counselling. School management should facilitate collaborative activities between teachers, peer counselors and counselors for concerted discipline management.