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.
