Abstract:
Guidance and counselling has been commonly conducted by any persons in
communities as well as schools over along period. The number of counsellors and
counselees and place of counselling interviews not having been considered much.
Psychologists have noted that aspects of guidance and counselling were concerned
with feelings, attitudes and emotional dispositions of an individual about himself and
situation facing him. The Kenyan government started financing primary education in
2003 which led to an increase in pupil enrolment not corresponding to the number of
teachers. Therefore, this study set out to investigate the influence of teacher-pupil
ratio and learner characteristics on provision of guidance and counselling services in
public primary schools. This study was guided by Trait/ factor theory (Edmund, 1965).
The study used ex-post facto research design. This research was carried out in Eldoret
Municipality. Primary data was collected from a sample of 300 participants who
included 12 head teachers, 48 teachers selected through purposive sampling and 240
pupils through stratified random sampling. Data was collected by the use of
questionnaires, interview schedules and observation. Data was analysed using
frequencies, percentages, means, Chi-square and One Way Analysis of Variance. The
analysis revealed that; teacher-pupil ratio influenced the provision of guidance and
counselling services, teachers used group counselling method irrespective of the
nature of the problem a learner had; and learner characteristics (gender and age)
influenced the provision guidance and counselling services. Based on these findings,
the study recommends that: number of teachers should be increased in Public Primary
Schools; individual counselling method should be used when handling gender related
issues. Further research should investigate why group counselling method is not
preferred and why boys respond negatively to guidance and counselling services. The
findings of this study are expected to provide information to the education sector in
designing proper policies for guidance and counselling services.
