Basic Principles of Guidance and Counseling
The basic principles of guidance and counseling as accepted by most authorities in the field of guidance and counseling are described as follows: (1) Guidance and Counseling is for everyone. The service is not only for those with special handicaps but it is also meant for all
“normal”, developing children and adults;
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EDU 724 FUNDAMENTALS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
(2) Guidance and Counseling activities should therefore be based on the need and total development of every person. It is the duty of all personnel in a setting to identify the needs of individuals so that programme activities can be designed to meet such needs;
(3) Guidance and Counseling must be provided in a way that ensures human dignity and worth. The full and adequate development of the individual must be given preference. It should be seen as encouraging individuals to attain maximum satisfaction, to realize their potentials and to be aware to self. No one who has gone through counseling should feel inadequate;
(4) Guidance and Counseling is a sequential, continuous and developmental process, which starts from birth to death. This means that guidance and counseling runs from the nursery school through primary, secondary to the tertiary institutions. It is not a once-and-for-all event but a process which is an integral part of the total educational programme throughout the school life of an individual; (5) There is a close relationship between counseling activities and the instructional process, each contributing to the other. Counseling can help make the instructional activities to be more relevant and meaningful to the needs of students, while the instructional activities can help to give necessary information and directives to a student in planning his/her life goals;
(6) All guidance activities must emphasize the will for each student to learn more about himself in an accurate and systematic manner. Through the use of well-planned instructional strategies and appraisal techniques, individuals can become more knowledgeable about themselves and about the world around them. Without such knowledge, an individual cannot exercise intelligently the rights to free choice in educational, vocational and personal-social fields.
(7) Every member of staff in a school and non-school setting should assume responsibility for guidance activities. The principal, teachers and counselors are all members of the guidance team and each member has prescribed functions and roles.
(8) Effective leadership is the watchword for any effective guidance and counseling programme. Guidance counselors who are qualified, well - trained and competent are expected to function in schools and other settings. Such professionals would be able
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EDU 724 FUNDAMENTALS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING to enlist the support of staff members in effecting guidance activities. (9) The practitioners should practice within ethical and moral limits.
The ethical and moral guidelines should be such that clients would feel secure and confident in using the services provided.
This also guarantees that counselors will not use techniques and/or approaches for which they do not have competence; and
(10) The objectives of counseling should be based on clients’ needs and not on the needs of the counselors. In pursuing such needs of the client, the counselors must present a positive image.
3.2 Need for Guidance and Counseling
The reasons for the establishment of Guidance and Counseling in the educational system of many countries are different from one another. In the United States of America, for instance, it was the issue of space science development. The fear that Russia was ahead in Space technology led to the establishment of Guidance and Counseling. In
Nigeria, some factors that are responsible for the development of guidance and counseling for the educational system include:
(a) Expansion in the Enrolment of Pupils/Students in Primary and Secondary Schools
From time immemorial, enrolment in all stages of our educational system has been on the increase. Due to this, Fafunwa (1990), a one time Minister of Education, after examining the enrolment trends, which of course did not include actual applications made for enrolment, stated that: mandatory student Guidance and Counseling services should be established in all Nigerian institutions of higher learning and through such services, the true conditions of the Nigerian economy and its ever changing labour market situation and requirements would be exposed to students’ choice of fields and skill of study and inculcating in them the acceptance of the dignity and more superior option of leaving institutions of higher learning well prepared both as possible paid employees of other and creators of jobs for self and others, in both the formal and the informal sectors of the economy. (p. 16).
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EDU 724 FUNDAMENTALS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
(b) Skilled Work Force
Among the services offered through Guidance and Counselling is to guide people into areas where jobs are available taken the cognizance of their capability and competencies in order to reduce the problem of unskilled and skilled work force. In the
Technical and sub-professional sectors, there is noticeable shortage in manpower. We depended on foreign experts to run our railways; Iron and Steel while the aviation sector is not spared from this manpower shortage too. In the education sector, the few experts who trained Nigerians to be technologically selfsufficient have packed their bags and baggage for greener pasture, and to the safety and academic freedom of western countries. The Medical sector is not spared from this rot. There is shortage among senior craftsmen and technical foremen as well as high level secretarial and clerical personnel in the country
(Okon, 1984).
In the light of the fact that Nigeria has a lot of human and material resources, one would have thought that the country would get out of the underdevelopment. Other countries such as
India, China have done it. Therefore, the availability of Guidance services within the education system can help in the development of skills, attitudes, and potentials of Nigerian youths so as to realize their fullest possible capabilities for national development.
(c) Automation in the World of Work
In 1972, Gaymer observed that that availability of professional counselors in the school system would have rewarding and increasing impact on the lives that students will have after they leave school. She believes that the after school working lives of student will differ radically from the present and the past. She therefore remarked that automation and technological changes and breakthroughs would lead to change their jobs more often; relocate more often; change the type of jobs more often; and update and trade in education for models to remain employable, and they will have to diversify their practical skills to remain competitive. The import of these changes will require lots of people to seek for guidance and counseling. Visitation to many of modern day offices show that lots of changes have taken place comparing the old office equipment that were in use. Offices now has an IBM electric typewriter, a Computer, internet facility, a Fax machine, a
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EDU 724 FUNDAMENTALS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
Photocopier, a Laser printer, an answering machine, and many of such things. In industries, robots have come to be utilized in many operational sectors. In the assembly line, it is the robot that receive the order, does the parceling, the compilation, and the hauling of equipment from one section of the assembly line to another all with unwavering precision. Robots are now known to fly planes, launch missiles and probe into outer space. The implication of this technological revolution for the practice of guidance and counseling can only be imagined than described.
Although it is difficult to predict what the technological future will be like, suffice it to say that the nation that desires development deep into the 21st century and beyond should not pay lip service to guidance and counseling but should ensure that all machinery is set in motion to maximize the potentiality of the youths for timely absorptions, and survival in an uncertain technological future.
(d) Growing Needs of Youths
According to Okon (1984), a NEED is a condition within an individual that energizes and disposes an individual toward certain kinds of behaviour. Durojaiye (1976) stated that the developmental needs of youths include:
i)
ii) attaining individuality; making progress towards an organized personality pattern; iii) developing philosophy of life; iv) v) vi) developing concept of values and desirable behaviour; achieving a place in the society; understanding of personal assets and liabilities; vii) maturing of plans for future living; viii) establishing deep personal relationships with individuals of both sexes; ix) x) xi) learning to live independently from their parent; learning to adjust to changes resulting from physical and social relationships and citizenship plans; and learning to attain adult status by vocational plans, family, and social relationships and citizenship plans.
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All these needs of the youths call for a need of guidance and counseling. EDU 724 FUNDAMENTALS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
(e) Repeated Changes in the Education System
Since after independence, Nigeria has witnessed a number of changes in the education sector. In the past, a pupil needed to spend 8 years in the primary school, 5 years in the secondary school, 2 years in the higher school, and 3 years in the University
(8-5-2-3). Later, the 6 years of primary, 5 years of secondary, 2 years of higher school, and 3 years of University system was recommended and adopted. Currently, that is in vogue. Already, there are calls in various sectors to change the system to 6-3-3-3-
3 to include three years at any College of Education or
Polytechnic. The present 6-3-3-4 does not include training at
College of Education or Polytechnics. These changes can cause confusion for the individual, which again demands the guidance services. (f) Students’ adjustment in Universities and other Tertiary
Institutions
The students’ body is made up of students with different personality make-up, traits and needs. Some are in the school system to study and get the certificate which will enable them to secure their future, some are there to socialize without really knowing why they are in school; that is playing and wasting away their time while some are there not knowing what course and subject to choose or study nor even how to plan their time and also develop appropriate study skills. This situation requires counseling services handled by an expert to help the students adjust adequately.
(g) Problem of National Integration
Nigeria, as judged by the 1993 census, has almost 104 million inhabitants with population density of about 800 people per square kilometer. Three major linguistic groups, the Hausas, Ibos and Yorubas are found in the three main regions – Northern,
Eastern and Western parts of the country respectively. Each group and section of the country is clamouring for a share in the national cake. The consequence has been political instability, religious intolerance, tribal loyalties, and all forms of vices which have militated against the development of the country. Okon
(1984) has observed that the survival of Nigeria as a nation depends largely on our degree of tolerance not only in economic, social and political stability but to a large extent, on the ability of every citizen to possess some measure of common understanding,
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EDU 724 FUNDAMENTALS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING attitudes, beliefs, skills and purposes. These attributes can be inculcated in youths very early in their educational development.
Thus, the inevitability of guidance and counseling in this respect cannot be overemphasized.
(h) Realities in Home and Family Life
Family climate has a high influence in the direction and development of interests, abilities, aptitudes, and values of children. Lots of changes these days happen in homes in Nigeria.
Most parents, because of the demands of their jobs, pay very little attention to the development of their sons and daughters. Some parents also show bad examples to their children. There are parents who believe so much in ethnicity, alcoholism and idolatry. Changes in home life which have brought about some good are those resulting from urbanization where different ethnic groups converge on a city to the point that the next door neighbour may be someone from a different cultural boundary altogether. Superstition is also de-emphasized in the urban centres, inter-ethnic, inter-tribal and inter-state marriages are occurring at increasing rates in Nigerian cities than in the rural areas. Polygamy, which in the not too distant past, used to be a measure of affluence and status is no longer in vogue. One of the greatest changes in family life is in the area of extended family network where ties have become weakened partly because of economic realities, distance and different geographical mobility.
Changes in family and home life include rising trends in divorce rates, single parenting, children studying far away from homes, reduction in the number of children a family wants and the provision of insurance for other members of the family. These changes create a need for counselors to help children cope with these changes.
(i)
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Problems of Cultism
Cultism activities have been in Nigeria institutions since its inception. The dimensions it’s taken these days are more pathetic and worrisome. Many students are these days’ members of one secret cult or the other and the level of what they do is fearful.
They kill, maim and destroy. These negative tendencies in the societies and cults activities need to be exposed to individual through guidance activities.
EDU 724 FUNDAMENTALS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
Self-Assessment Exercise: What are the developmental needs of the youths according to Durojaiye (1976)? For the answers see page 14.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Guidance and Counseling activities should therefore be based on the need and total development of every person. It is the duty of all personnel in a setting to identify the needs of individual so that programme activities can be designed to meet such needs.
5.0 SUMMARY
This unit has exposed the basic principles guiding the practice of guidance and counseling and also reasons for the need for guidance and counseling in the school system. This background has prepared you for the next unit where you will read about its historical development both in America and in Nigeria.
6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1.
2.
Discuss why Nigeria needs Guidance and Counseling in the educational system.
What are the basic principles of guidance? Using your own words, describe the key aspects of guidance services.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Akinade, E. A., Sokan, B. O., Oseremen N. (1986). Introduction to
Guidance and Counseling: A Basic Text for Colleges and
Universities. Ibadan: Caltep.
Idowu, A. I. (Ed) (1998). Guidance and Counseling in Education.
Ilorin: Indemac.
Kolo, F. D. (1992). Guidance and Counseling in Perspective Zaria:
Sleveno Printing.
Makinde, O. (1983). Fundamental of Guidance and Counseling.
London: Macmillan.
Okon, S. E. (1984). Guidance for the 6-3-3-4 System of Education.
Zaria; Institute of Education.
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EDU 724 FUNDAMENTALS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
Olayinka, M. S. (1972). The Role of Guidance and Vocational
Counseling in Nigerian Education. University of Lagos.