The purposes of guidance and counselling provide emphasis and strength to the educational program. The major goals of counselling are to promote personal growth and to prepare students to become motivated workers and responsible citizens. The chief aim of an educational guidance is to develop the ability of co-ordinating with the school environment in the pupils to create necessary awareness and sensitivity, so that they may select themselves proper learning objectives, devices and situations. Educators recognize that in addition to intellectual challenges, students encounter personal/social, educational, and career challenges. School guidance and counselling programs need to address these challenges and promote educational success. This article examines the aims of guidance and counseling programs, the role of the counsellor, major guidance and counselling services, methods of counselling, and evaluation of guidance and counselling programs. The focus of guidance and counselling programs in schools are to assist individuals to develop the ability to understand them, to solve their own problems, and to make appropriate adjustments to their environment.
One of the functions of education is to provide opportunities for students to reach their full potential in the areas of educational, vocational, personal, and emotional development. Guidance is an integral part of education and is centred directly on this function. Guidance and counselling services prepare students to assume increasing responsibility for their decisions and grow in their ability to understand and accept the results of their choices (Gibson, 2008).The ability to make such intelligent choices is not innate but, like other abilities, must be developed. The most important to various types of guidance is Educational Guidance. Educational Guidance is directly concerned with the pupil. In the students' life, this guidance is very important.
Students often encounter difficulties in understanding what is taught in the classroom, laboratories and workshops. Expected change in behaviour is not fully achieved. Failures in examinations and tests, poor standards or assignments, unsatisfactory involvement in the academic work by students are some of the often noticed problems. The problems need to be solved to the maximum extent by assisting them. According to Jones, “Educational Guidance is concerned with assistance to be provided to the pupils which is expected for their adjustments in the schools, selection of curricula and school like.” It is also defined as a conscious growth of individual. This has to do with knowing his interest, selection of his subjects, form of his study habits and making his progress in those subjects and activities and passing the examination. If school counsellors truly believe in the worth of all children and see themselves as advocates for all students, they must step away from being “maintainers of the status quo” and become “dream-makers and pathfinders” for all students navigating their way through higher secondary schools today.
The Preamble to the Code of Ethics notes that, Guidance Counsellors work with clients, individually and in groups, to whom they supply professional services concerning educational, vocational and personal / social development; Guidance Counsellors respect the dignity, integrity and welfare of their clients. They work in ways which promote clients' control over their own lives, and they respect clients' ability to make decisions and engage in personal change in the light of their own beliefs and values.
The professional services offered by Guidance Counsellors involve a special relationship of trust and confidence. Guidance Counsellors are responsible for maintaining trust by setting and monitoring appropriate boundaries in the relationship, and making this explicit to the client and relevant for others;
The duty of Guidance Counsellors are,
The relationship with the client is the foremost concern of the Guidance Counsellor, but it does not exist in a social vacuum. For this reason, Guidance Counsellors have sensible regard for the social context of their work, which includes colleagues, the law and the wider community.
Guidance Counsellors are recommended to deal with ethical dilemmas by engaging in the formal decision making process presented.
Guidance Counsellors strongly recommend supervision as an integral part of the professional practice of members. The Code of Ethics then gives details on best practice with regard to competence, conduct, confidentiality, consent, testing and evaluation and research.
The aims of the guidance and counselling service are similar to the purposes of education in general—to assist the students in fulfilling their basic physiological needs, understanding themselves and acceptance of others, developing associations with peers, balancing between permissiveness and controls in the educational setting, realizing successful achievement, and providing opportunities to gain independence (Heyden, 2011). Some specific aims of the school guidance and counselling program include the following sections (Gibson, 2008):
To all students, the school offers a wide choice of courses and co-curricular activities. A significant function of education is to help students to identify and develop their potentialities. The counsellor's role is to assist students to distribute their energies into the many learning opportunities available to them. Every student needs help in planning his major course of study and pattern of co-curricular activities.
Even those students who have choosen an appropriate educational program for themselves may have problems that require help. A teacher may need to spend from onefifth to one-third of his time with a few pupils who require a great deal of help, which deprives the rest of the class from the teacher's full attention to their needs. The counsellor, by helping these youngsters can resolve their difficulties, frees the classroom and use the teacher more efficiently.
Counsellors, in working with individual students, know their personal problems and aspirations, their talents and abilities, as well as the social pressures confronting them. Counsellors, therefore, can provide data that serve as a basis for curriculum development, and they can help curriculum developers shape courses of study that more accurately reflect the needs of students. Too often, counsellors are not included in curriculum development efforts.
Pre-service teacher training institutions typically provide very limited experience with the more technical aspects of guidance work. Thus, a need exists in most of the schools for assistance with guidance and counseling functions essential to the educational program. Specifically, the guidance counsellor is qualified to assist teachers with selecting, administering, and interpreting tests; selecting and using cumulative, anecdotal, and other types of records; providing help and suggestions relative to counselling techniques, which teachers can use in counselling their students; and providing leadership in developing and conducting professional development of teachers in guidance functions.
Guidance has a responsibility for developing and maintaining a cooperative relationship between students and the school. Teachers and counsellors must be cognizant of students' needs. Students also must make adjustments to the school. They have a responsibility to contribute something to the school. A major contribution of students is that of making appropriate use of the school's resources and working toward accomplishments. Such mutual adjustment of students and school is facilitated by providing suggestions for program improvements, conducting research for educational improvements, contributing to students' adjustment through counselling, and fostering wholesome school home attitudes.
Counselling is a process. It means that Counselling involves a sequence of identifiable events spread over a period of time. The time taken, the sequence of events, and dynamics, involved, the nature and extent of exploration, differ from individual to individual. However there are certain basic stages, which form the essentials of counselling processes. The process of counseling comprises of certain concepts, they are as follows:
The counselee are of two types i.e. one who seeks assistance voluntarily and the other who are referred. The counselling presupposes a desire on the part of the counselee that makes him come for the assistance. This desire is referred to as readiness.
People experience difficulty in asking for help and accepting it, because they are reluctant to face the consequences of change or an admission of inadequacy of failure. The negative feeling that holds back one from seeking help is referred to, as counter will.
Case History is a systematic collection of facts about the counselee's past and present life. However focus of attention varies from case to case.
It is a warm friendly and understanding atmosphere created by the counsellor, which is catalytically in the formation of an effective counseling relationship. Warmth of relationship and feeling of trust, which grows out of unconditional acceptance are important in contributing to the establishment of rapport.
It refers to the counsellor transferring emotions originally felt toward someone early in life. The counselee is encouraged to express their feelings and emotions freely. The counsellor acknowledges these feelings and handles in a therapeutic way.
This occurs when counselor project their unresolved conflicts upon the counselee. When counsellor feels uncomfortable and experience felling of anger, resentment or become overemotional, it is unhealthy.
It refers to counselee's move to oppose the counsellor's to work towards set goals. This influences the counselling outcome positively. Resistance ranges from open hostility to passively resistant behaviour like being late for an appointment.
The guidance and counselling program is an integral part of a school's total educational program. It is developmental by design, focusing on needs, interests, and issues related to various stages of student growth. It is the process by which students are given advice on how to deal with emotional conflicts and personal problems both in school and how to incorporate the same in their daily life. Some sessions involve career guidance where students are advised on which courses to do and which jobs to expect when one does a particular course. Guidance and Counselling program in today's school include the following components.
In addition to providing guidance services for all students, counsellors are expected to do personal and crisis counselling. Problems arising such as dropping out, substance abuse, suicide, irresponsible sexual behaviour, eating disorders, and pregnancy must be addressed.
Students must develop skills that will assist them as they learn. The counsellor, through classroom guidance activities and individual and group counselling, can assist students in applying effective study skills, setting goals, learning effectively, and gaining test-taking skills. Counsellors also may focus on note taking, time management, memor y techniques, relaxation techniques, overcoming test anxiety, and developing listening skills.
Planning for the future, combating career stereotyping, and analyzing skills and interests are some of the goals students must develop in school. Career information must be available to students, and representatives from business and industry must work closely with the school and the counsellor in preparing students for the world of work.
The following are some of the benefits of guidance and counselling.
Students are given solutions on how to deal with psychological problems which might affect their studies. Through this, the students are able to develop problem solving skills which help them to deal with particular issues surrounding their lives.
Students are advised on how to cope with different situations facing them in their school life. For instance, on how to relate with their peers.
It helps to shape a student's behaviour and discipline in students. Students who are guided and counselled in a right way tend to know what to do and how to do such things.
Students get to learn how to live in harmony with others in the school community. In doing so, they also learn to appreciate the people around and to harmony with their environment.
It bridges the gap between the students and the school administration, since they can channel their problems through guidance and counselling office.
Students get comprehensive pieces of advice on careers, courses and jobs which enable them to have an informed choice on what to do after school.
It allows students to talk about various things which they feel uncomfortable talking about with their parents which include things like drug abuse. It also allows the students to become better people because they are taught by the counsellors about how to behave in a proper manner. It enables students undergoing difficulty in their lives have a good place to ask for questions and clarity from the guiding and counselling office. There are some questions that one may find difficult to ask even his/her parents. One can ask any question without fear because the persons in charge are very willing to help.
Counselling methods and points of view have developed from research and theories about how individuals grow and develop, change their behaviour, and interact with their environment. These counselling methods are generally classified into three. Counselling students is one of the basic functions of the school guidance program. Counselling skills are needed by school principals, teachers, teacher-advisors, athletic coaches, and club sponsors as well as by professional counsellors. Although counselling of serious emotional problems is best handled by professional counsellors, teachers and other faculty personnel find themselves in situations daily where counselling is necessary (Coleman, 2009). Acquaintance with counselling methods and points of view is useful to them.
The directive counsellor is said to be more interested in the problem than the person as in the counselee. This belief is an exaggeration. The student and her problem cannot be separated. The directive counsellor, however, focuses attention on identifying and analyzing the problem and finding an appropriate solution to it. The counsellor tends to make use of test data, school records, and reports, and to be more disposed to giving advice and information based on such data. ‘Directive counselling’ is the method most commonly used by counsellors in school settings (Coleman, 2009). Directive counselling seems to be most successful when the counselee is relatively well adjusted, the problem is in an intellectual area, a lack of information constituted the problem, the counselee has little insight into the problem, inner conflict is absent, and the client suffers from anxiety, insecurity, or impatience (Coleman, 2009);
The nondirective approach is more effective in the treatment of many types of emotional problems. However, many students who come to the counselor have few if any such emotional problems. Many cases merely call for information or some other routine assistance. Although there are many proponents of nondirective counselling, among them Carl Rogers is best known, because Carl Roger started the movement and has given it leadership for more than six decades (Rogers, 1942). The aim of Non Directive Counselling is, according to Rogers, to help the student "to become a better organized person, oriented around healthy goals which [he] has clearly seen and definitely chosen" (p. 227). It aims to provide the student with a united purpose, the courage to meet life and the obstacles that it presents. Consequently, the client takes from his counselling contacts, not necessarily a neat solution for each of his problems, but the ability to meet the problems in a constructive way.
Eclectic counselling is the result of selecting concepts from both Directive and Non Directive approaches. Thus, the eclectic counsellor uses whatever approach seems best suited to the situation. Real help given to most students in schools would be located between the highly directive and the eclectic views rather than client centred (Coleman, 2009);
Evaluation consists of making systematic judgments of the relative effectiveness with which goals are attained in relation to specified standards. In evaluating a function like Guidance and Counselling services, the Consellor attempt to determine to what extent the objectives of the service have been attained. Evaluation is the mean by which school personnel can better judge the extent to which these objectives are being met (Popham, 2010). The ten characteristics cited provide criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of a school's Guidance and Counselling services (Gysbers, 2006).
Effective guidance programs are based on pupil needs. Some needs are typical among pupils of a given age. Others are specific to certain individuals in particular regions or schools. In effective guidance programs, teachers, counsellors, and administrators listen carefully to what pupils say. Because they know they are expressing either personal or situational inadequacies.
The staffs of effective guidance programs should work cooperatively. Cooperation is exhibited in the degree of active interest, mutual help, and collaboration among teachers, counsellors, and administrators.
Effective guidance programs are concerned with both process and product. The questions "How well is the program operating?" and "What are the outcomes?" guide the focus in effective guidance programs. The most important outcome of a guidance program is making desirable change in the behaviour of students, such as improved school attendance, better study habits, and better scholastic achievement, fewer scholastic failures, lower dropout rate, better educational planning, and better home-school relations.
Effective guidance programs balance corrective, preventive, and developmental functions. Personnel in such programs know when to extricate pupils from potentially harmful situations, when to anticipate pupil difficulties, and when to provide assistance necessary to a pupil's maximum development.
The ability to adjust to loss of personnel without loss of effectiveness is associated with program quality. Stability requires that the system is able to fill vacant positions quickly and satisfactorily.
Effective guidance programs manifest flexibility. Flexibility enables the program to expand or contract as the situation demands without significant loss of effectiveness.
Counsellors hold a graduate degree in counselling and are fully certified by the state in which they practice.
Most accrediting agencies require a counsellor-student ratio of one fulltime counsellor for 250 to 300 students. A caseload of this magnitude is satisfactory if counsellors are to have adequate time to counsel students individually and in small groups, as well as consult with faculty, administrators, and parents.
Are the facilities for guidance work sufficient for an effective program? Physical facilities that are well planned and provide for adequate space, privacy, accessibility, and the like are characteristic of quality guidance programs.
Appropriate records are maintained on each student including achievement test scores, information supplied by teachers, administrators, parents, employers, and other professional personnel.
Although many of the aforementioned ten characteristics are useful, they should not be accepted unquestioningly. To some extent each guidance program is unique to its particular setting and consequently would either add other characteristics to the list or stress those cited previously in varying degrees.
Let us now analyse the need of guidance in the present society. Today's world is highly complex, unusually competitive & providing innumerable of opportunities. Due to rapid advance of science and technology the mind of the child is filled with horror. In such a complex world, the very roots of traditions, customs, beliefs, values and attitudes have undergone swift changes which need to be understood. The established norms of the social institutions like the family, the education institutions, the school and the social milieu have been challenged and distorted. Guidance, therefore has become a necessary service for the individual to analyse himself to be able to gain a useful place in the modern society.
In school also there is a need to provide guidance vigorously. Because in schools nowadays students are facing various problems like – Over crowded classroom, Less student teacher relationship, Wastage & stagnation, High or low standards of institutions. Achieving fourfold aims of education in modern society like: Lifelong learning, Early productivity, Sensitivity to the socioeconomic environment and Self actualization are important. Therefore in modern times, the need for guidance is felt much more in educational institutions and also for the authorities. The guidance service in school is necessary for the following reasons.
People are social beings and, so in some way or other people need help and guidance of others like mother, father, grand parents, teachers and other elders. Home, school and society guide youngsters for successful living. Due to explosion of knowledge, industrialization and changes in socio-economic set up the need of professional guidance is felt in the present day society. Educational guidance is related to every aspect of school / colleges, the curriculum, the methods of instruction, other curricular activities, disciplines etc. Each college/ university must have a guidance unit with due provision of guidance services. The Guidance and Counselling service aims as folows,
The school is expected to provide more than just teaching and instruction. A school guidance programme includes all those activities other than instructional which are carried out to render assistance to pupils in their educational, vocational, personal development and adjustment. The fundamental aim of guidance programme being the maximum development of the child, all guidance programmes must be geared toward attainment of the goal. Guidance services can assist the pupils in knowing themselves-their potentialities and limitations, making appropriate choices in educational, vocational and other fields. The following are some of the important guidance services needed to be started at educational institutions,
Educational guidance is the assistance given to the individual to understand his/her potentialities and have a clear cut idea of the different educational opportunities and their requirements to make wise choices as regards to school, colleges, the course, curricular and extracurricular. At the elementary stage guidance programme must help the children to make good beginning, to plan intelligently, to get the best out of their education and prepare them for secondary schools. Educational guidance needs to be used in diagnosing difficulties, in identifying the special needs of children. At the secondary stage educational guidance should help the pupils to understand themselves better, to understand different aspects of the school, to select appropriate courses to get information about different educational opportunities, to develop good study habits. The students should be helped to be acquainted with the vocational implications of various school subjects. Educational guidance at the tertiary stages must orient students about purpose and scope of higher studies and help them to stimulate their studies. The aims of guidance and counselling programs in schools are to assist individuals to develop the ability to understand them, to solve their own problems, and to make appropriate adjustments to their environment. Though a number of problems are faced at home, school and society, still we can go ahead with proper planning. People can face the changes and challenges with proper planning. Planning needs proper guidance. So the need of guidance is the need of the hour.