| dc.description.abstract | This study examined stress-causing problems among public secondary school students and
the challenges faced by the teacher-counsellor. Basically, counselling is a learning-oriented
process, which occurs, usually in an interactive relationship. In this relationship, one person
helps another to understand and solve their problems. In Kenya, secondary school students
are at the turbulent age of adolescence (13-19 years). This is an age in human development
characterized by identity versus role confusion. As such, most secondary school students
experience a lot of stress in dealing with this ambiguous stage in life. The student is
therefore in danger offorming maladaptive behaviour ifhe fails to achieve the desired goals.
Effective counselling, especially in institutions of learning, has now become important.
Counselling should empower students to participate fully in, and benefit from the economic
and social development of the nation. Most students want to communicate with people who
can help them. In schools, students are advised to seek help from the teacher-counsellor.
However, the work of a teacher-counsellor in our present education system is very
challenging.
Ngong Division where the study was carried out, teach of the five public secondary schools
in the division records very poor performance in national examinations. There is need to
know what the problem is in the division. Most students come from very poor families and
the frequent number of times they are sent out of class to get school fees not only affects
their studies but also puts a lot of stress on them. Such students tend to be very selfconscious
and withdrawn. The objectives of the study are: to look more closely into the
problems causing stress in public secondary schools in Ngong Division; and show where
and how the stressed and hurting students may find a listening ear that is compassionate
irrespective of their causes and to find out the challenges faced by the teacher-counsellor in
provision ofhislher services.
The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. During the
study, most of the students indicated of the awareness of stress causing factors which
included lack of interest in school, problem in boy/girl relationship, misunderstanding with
parents, drug taking, low concentration and sexuality In seeking to establish the professional
qualification of the teacher counsellors, the study found that more teachers in Ngong
Division, Kajiado District have not attained the highest level of training in counselling skills
though they were all professional teachers. Competency and trust of teacher-counsellor can
attract many students to the counselling department. The study found that students tend to
seek help more frequently from peer counsellors perhaps.
Basing on the findings the study draws the following conclusions most secondary school
students join form one on the onset of adolescence (14-19years) counselling services in
schools should be emphasised. Students need to be made aware of the importance of the
teacher counsellor services. Most teacher-counsellors were willing to train on counselling
skills if they are given enabling incentives. Factors that hinder the success of counselling
intervention other than lack of professionalism of teacher counsellors, lack of counselling
offices and a clear time set for counselling should be studied such as: non-availability of
teacher counsellor, bad prior counsell ing experience and negative attitude of students
towards counselling. The implication of this is that eradication of these factors will lead to
more students making use of the counselling services. The following recommendation was
made that there should professional training of teacher -counsellors and resources and
facilities should be availed by the school administration. | en |
