| dc.description.abstract | The provision of adequate and effective guidance and counseling services is crucial in education. Students need effective professional advice on appropriate study habits and techniques to perform effectively in National Examinations. The aim of this study was to investigate the perception of the influence of guidance and counseling program on students' performance at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in Kisii central district. Four questions were formulated to guide the study. Research question one sought to assess the perception of the attitude of students and teachers towards guidance and counseling programme and how it affects KCSE performance.
Research question two aimed at establishing the perception of the levels of training of headteachers and teacher-counselors in guidance and counseling at KCSE performance; Research question three sought to determine the perception of the adequacy of the facilities used in guidance and counseling program at KCSE performance while research question four aimed at establishing the perception of the intervention measures put in place to strengthen the provision of guidance and counseling services at KCSE performance.
The design adopted for the study was descriptive survey design. The target population of the study was 26 teachers that comprised of 13 headteachers of public secondary schools, 13 teacher-counselors of public secondary schools and 335 students both males and females. The findings revealed that 46.2% of the guidance and counseling teachers had over 15 years of experience in guidance and counseling. 53.8% of the guidance and counseling staff had no professional trainings in guidance and counseling.
Schools with teachers who had professional training in guidance and counseling had an average mean score of 3.741, and performance at KCSE by schools with headteachers who had attended guidance and counseling trainings was slightly higher than those who had not attended guidance and counseling trainings. (Table 4.14). Students had a negative attitude towards guidance and counseling and in the way guidance and counseling are conducted to ensure that they form study habits and techniques which will eventually lead to good performance in KCSE.
There were infrastructure facilities in almost all the schools covered in the study. That is 84.62% had Gtc offices, (Table 4.19). Further, the research findings revealed that students had a negative attitude in the way GtC was conducted to ensure that the students effectively pass KCSE. That is 53.8% rated it negative, 61.5% of the teachers who responded agreed that their morale in Gtc services was lowered by lack of support from the administration. Thus not given a high priority in most schools. However, teacher-counselors had it that effective provisions of GtC services effectively improves academic performance of students in public secondary schools. That is 38.5% agreed strongly and 46.2% agreed.
Lastly, 53.8% of head teachers said that appointing of members of staff to be in charge of Gtc was an important intervention measure used in many public secondary school, provision of vital reading/writing materials and giving teachercounselors a lighter teaching load in order to enable himlher to concentrate on Gtc services provisions adequately and timely (Table 4.21). The instruments used were open and closed questionnaires. Data analysis technique used includes content analysis for qualitative data and descriptive analysis for quantitative data. The recommendations are; lighter teaching load to GtC teachers, professional training to be given to GtC teachers, provision of adequate infrastructure for effective provision of Gtc services and encouragement to students so as to seek guidance and counseling services from teachers. | en_US |
