ABSTRACT
All stakeholders in the education industry are now concerned about discipline cases in tertiary institutions. Academic achievement is adversely affected by discipline. Schools continue to struggle with discipline issues despite the Ministry of Education Policy requiring all schools to implement guidance and counseling programs as an alternate disciplinary measure.
In Koforidua Technical University’s Eastern Region, this study set out to look into how guidance and counseling services affect students’ academic performance in tertiary institutions. The researcher had goals that included figuring out how much the availability of advice and counseling resources, lecturers’ exposure, peers’ training, guest speakers, and the time allotted for student counseling at Koforidua Technical University in Ghana affected students’ behavior. The descriptive survey design was employed by the researcher to conduct the study. Twenty university employees, 20 professors, and 144 form 4 students participated in the study as responders.
Descriptive analysis and percentages were used to analyze the data. According to the study’s findings, guidance and counseling services were provided at schools, and 82.4% of the staff members thought they were vital, but they lacked the requisite resources and literature to back them up. Character development is accomplished through rigorous official and informal programs for guidance and counseling, according to the literature study. Students maintain discipline and focus in life through counseling and mentoring. According to Collins (2002), guidance and counseling help kids develop discipline and become equipped to deal with the difficulties and realities they encounter in their academic, social, and physical environments.
The suggestions offered read as follows. The personnel at colleges should set up counseling and guiding services and offer a space where confidentiality is prioritized. More students will come into the office as a result of this. Lecturers in guidance and counseling should have thorough training in how to do their duties. Making an appropriate budget for the provision of guidance and counseling materials and the use of peer counseling is necessary to ensure their adequate availability in terms of both time and money, respectively. The students should be offered counseling in areas of concern by special guests who have been invited.
It is advised that a replication of this study be conducted in an urban setting since it was situated at Koforidua Technical University, which is a largely local area. It is important to conduct research on how parental or guardian rearing affects student discipline. It is important to do research on the effects of the minimal integration of guidance and counseling in certain subjects.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
In all communities, counseling and guidance are crucial components of maintaining social order. Even the most rudimentary societies developed as a result of the need to control individual conduct in the group’s best interests. Without the application of discipline, society as a whole could not operate. If people are to cooperate for the accomplishment of a common goal, as stated by Guidance and Counseling to Enhance Discipline, it must be regularly practiced (Hendrikz, 2006). The persistent issues facing young people today include questions about teenage issues, a lack of understanding of sexuality, parental carelessness, strained relationships, poverty, and economic pressure (Orodo, 2008). Almost everything around them, including failure, criticism, embarrassment, and parental attitudes, can affect young people emotionally.
According to Herdrikz (2006), lecturers and school administration are in charge of ensuring that students develop gradually along their own particular lines and display appropriate attitude and behavior both inside and outside of school. According to Meyer (1991), issues with discipline in schools are possibly the biggest source of worry for educators around the world. According to Meyer, the United States of America has classified discipline issues in schools as important school issues. Agenga and Simatwa (2011) used the incident at Colobine High School in Colorado, USA, where two heavily armed teenagers fatally shot themselves after killing twelve students, one lecturer, and nearly two dozen others.
When a study of 20 school counselors in the southern and central areas of Malawi was conducted and the major issues looked at, it became apparent that the country needed direction and counseling. It has been established that guidance and counseling programs require a clear justification and rules. Francis and Taylor (1998). The major objective is to teach the client how to deal with himself and the realities of his surroundings more skillfully. In Alexandria, Egypt, the mainstream government schools educate 2170 preparatory and university students. Allis and Kame (1999) conducted a cross-section survey on indiscipline among these students. Investigated were student indiscipline and its contributing factors. Only a small percentage of incidents of indiscipline were tied to family history, whereas the bulk were attributable to the kids themselves. Schools are social institutions with multiple goals to accomplish, and the function of guidance and counseling is crucial in establishing the students’ sense of discipline.
Counseling is a practice that assists individuals or groups in developing self-awareness so they can be authentic. According to Burks and Steffler (1979), counseling is a trained Counselor’s and a client’s professional connection. Olayinka (1972) defined it as a process in which a person is assisted in a face-to-face connection, while Makinde (1983) described it as an enlightened process in which people assist others by fostering their progress. Counseling is a process that aims to assist clients in understanding and clarifying their personal views of their life space, as well as in learning how to attain their self-determined goals by making meaningful, informed decisions and finding solutions to interpersonal or emotional issues. It holds that each and every person has the capacity for personal development, self-actualization, and growth.
Even though the Ministry of Education officially brought advice and counseling to Ghana in 1967, it has been ingrained in traditional African society since time immemorial. The Ministry of Education should be in charge of providing counseling services, according to the Gachathi Report of the National Committee on Education Objectives and Policies, which was published in 1976 in the Republic of Ghana. Despite the guidelines, the usage of guidance and counseling services was still insufficient in assisting in reducing the increasing indiscipline in various institutions. To address the social changes in our society, it is now essential to adopt the western world’s concept of professional guidance and counseling. Gitonga (2007) laments the lack of time parents have to raise their children well because of the financial and scholastic difficulties they face. The outcome is a lenient parenting approach, which is detrimental to the developing child. A permissive parenting approach has no restrictions or guidelines. In support of this argument, Wangai (1994) notes that modernisation in Africa has led to the breakdown of the traditional social order. He emphasized that in order to address the majority of issues affecting children through education, clear, supporting, and progressive policies are required. By incorporating advising and counseling into university curricula, these policies can be put into practice.
The third force in education, after instruction and counseling, is a crucial component of the educational system. Adolescent students’ physical, emotional, social, occupational, and academic challenges are addressed by guidance programs for university students. This will support classroom instruction and improve students’ academic performance and achievements. University students can avoid academic, personal, social, mental, emotional, and other problems by seeking guidance.
The Republic of Ghana’s 1988 Report of the Presidential Workshop Party on Education and Manpower Training noted that counseling and mentoring for students at universities is crucial to fostering discipline. The report recommended that guidance and counseling programs help students establish positive attitudes toward discipline as well as help them understand who they are and their position in the workforce. The problem of indiscipline in universities has gotten worse, especially since the early 2000s, when the Ministry of Education outlawed physical punishment via a gazette notice of March 13, 2001. The widespread accusations of school disturbance have been attributed to the cane’s ban. Counseling helps students feel more connected to their professors, fostering cordial relationships. Positive discipline is ensured by the student’s freedom to express themselves and understand the repercussions of their actions.
Discipline is a component of a very old tradition that may have existed from the dawn of time. The way that school administrators manage student discipline is through counseling and guidance. Discipline is an essential component of the educational system that relies on sustaining students’ moral standards. It aims to restrain, regulate, and reroute behavior. All students in a school system must be aware of the regulations before
The possibility of disciplinary action exists, Franken (1998). (1998). The idea of balancing guidance and counseling with discipline aids in determining the importance of G&C to kids in schools. In order to preserve good discipline among children, parents and schools work together to promote the principles and standards that we believe will aid younger people in developing sound behavioural rules for their life. Even though the Ministry of Education makes a lot of effort to provide guidance and counseling services to schools, reports of indiscipline in tertiary institutions continue to be made, and Koforidua Technical University is not an exception. At Koforidua Technical University in the Eastern Region, the researcher wanted to investigate how counseling and guidance affected students’ disciplinary behavior.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Indiscipline problems persist in tertiary institutions despite the use of supervision and counseling. Wangai (1994) notes that young people delight in luxury and pleasure. They are rude, disrespectful of elders, and disrespectful of those in positions of authority. Parents, professors, and religious leaders frequently accuse one another of failing to educate children how to behave. Many parents have given up on the lecturers they had trusted with teaching their children. Despite the fact that every school has a lecturer-counselor appointed by the Ministry of Education has made sure that Koforidua Technical University is not an outlier when it comes to indiscipline situations.
According to information gathered from Koforidua Technical University’s education officer, students there went on strike in 2009. This incidence, along with previous ones, made it necessary to do study on how to reestablish proper discipline in educational institutions. In order to determine how guidance and counseling affects discipline in tertiary institutions, this study looked at Koforidua Technical University in the Eastern Region.
1.3 The purpose of the study
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of guidance and counselling services on students’ discipline in Koforidua Technical University, Eastern Region.
1.4 Objectives of the study
To fulfil the purpose of the study the following objectives were examined:
- To determine the extent to which provision of guidance and counselling materials influences students’ counselling in Koforidua Technical University.
- To establish the extent to which lecturer-counsellors’ exposure to training influences students’
- To determine the influence of training of peer counselling on students’
- To establish the extent to which guest speakers on guidance and counselling influences students’
- To determine the extent to which the time allocated to student counselling influences students’
1.5 Research questions
The following questions were used as a guide to this study:
- To what extent does staffs’ provision of guidance and counselling materials and facilities influence university students’ discipline in Koforidua Technical University?
- To what extent does the lecturer- counsellors’ exposure to training influence students’ discipline in universities?
- To what extent does the training of peer counselling influence university students discipline?
- To what extent do guest speakers’ guidance and counselling sessions influence students’ discipline in universities?
- To what extent does the time allocated to counselling influence university students’ discipline in Koforidua Technical University?
1.6 Significance of the study
The results of this study will inform those involved in education about the value of counseling and advice in maintaining discipline among university students. Some teachers and school officials would understand the value of counseling and guidance in fostering discipline among pupils, and they would be urged to enroll in professional training in the discipline so they can carry out it competently. The guidance and counseling services would help the students focus on their lives, become responsible citizens, develop time management skills, and uphold moral principles.
1.7 Limitations of the study
Limitations, according to Best and Kahn (1998), are circumstances that are out of the researcher’s control and may limit the study’s conclusions and their applicability in other contexts. The following were the study’s main limitations:
Clear data collection was hampered since some respondents were reluctant to share the information. Some respondents were hesitant to respond, which made it difficult for the researcher to complete the study on time. Although the researcher did not have any influence over the attitudes and views of the respondents, trustworthy data for analysis was acquired. The researcher assured the interviewees of their privacy and urged them to be truthful.
1.8 Delimitations of the study
The study was limited to Koforidua Technical University’s tertiary institutions. Every effort was taken to ensure that the sampling method was adequate for gathering the data needed for conclusion-making. Because they were the immediate recipients of the researcher’s concern, staff, lecturers, and form four students were picked as the key responses.
1.9 Definitions of significant terms
Administration-refers to the coordination of the effort of all the people in an organization towards the achievement of common goals.
Attitude-refers to positive or negative predisposition to think, feel, perceive and behave in a certain way towards a given situation.
Career Counselling– refers to a process of offering, advising and cautioning learners who may go astray in their career choice.
Client-refers to a learner receiving guidance and counselling services from a Professional helper, also known as counsellor.
Counselling-refers to helping process that uses the safety of a special relationship between the counsellor and the counselee-who together explore the thoughts, feelings and counsellor attitudes of the counselee with the objective of tapping the resources within the counselee to effect healing and change.
Counsellor– refers to a Professional with skills of helping people deal with challenges in their lives by creating a relationship with them.
Discipline– refers to a system of guiding an individual to make reasonable decisions and uphold social ethics personally and in groups.
Effect-refers to a change produced by an action or cause or an outcome.
Guidance– refers to all the activities rendered by educational institutions, which are primarily concerned with assisting individual students understand themselves, thus their needs, interests abilities and potentials. Guidance also refers to advise given to the students to show them the right direction to take in their academic and social life.
Influence– refers to the attraction given to students by external stimuli to change in their character while in their schooling.
Morals- refer to the right conduct in the life of a person.
Respondents-These are the direct parties to answer questions in a research study.
Students- refer to a group of people in the learning process in a school.
Lecturer– refers to a Professional lecturer who is also a trained counsellor, who carries out the counselling processes in a school setting.
1.10 Organization of the study
There were five chapters in the study. The context of the study, the study’s statement, its purpose, its aims, its basic research assumptions, and its definitions of operational words were all included in chapter one. Introduction, the idea of education, guidance and counseling, historical development, the need for guidance and counseling, and varieties of counseling made up Chapter 2’s first section. Additionally, it included government engagement in guidance and counseling, counseling, the role of staff in managing discipline in schools, a program for guidance and counseling and managing discipline in universities, as well as personal and social advice and counseling techniques. The chapter’s next sections cover the difficulties the school administration will face in implementing counseling and guidance, as well as the theoretical and conceptual frameworks and an overview of the literature.
In Chapter 3, the research approach was explained. These included the research design, the intended audience, the sample size and methods, the research tools, the methods for gathering data, and the methods for analyzing that data. The field study’s analysis and interpretation were covered in chapter four, and the summary, conclusions, recommendations, and ideas for additional research were covered in chapter five.
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