Teacher Counselor Perceptions on Extent of Counseling in Addressing Selected Social Cultural Factors in School Pupil Retention in Keiyo South District, Kenya

Abstract

With the current socio-technological changes and educational demands, guidance and counseling is becoming a major area of concern for schools in Kenya. The main purpose of was establish teacher counselor perceptions on extent of counseling in addressing selected social cultural factors in school pupil retention in Keiyo South district. The study was guided by social leaning theory and perceptual organization theory. The research design used for the study was a descriptive survey. The study population was119 teacher counselors. The study adopted census sampling technique which enabled the researcher to survey the whole population. Questionnaires were utilized to collect data from the teacher counselors. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics which included frequencies and percentages, and presented in tables and figures. Analysis of data was done with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programmeversion 17. Findings showed that teacher counselors were of the opinion that counseling teaches pupils on dangers of some rites of passage, sensitized pupils on the importance of education, teaches pupils on dangers of engaging in unprotected sex and encouraged pupils to come back to school after initiation. Therefore, the study recommends that the ministry of education should enhance training programmes to in services more teachers on counseling skills and create a programme where young girls married off at a tender age should be rehabilitated through guidance and counseling so as to encourage them to go back and pursue their dreams through education. Teacher counselor should enhance sensitization to the community on dangers of early marriage.Further, education planners should enhance sex education in the school curriculum for proper orientation of the pupils.

Key Words: Perception, Counseling, Early Marriage, Early Pregnancy, Teacher Counselor