Assessment of Implementation Levels of Guidance and Counselling Programme in Kenyan Secondary Schools: A case of Sotik District, Bomet County, Kenya.

Abstract

The Kenyan government recognizes guidance and counselling as an essential service that should be given to every student. To demonstrate its seriousness, the government, through the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has officially appointed heads of departments of guidance and counselling in secondary schools to oversee the implementation and proper running of this programme. Despite this, little has been done to assess the extent of implementation of this programme. This study therefore purposed to assess the extent to which this programme has been implemented in Kenyan secondary schools with special reference to Sotik District of Bomet County. The District has 11 public secondary schools with a student population of 3865 students,11 head teachers and 11 teachers in charge of guidance and counselling departments. Seven schools were randomly selected to provide a sample size of 7 head teachers, 7 guidance and counseling teachers and 111 students. In each school 16 students from form three and four participated in the study bringing the total number of respondents to 125. This was a descriptive study that used self-administered questionnaires and an interview schedule to collect the required data. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data using the statistical package for socials sciences (SPSS) programme. The results of the study revealed that as a result of inadequate resources and time, lack of training on the part of the guidance and counselling teachers, poor perception of students towards guidance and counselling and lack of administrative support, guidance and counselling programme is not well implemented in Sotik District. The study thus recommended the need for proper training of guidance and counselling teachers, provision of adequate resources for the programme, creation of awareness among students of the importance of guidance and counselling among services and reduction of the guidance and counselling teachers work load to enable them carry out guidance and counselling duties more effectively.

Key words: guidance and counselling, implementation, Sotik District, Bomet County.