THE IMPACT OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING SERVICES ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND CAREER CHOICE IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

1.1 Introduction

Student guidance service is the assistance rendered to an academic student in making him or her understand himself and what is capable of doing. Students overlook the advice of the professional counselor regarding career choice in the interest of economic and social changes in the society. Most secondary school students are faced with the problem of choosing a career. This is due to mainly the lack of guidance and counseling services in the schools. Students face the problem individual differences and also face the problem of social changes. The problem of unemployment faced by the Nigerian school leavers, coupled with the economic uncertainties which is aggravated by inadequate career information and thus makes students to lack knowledge in making career choice.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

The innovative aspect of the new secondary educational programme is the importance attained to guidance services. Every day, every one of us encounters life situations, which call for thought, opinion making, decision making and action. Some of our experiences are familiar, some novel, some are casual, some of extreme importance. Everything we do, every decision we make and course of action we take is based on our held belief, attitude and values. Students do ponder over what and how to thin, believe and behave so often what goes on in the classroom is irrelevant and remove from the red things that are going on students lives, there daily encounter with friends with strangers, with peers, with authority figures, the social and academic tasks that display their egos.

The main objectives of guidance, and counselling at this level of educations is to make available psychological process of helping an individuals to achieve self-realization, self-decision, understanding and mental balance necessary to make the maximum adjustment in the school. No doubt a judicious application of guidance and counselling will foster education decisions, which might lead to a better future career. The problems of the students are regards curriculum or choice is akin to the analogy where a client or (students) is regarded as a traveler heating for a predetermined destination. On getting to a cross road he becomes confused, but luckily he find a Good Samaritan (helper) who shows him the way. According to him, the Samaritan has performed the task of guidance, if the helper goes further on the requests of the traveler, the helper enumerate the likely problems, hurdles or obstacles to be encountered in the road and possible solutions, he has done the job of a counsellor.

The student should be seen as a traveler at a cross road who needs the help of a guide. If he is fortunate, he finds solution to his problem, otherwise he gets confused and because frustrated the more. Although school guidance and counselling is an integral part of education obtained in the western world. It is still very new in Nigeria. It has not yet gained prominence because of many factors in Nigeria until recently. As there were changes in education and social systems brought about by urbanization and industrializations. Then many of our educational started to stress the need for guidance services as an integral part of our educational system.

In Nigeria, students select their subject of choice in their senior secondary school years. In preparation for the senior secondary certificate examination, the choice of their subjects is solely handled by the students without adequate information about the world of Flanayan. If secondary education is to be relevant to the needs of the students it is essentially that the students be assisted in selecting curricular at an earlier time.

According to Obi (2011), he articulated that Napier opined that vocational guidance is the process by which all the various factors affecting individuals occupational choices are sorted out, weighted and brought into focus and by which, the young person is helped to make his choice on the full knowledge of the facts about his own potential to them; so vocational guidance was organized as a social service to assist young people in choosing their career. More so, most cultures have demarcated roles for boys and girls (Obi, 2021).

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to examine the Impact of Guidance and Counseling Services on Students Academic Performance and Career Choice in Selected Secondary Schools.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that some students choose subject hazardously and indiscriminately, simply because they feel they are good in themselves, without taking their desired professions into considerations, thus, at the end of their examination they have chosen the wrong choice of subject combinations. There are some also who do not know the requirement or the type of subject one could pass before being admitted for specific course such as medicine, pharmacy, law and others.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Impact of Guidance and Counseling Services on Students Academic Performance and Career Choice in Selected Secondary Schools. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To find out the impact of guidance and counselling services in secondary school students in the area under study;
2. To investigate the effects of career choice on the future of the secondary school students in the area under study;
3. To explore the factors influencing the career choice of secondary school students in the area under study;
4. To identify the career choice of the students in secondary schools of the area under study; and
5. To suggest solutions to the problem based on the findings of the research.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Do you have guidance counsellor in your schools?
• Did most of your school teachers have a guide habit to the students?
• Do guidance counselling help to influence the students morally?
• Do students disregard the guidance counsellor in your school?
• What are the environmental factors that affect guidance services among students in the area under study?
• What are the opportunity and personality factors that affect guidance services among students in the area under study?
• What are the effects of career choice on the future of the secondary school students in the area under study?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant difference in environmental factors affecting Guidance and Counselling Services among government and private secondary school students.
• H1: There is a significant difference in environmental factors affecting Guidance and Counselling Services among government and private secondary school students.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no significant difference in opportunity factors affecting Guidance and Counselling Services among government and private secondary school students.
• H1: There is a significant difference in opportunity factors affecting Guidance and Counselling Services among government and private secondary school students.

Hypothesis Three

• H0: There is no significant difference in personality factors affecting Guidance and Counselling Services between government and private secondary school.
• H1: There is a significant difference in personality factors affecting Guidance and Counselling Services between government and private secondary school.

1.7 Significance of Study

This study will facilitate the act of making choice among many opportunities available, since it is aimed at looking at the problems the secondary school students face in making their choice of career. The result of this study will give an educationist an insight into the problem and also help counselors in guiding students to make a more realistic occupational choice, limiting frustrations and withdrawals.

The findings of this study will further assist the students in making the rightful choice of career and also help those students to lay good foundations for themselves in their field of interest, ability and talent that will invariably develop the child physically, intellectually and emotionally to become useful to him/herself and the society at large.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Impact of Guidance and Counseling Services on Students Academic Performance and Career Choice in Selected Secondary Schools. This study will cover five selected senior secondary school students in a case study of Oshimili Local Government Area of Delta State with respondents made up of teenagers of senior secondary school age.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.10 Definitions of Terms

Impact: Here, impact is strong impression or effect, of guidance and counseling on students’ career choice.

Career: In this contest, career simply means the sequence of occupations, vocation, job and aspiration that one goes through, throughout ones working life.

Guidance: Guidance is derived from the word guide. It is the assistance rendered to an individual in making him or her understand himself and what is capable of doing.

Counselling: This is concerned with creating opportunity and suitable environment for the persona, social, education and vocational development. It deals with the effective side of the individual based attitudes about the value and worth of human being.