Counseling Services and improvement In the Learning of Business Studies among Junior Secondary School Students
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Guidance and counseling happen to be one of the recent developments in the field of education in Nigeria. It becomes system popular with the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 education system in 1998. It is generally accepted that in Nigeria the organized formal guidance started in 1959 at St. Theresa College, Oke-Ado in Ibadan by some Reverend Sisters, out of concern for the products of their school. They felt that there was need to offer vocational guidance to their out-going final year students. As a result, the Rev. Sister invited twenty educated people from the Ibadan community who were indifferent professionals and therefore knew more about the emerging world of work placed in various jobs. The innovation was highly accepted by the society because in later years this group of people, though not trained counselors, organized career tracks, seminars, guidance workshops, and lecturers of the class five students. Later on, vocational guidance services spread to another secondary school outside Ibadan and across the entire federation. The ministry officials became so interested in those organized services that these groups of career workshops for teachers and career masters eventually the “Career Advisers” became a national issue (Awodeyi, 2008).
Counseling Services and improvement In the Learning of Business Studies among Junior Secondary School Students
Counseling services is a psychological process of helping an individual to be equipped with self-understanding and skills of problem-solving of everyday life in the society, home, and school. It is one of the educational services which according to the National Policy of Education (2004) is to “facilitate the implementation of the educational policy, the attainment of policy goals and the promotion of effectiveness of educational system”, again, the third goal of the educational services is to “make learning experiences more meaningful for children”. Based on the goals, the counseling activities in schools are beneficial because the counselors working with students in secondary schools guide them thoroughly to help them succeed in their educational pursuit. According to Okorodudu (2006) counseling encompassed activities of relevant services and also processes of helping persons within and outside the school, to achieve their full potentialities in their emotional, moral, social, academic and vocational developments.
Furthermore, counseling is an interactive process co-joining the counselor who is trained and educated to give assistance to the counselor. The goal of this counseling intervention is to help the one being guided and counseled to learn to deal more effectively with him/herself on the reality of his/her environment (Makinde 1987). Counseling is a program that assists in understanding the biological, sociological and psychological needs of students in particular being in their adolescent, stage, congregating in our secondary schools. The quality of education is reflected through academic achievement resulting from the students’ performance at various levels, which is a function of behaviour in their study habits and attitudes. Thus to enhance the quality of education, it’s necessary to improve the students’ study habits and attitudes. This can be done by identifying those factors that affected study behaviour negatively, hence remedial measures and strategies applied for the development of good study habits and attitudes. This calls for schools to organize for effective guiding and counseling services. Behaviour modification could be attained by resolving the physical, emotional, social and academic difficulties of the students by helping the students understand their learning strengths and weakness as a factor that will improve their study habits. In this case the greatest challenge of an educator is to maintain order in the classroom so as to achieve academic objectives, this creating an optimal work environment (Shechtman and Lie-Chentile, 2014), what is required in school today is not only discipline of an environmental conducive for teaching and learning and learning, but also improving academic performance.
In the school context, academic performance in Nigerian secondary schools has been a challenge particularly in the selection of subjects based on their future careers. The task has been entrusted with the teachers and school counselors who actually perform the guidance and counseling roles as adviser to both students and parents. Education guidance is important in assisting the learners to make informed decisions about their educational path on issues of choices that need to be made between subjects, curriculum and institutions of learning. It also provides them with information on subject combinations or options.
Counseling Services and improvement In the Learning of Business Studies among Junior Secondary School Students
Similarly, vocational counseling service prepares the child for emerging opportunities in the world of work. These services provide assistance to the students on job creation and entrepreneurial programmes when they graduate from secondary school. Personal social counseling services are services provided by counselors, teachers and other significant members of the society to students who are unable to meet needs, aspirations and goals in life and who show signs of personality maladjustment in school. The personal-social counseling services assist students to adjust their personal and social life to meet their aspirations in life and in school (Mancillas, 2011).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The availability of counseling services has been observed in secondary schools in AkwaIbomState. The counseling programme provides several guidance and counseling services to students in secondary school in Obot Akara Local Government Area. Despite the ministerial directive of the State Secondary Education Board to implement counseling programme in all learning institutions, learning of Business Studies have been declining. This means that students do not have an interest in their educational pursuit and cannot make appropriate and realistic personal, social and vocational decisions which have a negative reflection on the various programmes put in place to promote learning of students offering business studies in secondary schools. This, therefore, motivated the researcher to carry out an investigation on the counseling services and improvement in the learning of business studies among junior secondary school students in Obot Akara Local Government Area.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of counseling services on improvement in the learning of business studies among junior secondary school students in Obot Akara Local Government Area.
Specifically, the study sought to:
(i) Examine the influence of educational counseling services on the improvement of learning in business studies in secondary schools in Obot Akara Local Government Area.
(ii) Investigate the influence of vocational counseling services on the improvement of learning in business studies in secondary schools in Obot Akara Local Government Area.
(iii) Examine the influence of personal-social counseling services on the improvement of learning in business studies in secondary schools in Obot Akara Local Government Area.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The findings of this study could be significant to the following, policymakers, teachers, counselors, parents and students.
(I) To the policymakers, the findings of this study would help policymakers in developing appropriate policy interventions towards provision of quality guidance and counseling programmes in secondary schools.
(ii) To the teachers, it is believed that the finding of this study would be useful to teachers as they work toward providing learning experiences that are motivating to students. Also, help them in re-evaluating their instructional strategies thereby involving the counseling section in their class.
(iii) The findings, the study would be of immense benefit to school counselors because it would enable them to adopt the appropriate technique to provide quality educational, vocational and personal-social counseling services to students. It will also help them to create a good counseling environment for students in the school.
(iv) The finding of this study would be of immense value to parents as they offer career counseling and occupational information to their children based on the counseling programme organized in school.
(v) The findings of this study would be beneficial to students as it would create awareness of the need for counseling services. This would assist them in changing their perception towards business studies being a pre-vocational subject in junior secondary schools. It would also help students to learn how to study effectively to achieve academic aspirations.
1.5 Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study.
(i) To what extent does an educational counseling service influence students’ improvement in the learning of business studies in junior secondary schools?
(ii) To what extent does vocational counseling service influence students’ improvement in the learning of business studies in junior secondary schools?
(iii) To what extent doe personal-social counseling services influence students’ improvement in the learning of business studies in junior secondary schools?
1.6 Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study thus:
(i) There is no significant difference between secondary school students exposed to educational counseling services and those not exposed to it in their learning of business studies.
(ii) There is no significant difference between secondary school students exposed to vocational counseling services and those not exposed to it in their learning of business studies.
(iii) There is no significant difference between secondary school students exposed to personal-social counseling services and those not exposed to it in their learning of business studies.
Counseling Services and improvement In the Learning of Business Studies among Junior Secondary School Students