EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT COURSE 2013-A ASSIGNMENT

ESSAY WRITING ON THE

ROLE OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING IN EDUCATION

Submitted by: S/Lt Taimoor Sarwar PN

1

INTRODUCTION Defination of Guidance: 1. Guidance is the systematic, professional process of helping the individual through education and interpretative procedures to gain a better understanding of his own characteristics and potentialities and to relate himself more satisfactorily to social requirements and opportunities, in accord with social and moral values (Mathewson, R.H.,) 2. Guidance is the total programme or all the activities and services engaged in by an educational institution that is primarily aimed at assisting an individual to make and carry out adequate plans and to achieve satisfactory adjustment in all aspects of his daily life. (Tolbert) Defination of Counselling: 1. Counseling is the skilled and principled use of a relationship to facilitate selfknowledge, emotional acceptance and growth, and the optimal development of personal resources. The overall aim is to provide an opportunity to work towards living more satisfyingly and resourcefully. (British Association of Counseling, 1991, p. 1) The central purpose of the guidance and counseling is to establish and maintain a sound vocationally guidance services in our schools, hereby school learners educational ambitions could be properly channeled to suit their ability, aptitude and interest to the choice of careers. Training should be given in the use of psychologist and tests, compiling cumulative records and techniques of interviewing in guidance and counseling. EXPLANATION: NEED FOR GUIDANCE AND COUSELLING IN EDUCATION Guidance and Counseling in the systematic professional process of helping the individual through education and interpretative procedures to gain a better understanding of his own characterisrics and potentialities and to relate himself more satisfactorily to social requirements and opportunities in accord with social
2

and moral values. Since Guidance and Counselling is process through education of helping the individual, then that education must make provision to equip the teacher with the necessary tools of achieving the desired objectives. Our schools are now faced with myriad of problems ranging from drug addiction, truancy, cultism, examination malpractice due to poor study habits, inadequate knowledge about proper subject combination, problems of course combination which tallies with one intellectual abilities etc, such issues can only be handled when there is a qualified and full time counselor who received a special training in dealing with human behaviour. Such issues are better addressed when the teacher education policy focuses attention on the training of teachers in relation to the functions of guidance and counseling on a three fold approach, viz adjustments, orientation and developmental. Guidance and counseling are adjustment in the sense that they help the student in making the best possible adjustment to the current situations in the educational institution and occupational work in the home and the community. On the orientation function, Guidance and counseling orient the students in problems of career, planning, educational program mind and direction towards long-term personal aims and values. While the development function, Guidance and Counselling should try not only to cure when problems have occupied and done their damage, rather the problems arise and maladjustment occur. If unresolved problems are allowed to accumulate, their total effect may lead the student to the point where his capacity for growth is blocked. In such cases a new important developmental function for helping the student achieves self-development and self-realization. The emerging issues of personality maladjustment, poor study habit, career choice and knowledge of ones aptitudes add skills etc, make it obligatory for our educational planners and administrators to build into our tertiary education appropriate guidance and counseling programme for the development of the individual student into an adult personality, intellectual and functional proficiency, discipline and confidence. The classroom activities, however well conducted and well organized, alone are not in a position to accomplish all this. Guidance and Counselling courses need to be introduced in our educational system whereby the would be teacher is introduced to the subject from year 1 to his study up to the end and various areas of the subjects exposed to him, so that in the end all qualified teachers can comfortably perform in the areas of helping individual students resolve their personal social and academic problems. The course should also cease to be and elective course. It should be made compulsory for all education students. The intensive guidance and counseling programme to be introduced in our educational system should aim at the following:3

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

To help in the total development of the student To help in the proper choice of course To help in the choice of careers To help the students in vocational development To develop readiness for choices and changes to face new challenges To minimize the mismatching between education and employment and help in the efficient use of manpower 7. To motivate the youth for self employment 8. To help teachers establish proper identity 9. To identify and motivate the students from weaker sections of society 10.To help the students in their period of turmoil and confusion 11.To identify and help students in need of special help 12.to ensure the proper utilization of time spent outside the classroom 13.To help in tackling problems arising out of students explosion 14.To make up for the deference of home 15.To minimize the incidence of indiscipline The above aims cannot be handled by a teacher who has no specialized training in guidance and counseling thus the need to entrench it intensively in the education programme and introduce a degree specially on the subject of the undergraduate levels in most of our universities. CHALLENGES FOR EDUCATIONAL POLICY MAKERS Considering the laudable aims, guidance and counseling that an intensive training, teachers can achieve and the recognition by the National Policy on Education that trained counsellors are lacking in our schools but asserted that guidance and counselling would be entrenched in the teacher education policy which has not been adequately taken care of the Nation education policy makers has a challenge of addressing the lapses that is crystal clear in provision of guidance and counseling to the would be teachers. The curriculum planners at both secondary and tertiary level need to revisit the course content of the subject for the secondary schools enough provision should be made in the syllabus so that the ample time would be allocated for the provision of guidance and counseling service to our students. While for the teacher training institutions the curriculum should be enlarged so that the much needed information that is required to be given to the teachers in training would be delivered. A recent research on the availability of vocational Educational Guidance and counseling services in post primary schools revealed that :4

1. Most schools lacked Guidance and counseling service, which significantly and negatively affects the performance of students in various school subjects. 2. The failure of effective implementation of guidance and counseling services in post primary schools is as a result of poor handling of the assessment, this implies that poor handling of students assessment records by the counselor significantly affect the effective implementation of educational and vocational guidance in schools. 3. The inability of school counsellor to provide adequate career information to the students precipated poor career choice and subject combination by the students, which significantly affects future career choice. 4. There are inadequate and/or sufficient guidance and counseling facilities in most post-primary schools as a result of poor finding by the government and insufficiency of school counseling managers. The low or no existence of guidance and counseling in the Pakistani schools, is seen as a source of the many problems faced by schools, since the teacher assigned the responsibility cannot comfortably deliver as such there must be inadequacies in their performance. The education policy maker have Herculean a task of addressing the problems emanating from schools as a result counseling service. Universities and other tertiary institutions are day by day producing graduates who can not fit into the labor market, because they only pursued course they get, not considering the availability of jobs in that particular area but just for purpose of being a graduate or particular certificate holder, such youths if after waiting for a job and could not find one, then could fall into odd situations. Such and many other issues are what necessitate the education policy makers to review the policies as the world be has moved into the 21 st century with improved technological advancement and economic hardship. OBJECTIVE OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING The objective of training of highly motivated, conscientious and successful classroom teachers for all education levels; encourage in potential teachers a spirit of inquiry, creativity, nationalism and belongingness; help the prospective teachers to fit into the social life of home and community; provide them with intellectual and professional backgrounds adequate for their assignment produce learners who by their training and discipline will be adequate to changing roles of education in society and produce knowledgeable, progressive, and effective teachers who can inspire children to learn. From the foregoing one can deduce that, the education have from inception recognized the production of teachers who will be adaptable to the changing roles
5

of education, interchanging intensive guidance and training in the curriculum is one area that stand as a huge challenge to education policy makers. All stakeholders in education, the parents, educational administrators policy makers and education should together to analyse the current educational provisions and situation of our youths in an attempt to re-direct the curriculum to meet the changing demands of this century. CONCLUSION Conclusively, the challenges paved to education policy maker by nonexistence of intensive guidance and counseling programme in the teacher education are enormous, this calls for the need that all stake holders in education should be abreast with the real demands of the subject and what it has to offer to our schools, youth and the society at large. It is only by so doing that any curriculum conference would achieve the defined objective. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child. - Carl Jung REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. 4. Cirzon, L.B.,(1980), Teaching in Further Education Nayak, A. K.(2004) Guidance and Counselling Oladele, J. O. 2000), Guidance and Counselling. A functional Approach Stephens, P. C. (1996), Essential mentoring skills. A practical handbook for school based teachers education