PERCEPTION OF SECODNARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ON THE ROLE OF

COUNSELORS IN CURBING INDICIPLINE AMONG SECODNARY SCHOOL

STUDENTS IN SOKOTO STATE.

BY

BASHIRU MUH’D LIMAN

bashirumuhammadliman@gmail.com
08065878471
&
UMMARU ABDULLAH KILGORI
07030530142

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
SSCOE SOKOTO
Abstract
The paper focused on the perception of secondary school teachers on the role of
counselling in curbing indiscipline among secondary school students in Sokoto
metropolix, it discusses the concepts of indiscipline, forms of indiscipline and roles of
counsellors in curbing indiscipline among students, three (3) research questions were
raised and answered the study employed a descriptive survey design, with teachers in
Sokoto state as population, two hundred (200) respondents were selected as the sample
with (150) public secondary school teacher (25) private secondary school teachers and
(25) federal government secondary schools teachers. A researcher design questionnaire
was used in collecting data which consist of four (4) part, with four point likert scale of
strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree as the score value, mean and
percentages was used as statistics for data analysis with 2.50 as the standard means, the
study revealed that there are counsellors and counselling services in most of the
secondary schools in Sokoto metropolis, it also revealed that counsellors plays a
significant role in curbing the menace of indiscipline in schools and secondary school
teachers are of the belief that counsellors should be assigned as class and house master in
schools, responsible for students discipline as well as chair the examination monitoring
committees, some recommendations were made to include school authority should see
the role of counsellors and counselling services as helping partners by reducing the over
loaded work assigned to him in school.

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Introduction

The problems of indiscipline in Nigeria have attracted the attention of many scholars

and administrators not only in secondary schools but in all most all the categories of

Nigerian school; indiscipline is found everywhere, people see abnormal things as normal

so very few people care for integrity and honour (Njoku,2010). Indiscipline as a concept

attracted different definition depending on the society and individuals perceptions;

Longman active study dictionary (2008) defines indiscipline as lack of control in the

behavior of a group of people. Indiscipline was also defined by Dange & Bello (2010) as

an individual willingly or unwilling violate laid down rules of an institutions which

harmpers the smooth running of the institution.

Indiscipline can simply be defined as mode of life that is not in conformity with

rules and is non subjective to control. Lawal (2007) define indiscipline as systematic vice

in an individual, society or a nation which result to favoritism, nepotism, tribalism, undue

sectionalism, enrichment, amassing of wealth, abuse of office, derivation of undue gains

and benefit. Indiscipline in schools and society also extend to examination malpractice,

indecent dressing, cultism, area boyism, drug abuse and addiction, societal problems,

home training corruption, bribery, smuggling Freud , money laundering, drug trafficking,

falsification of document and records, underpayment, deceit, forgery, concealment,

aiding and abetting of any kind to the detriment of another person, community, school

and society or nations.

Parents of school aged children rely on the ability of teachers to asses’ individuals

students’ misdemeanors on a case-by-case basis. Teachers have traditionally been

expected to implement disciplinary practice that are consistent with fundamental African

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values such as people older, and respect for diversity; all of which are understood by the

African public to be foundational frame work of safe and caring schools and a just

society. However, because schools are entering an area in which youth violence and

unwanted aggression are more often managed through that inflexible school discipline

policies such as counselling services counselors and teachers are being asked to

implement, support and enforce school code of conduct and discipline measures

regarding as to whether they support the policy or not (Heineken Drier, 1998) as such for

many counselors and teachers it may seem that political expedience in the

implementation of new policies addressing youth violence and unwanted aggression take

place precedence over an ongoing dialogue of the educational, social, psychological

precondition for the development of pro social behavior in children and youth whose are

mostly of secondary school age (Jull, 2000).

The issue of indiscipline in Nigeria secondary schools and among the youths has

quite often been approved and tackled using so many ways. But the rate at which

indiscipline behaviors occur among secondary school students is on the increase and this

make it very important to guidance and counseling and counselors in particular to sit up

to these challenges and see how counselling services can reduce this menace for the

development of students, school and education system in general. The major problems

being faced by counsellor and guidance and counselling as a helping services is lack of

recognition and cooperation among students, teachers and school administrators. Based

on the above fact that the present research aimed at studying the perception of secondary

school teachers on the roles of counselling in curbing the menace of indiscipline among

secondary schools students in Sokoto states.

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Forms of indiscipline in Nigeria secondary schools.

Numerous forms of indiscipline were identify in Nigerian secondary school

depending on the types of school, school locations nature of students and teachers as well

as the availability of counsellors and guidance and counselling in the schools to mention

but a few, for example, Dange & Bello (2010) identify the following as the indiscipline

among students in Nigeria secondary school:-

Examination malpractice:- this is an act committed by students in collaboration with

teachers, parents, supervisors invigilators, printers and any other group if people before,

during or a for examination in order to obtain undeserved marks or grade to all students

prefer to steal during examination than to read. Students in the past do not know anything

about examination malpractice, libraries are equipped, qualified staff are there, relevant

learning materials were provided and above all poverty is not prevalent in the society

which was one of the reason that attracted the attention of many professional, counsellors

inclusive.

Cultism: Is one of indiscipline activities in our institution today; cultism this is a

membership of any secret society which is usually full of deceit, they carry out ungodly

rituals such as blood sacrifices and covenant, this act has gone deep into our schools and

society.

Drug abused or Addiction:- is another form of indiscipline among students, majority of

the students cannot read unless they take some drugs, some smoke heavily and others

inject drugs in themselves. (Dange and Bello, 2010) that is why it is very difficult

nowadays to demarcate between an out right mad person and a normal person.

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 Nudity:- this is the habit of wearing anything that is not approved by the school or

society, for example weaving dresses that can expose parts of your body that should be

covered, in fact, any dresses that is against the norms of the society is indecent typical

example is seen mostly among co-educational students.

Sexual promiscuity:- this consist of all forms of abuse of sex such as homosexual,

lesbianism, sugar daddy, sugar mummy, raping, prostitution etc, these are all forms of

indiscipline not only found among students but extend to teachers, parent and other

members of the society.

Other forms of indiscipline in Nigerian school include:- environmental abuse, area

boyism, societal problems, indecent dressing, indulgence in fornication and adultery,

disobedience to constituted authority (Abubakar, 2010).

Roles of Counsellors

The School counsellor is regarded as a individual who is professionally trained to

administer educational, vocational, personal and social counselling within and outside the

school environment. The counsellors has an important role to play in the organizing

executing, coordinating and monitoring the school counselling services as well as

monitor any other persons involved in counselling such as students, teachers, parents etc,

and offer feedback to the school authority for future review of the counseling programme

(Adediran, Obidoa, zakariya, Oyedeji and Nwamuo, 2009)

According to Egbochuku (2008), the aims of school guidance and counseling

services include the provision of the following to the students; opportunities to develop

knowledge and appreciation of themselves and others, opportunities to develop

relationship skills, ethical standard and a sense of responsibility, opportunity to acquire

5
skills and attitudes necessary to develop educational goals which are suited to their needs

intents and abilities, information that would enable them to make decision about life and

career opportunities. Malumfashi (2004) mention the following as the major purpose of

any counselling service, which include self exploration, behaviour change, decision

making, problems resolution, positive mental health and personal effectiveness. Based on

the above fact, it is clearly clarify that counselling and counselors plays significant roles

in shaping and re-structuring individuals behavior from negative to positive, so as to

behave in very good and desirable manners in the home school and larger society.

The following are regarded as some of the roles of School counsellors in curbing

indiscipline among Secondary school students.

Counsellors’ roles as a professional and specialist in counselling of students, he

engages in a specialist session on one to one counselling process where the ultimate goals

are self understanding self realization and self actualization of the client (Tambawal,

2010) school counselors is employed to use his skills to resolve their everyday problems

or conflict.

The role of school counselors as consultant:- it is a process to provides technical

assistant to teachers parent administration and other counselors to identify a merely

problems that limit the school effectiveness, indiscipline inclusive. He therefore uses his

skill and techniques in counseling his students on the danger of indiscipline in schools.

Shertzer And stones(1980) in Tambawal (2012) summarized the following as the roles of

counselors in Nigeria schools to include, quasi administration who act in the absence of

principals, generalist who have specific function but have priority placed on orientation,

6
specialist who gave counselling priority over all other activities, changes agent and

psychological educator,

Research Questions

(i) Are there counselors and counselling services in secondary school in Sokoto state.

(ii) Do counselor role help in curbing the menace of indiscipline among secondary school

Students.

(iii) To what extend do you perceived the role of counselling in curbing the menace of

indiscipline among secondary school students in Sokoto state.

Methodology

This research employed a descriptive survey design, the population consist of all

the secondary school teachers in Sokoto metropolis, the researcher randomly sampled

two hundred (200) teacher from thirty six (36) Senior Secondary School in Sokoto

metropolis, which comprises of one hundred and fifty (150) teachers from public

secondary school, twenty-five (25) from private secondary schools and twenty five (25)

from Federal Government Secondary Schools in Sokoto metropolis.

The instrument used for the research was a self designed questionnaire titled:

“Teachers perception on the role of counselors in curbing indiscipline in secondary

school”. The questionnaire consist of four (4) part, part A Bio-data of the respondents

part B on the availability of counselors and counselling services in schools part C on the

role of counselors on curbing the menace of indiscipline among secondary school

students, part D on the perception of secondary school teachers on the role of counselor

in curbing indiscipline among secondary school students.

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 Some expert in Guidance and counselling validated the instrument and the

reliability was obtained after the test re-test experiment which yielded 0.76 index using

Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. The Questionnaire was design on four

point likert scales of Strongly Agree, Agree, and Disagree and strongly disagree. Direct

approach method was used in the administration and collection of the research

instrument, whereby mean and percentages were used in analyzing the data collected.

Values were assigned to the likert scales, thus SA=4, A=3, D=2 and SD=1 where

x=sum of the nominal values and the standard mean = 4+3+2+1=10/4=2.5 where by 2.5

stand for the standard mean to Agree or Disagree with statements.

ANALYSIS
Table 1: The percentage and mean scores on the counselor an counselling services in
Sokoto state.
S/ Instrument SA A D S N 4 3 2 1 Ex X Decisio
N Items D n
1. There is 80 35 55 30 200 320 10 110 30 56 2.82 Agreed
professional
counselor in our 5 5
school
2. There is 65 60 49 26 200 260 18 98 26 51 2.56 Agreed
counselling office
in our school 0 2
3. The counselor 50 40 70 40 200 200 12 140 14 50 2.50 Agreed
office is well
furnished 0 0 0
4. There is 30 40 60 70 200 120 12 120 70 43 2.15 Disagre
counselling
materials in the 0 0 ed
counselors office
5. school authority 40 37 64 59 200 160 11 128 59 45 2.29 Disagre
Recognize the
role of school 1 8 ed
counselor

Table 1: above on the counselor and counselling service in schools, the result

indicated that there is moderate counselors and counseling services in secondary schools

8
 in Sokoto metropolis as it shows 2.82, 2.56, 2.50, 2.15 and 2.29 as against the standard

mean of 2.50. Therefore three statement were accepted and two (2) were rejected. This

indicates that there are guidance and counselling officers and services in most of the

secondary schools in Sokoto Metropolis.

Table 2: percentages and mean scores on the role of counselors in curbing

indiscipline among secondary school students.
S/ Instrument SA A D SD N 4 3 2 1 Ex X Decision
N Items
6. Counselor 40 42 64 54 200 160 12 128 54 46 2.34 Disagre
provide
counseling 6 8 ed
services to our
students
7. Counselors 93 45 38 24 200 372 13 76 24 60 3.03 Agreed
provide
orientation 5 7
services to
students
8. Counselor offer 59 63 48 30 200 236 18 96 30 55 2.76 Agreed
educational
counselling to 9 1
students
9. Counselor is 48 53 50 49 200 192 15 100 49 50 2.50 Agreed
responsible for
social counselling 9 0
to students
10 Counselor offer 82 64 26 28 200 328 19 52 28 60 3.00 Agreed
motivational talk
. to students in the 2 0
assembly

Table 2: above on the counselor role in curbing the menace of indiscipline among

secondary school students in Sokoto metropolis, all the teachers agreed with about four

items on the questionnaire, the calculated mean educated that 2.34, 3.03, 2.76, 2.50 and

3.00 as against the standard means of 2.50. This means that counsellors in secondary

school in Sokoto Metropolis plays the following roles to student’s orientation services,

offer educational counseling to students, motivational talk to students in the assembly as

well as provision of some counselling services to students.

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 Table 3: Percentages and mean scores on the extent at which teachers perceived the
role of counselors in curbing the menace of indiscipline among secondary school
students.
S/ Instrument SA A D SD N 4 3 2 1 Ex X Decision
N Items
11 Counsellor 41 43 61 55 200 164 12 122 55 4.64 2.34 Disagre
should be given
. some subject to 3 ed
teach in schools
12 Counselor should 63 44 43 50 200 252 13 86 50 520 2.60 Agreed
be assigned as
. form masters 2
13 Counselor should 62 50 38 50 200 248 15 76 50 524 2.62 agreed
be as form
. master 0
14 Counselor should 75 24 43 38 200 300 72 86 58 516 2.58 Agreed
be responsible
. for students
discipline in
school
15 Counselor should 69 36 53 42 200 276 10 106 42 532 2.66 Agreed
be responsible
. for extra 8
curricular
activities
16 Counselor should 40 38 69 53 200 160 11 138 53 464 2.33 Disagre
be responsible
. for evening 4 ed
lesson
17 Counselor should 43 42 64 51 299 172 12 128 51 477 2.39 Disagre
not be over
. labored 6 ed
18 Counselor should 81 46 43 30 200 324 13 86 30 578 2.89 Agreed
chair exam
. monitory 8
committee
19 Counselor should 42 45 63 50 200 168 13 126 50 479 2.40 Disagre
deal with only
. counseling 5 ed
services
20 Counselor should 68 53 56 23 299 272 15 112 23 566 2.83 Agreed
be assigned with
. administrative 9
duties

Table 3: above on the extend at which teachers perceived the roles of counselors in

curbing the menace of indiscipline among secondary school student, Teachers agreed

with six items and Disagreed with four item of the questionnaire this indicate that

10
modified likert scales of 2.50 and the calculated mean is 2.32, 2.60, 2.62, 2.58, 2.66, 2.66,

2.33, 2.39, 2.89, 2.40 and 2.83 respectively. This indicate that secondary school teachers

are of the opinion that school counselors should be assigned as form masters and House

masters, they should be responsible for students discipline in schools and they should

chair examination monitoring committee and be assigned with some administrative

duties.

Discussion

This study investigated on the perception of secondary school teachers on the role

of counselors in curbing indiscipline among secondary school students in Sokoto

metropolis. It discusses the concept of indiscipline, forms of indiscipline and roles of

counselors in curbing indiscipline.

The research findings revealed that there are guidance and counselling officers

and services in most of the secondary schools in Sokoto metropolis, and they provide

counselling services to students in different aspect such as behaviour, academic as well as

vocational aspect of their life. This finding confirm what Malumfashi (2004) said that

major purpose of counselling include self-exploration, behaviour change, decision

making, problem resolution, positive mental health and personal effectiveness.

With regard to research question two on the roles of counselling in curbing

indiscipline among students in secondary school, indicated that counselors in secondary

school in Sokoto metropolis plays the following roles to students orientation services,

offer educational counseling to students, motivational talk to students in the assembly as

well as provision of some counselling services to students. This finding agrees with that

11
of Tambawal (2010) where he said counselors serve the following roles, as consultant, as

professional and specialist in counseling, as well as community change agent.

Research Question three which state that to what extent do secondary school

teachers perceived the role of counselors in curbing indiscipline among secondary school

student revealed that secondary school teacher are of the opinion that school counselors

should be assigned as form masters and House masters, they should be responsible for

students discipline in schools and extracurricular activities and they should chair

examination monitoring committee and be assigned with some administrative duties. This

findings confirms what Shertzer and Stone (1950) in Tambawal (2010) summarized as

the role of counselor to include Quasi Administrator, Generalist, specialist who gave

counselling priority, as well as change agent and psychological educator.

Conclusion

The conclusion drawn from this study indicated that there are counselors and

guidance and counselling services in secondary school of Sokoto especially in the public

and federal government secondary schools, it also indicated that counselors plays very

significant role in curbing the menace of indiscipline among students by providing

orientation services, educational counseling as well as some motivational talks in the

assembly and finally secondary school teacher are of the belief that counselor should be

assigned with some responsibilities such as form master, House master, students

Discipline, extracurricular activities, Examination monitoring committee and some

administrative duties.

Recommendations

In light of the above findings the following recommendations are suggested.

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1) Government should post guidance and counselor to each and every secondary

school in Sokoto State, so as to reduce the menace of indiscipline among

students.

2) School authority should see the role of counselor and counselling services as

helping partner, by reducing the over loaded work assigned to him as school

counselor.

3) Students should be encouraged to go to the counselor for any professional

counselling with regard to their academic, personal and social problems, there

by finding a possible solution to their problems.

4) Classroom teachers should see the role of counselor as crucial toward the

realization of their objectives which is student socialization.

13
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