Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 4

Table 1: Need for guidance and counselling according to principals N = 80 Principals Statements Responses Total and percentage SA A U D SD 1. Guidance and counselling services are essential in schools F 35 % 43.8 37 46.2 - - 8 10.0 - - 80 100.0 2. Students in my school do not need guidance and counselling services F - % - 8 10.0 - - 37 46.3 35 43.8 80 100.0 3. Guidance and counselling need to be Intensified in schools. F 40 % 50.0 32 40.0 - - 6 7.5 2 2.5 80 100.0 Source: Self From the information given in table 1 above, 72 principals who translate to 90% of the respondents indicated that guidance and counselling services are essential in schools as opposed to only 8 of them forming 10% who said the service was not essential. Therefore both male and female principals support the need for guidance and counselling in schools. These results therefore were in agreement with the findings of Turamuti (2015) and Amukoba (2017) that guidance and counselling services were seriously needed in schools. When asked on the role it plays in the development of their students, their responses were as indicated in table 2 below: Table 2: Role of guidance and counselling services to schools according to principals N = 80 Principals Statement Responses Total frequency and percentage SA A U D SD 1 It assists students in self-understanding. F 30 % 37.5 40 50.0 2 2.5 7 8.8 1 1.3 80 100.0 2 It does not improve discipline in my school. F 44 % 55.0 - - - - 32 40.0 4 5.0 80 100.0 3 It is meant for bright students only. F 35 % 43.8 3 3.8 - - 10 12.5 32 40.0 80 100.0 4 It informs students about vocational opportunities. F 31 % 38.8 32 40.0 7 8.8 8 10.0 2 2.5 80 100.0 5 It is not useful to students with learning difficulties. F 8 % 10.0 30 37.5 - - 20 25.0 22 27.5 80 100.0 Source: Self The table indicates that, majority of principals who were 70 in number and who formed 70% confirmed that guidance and counselling services in schools help in making students understand who they are hence they approach their future from a focused perspective as opposed to 30% of them who did not see its significance. Besides, 44 principles who formed 55% indicated that it does not improve discipline in their schools leaving only 45% of them in support. What this means is that, a slight majority of the principals did not know how to use guidance and counselling services to improve discipline in their schools. However, it is important to note that they all knew that it is important to students both strong and weak academically. These findings tally with the opinion held by Howden and Dowson (1973) that the guidance programme concerns pupils of all academic levels. They further observed that even the academically bright students have complicated choices to make and must not be deprived of the guidance they need. Oketchikor and Ngomba (2019) expressed concern that personal and psychological counselling were being ignored. In their study, an attempt was made to find out which area guidance and counselling services received the highest preference and indicated in order of importance, personal and psychological counselling was ranked most important with 54.9% score. Educational guidance was ranked second 39.2% and vocational guidance was the last with only 5.9%. The findings of their study therefore, agreed with the sentiments expressed by the vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi 21st June (2020) that lack of proper Principals’ Attitudes on Guidance and Counselling Services and Maintenance of Discipline in Secondary Schools of Nyamira County, Kenya 20 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue IV Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals