DETERMINANTS OF EFFECTIVE GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING PROGRAMMES IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KERICHO SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

The Kenyan government recognizes guidance and counselling as an essential service that should be given to every student. To demonstrate its seriousness, the government, through the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has officially appointed heads of departments of guidance and counselling in secondary schools to oversee the implementation and proper running of this programme. Effectiveness of this programme has however not been felt as evidenced by common unrest in many schools. Limited research has been done to examine determinants of effective provision of guidance and counselling programmes in public secondary schools in Kenya. The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of effective guidance and counselling programmes in public secondary schools in Kericho Sub-County, Kericho County. The objectives of the study were; to investigate the qualifications of teacher counsellors providing guidance and counselling services; establish if materials for guidance and counselling are available in Kericho Sub-County. The study was based on Carl Rogers client centered therapy. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study was conducted in Kericho Sub-county in Kericho County, since various schools here experienced problems such as school dropouts, strikes, poor relationships among students despite the provision of guidance and counselling services in their schools. The target population was 2000 students of form three and 60 guidance and counselling teachers. A sample of 200 students and 18 guidance and counseling teachers were selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. These figures served as a true representation of the whole population of form three students. The instruments for data collection were questionnaires, interviews, observation checklists and document analysis. Frequency counts and percentages were used to analyse the data. The study concluded that most teacher counsellors lack professional training on guidance and counselling and out of those who are not trained in guidance and counselling, only a few attend refresher courses every term, this hinders effective counselling in public secondary schools in Kericho County. The study also concluded that secondary schools do not have enough facilities for guidance and counselling and the rooms for counselling are not in a strategic place, which is conducive for counselling. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Teachers Service Commission should ensure guidance and counseling departments are headed by trained and qualified counselors for effectiveness and that the County government and the Ministry of Education should enhance quality assessment of G&C in all secondary schools. The findings of this study may be beneficial to policy makers in the Ministry of Education to see the need for employment of professional counsellors.