KYAMBOGO UNIVERSTY

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE WITH EDUCATION

FACULTY: EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT: PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

COURSE UNIT: GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING

COURSE CODE: EPS 3102

YEAR: THREE
SEMESTER: ONE

NAME OF LECTURER: DR. BIIRA JUDITH

TASK: INDIVIDUAL COURSEWORK

s/n Name Registration signature

1 ALECO ELIZABETH 21/U/ESE/09632/PD

QUESTION:
1. Using illustrations and cases, discuss the rationale of providing
guidance and counselling services to students in secondary
schools of Uganda today.

2. Explain how guidance and counselling services can be improved

in all secondary schools of Uganda.
According to Subasinghe (2016), guidance is an assistance given to
an individual in making intelligence choices and adjustments while
counselling is a professional relationship which empowers the mental
health, moral behavior and professional objectives of a person, family
or a mode of adjustment.
According to Rwechoka (2010), guidance is the process of helping an
individual to gain self-understanding, self-direction and to adjust fully
to the environment while according to Ramakrishnan et al (2013),
counselling is a service designed to help an individual to analyse
himself or herself in relation to his capacities, achievements, interests
and mode of adjustment.
1) The following are the rationales of providing guidance and
counselling services to students in secondary schools of Uganda
today with illustrations and cases.
Guidance and counselling make students better human beings since
they are counseled on how to act and behave in a particular
situation. For instance, if a student is addicted to taking drugs,
alcohol, personal feelings or any kind of abuse then such a person
is advised to reduce on the rate at which he or she takes the drugs
until he stops when talked to since such drugs can lead to
respiratory diseases and loss of life.
Students get comprehensive advice on careers, courses and jobs
that enable them to make a proper and informed choice and
understand what they are done with school. For instance, if a
student is faced with a challenge of which subject combination to
take since he feels like doing science subjects but is not performing
well in them then the counselor advises the student to do the ones
he does best so as to get good results at the end without regret and
difficulties in getting a job because he would be having knowledge
of what he is doing.
It helps to bridge the gap between the students and the school
administration since they are able to guide their problems through
 a proper counselling channel in the office. For instance, if the
students want to strike because there are fees increment, the
counselor talks and makes the students to understand why there is
an increase in the fees thus making the smooth flow of the school.
The students are advised on how to cope with different situations
they tend to face in their school life. For instance, how they should
talk politely or relate with their peers, this advice will give them
perspective on how should they behave in certain scenarios and
maintain friendship among themselves.
It helps to shape the students’ behavior and also instill enough
discipline in them. Proper guidance helps them achieve their goals,
well guided and counselled students to know what to do and how to
do things in the best way. For instance, if a teacher has beaten you
when you are not on wrong do not abuse him or her but instead go to
him and explain yourself better then you get to know whether you
were on wrong or right way and apologize if you were on wrong

2) The following are the ways how guidance and counselling

services can be improved in all secondary schools of Uganda.
Training more competent counselors. The government and private
institutions should set up training centers for counselling that offer
short term refresher courses in specific areas of specialization so as to
keep their skills and knowledge up to date since the society is ever
changing and more issues keep coming up that counselors are not
trained with while at school thus avoiding giving students incorrect
directives.
Increasing sensitization of the students. School guidance committees
should maximize the assembly grounds, orientation programs, career
days and so on to create awareness to students on the services that can
be handled by guidance and counselling services, the presence and
reliability of the school counselors thus avoiding them from suffering
because they are not aware about the services offered by the guidance
and counselling committees and fail to seek support when need arises.
Provision of adequate resources. The government needs to become
more intentional about the development of the practice in the schools
and provide with the necessary funding and resources like furniture,
cumulative record folders, anecdotal records, appraisal advices and so
on when there is effective advocacy by counselors and the school
administration thus providing effective support to the students.
Establishment of guidance and counseling infrastructure. The
government should make the establishment of these infrastructures
like counselors’ offices and counselling rooms a criterion for
approval of new schools both public and private and must be assessed
during school supervision and inspections so as to support the
guidance and counselling services.
Support from school administration and government. The counselors
need to advocate for the support of their authorities through personal
relationships so that they put in much efforts on their implementation
and make them understand the value of guidance and counselling
services.

References:
Whiston, s.c.; tai,W.L. and Rahardja, D. and Eder, K. (2011).. “school
counseling outcome: a meta-analytic review”. Journal of counseling
psychology, vol.no.2, P.150