Needs For Guidance And Counselling Services In Primary Schools As Perceived By Primary School Teachers
[A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN METROPOLIS]

Makinde (1983) described Counselling as an enlightened process whereby people help people by facilitating growth, development and positive change through an exercise of self-understanding. The further explained that Counselling is designed to provide an interacting relationship where the counsellee to better understand himself in relating to his present and future decision or problems.
    The counselor provides information about the counsellee and his environment, he reacts in certain ways that stimulate the counsellee to develop behaviours which enable him deal more effectively with himself and his psychological and social environment. Therefore, Counselling provides insight for the future and make personal gains in the self-actualization process. Makinde (1983).
    Guidance and Counselling are similar in that they have as their basis a helping relationship that seeks to assist individual in attaining self direction. However, practitioners know that the two terms are not synonymous. Guidance is abroad term, usually applied to a total-school programme of activities and services aimed at assisting students to make an adequate plan and to achieve satisfactory adjustment in life. Idowu (2004). Counselling is usually viewed as a part or subset of guidance services.
Therefore, it is essential to realize that guidance and Counselling process were initiated to assist societal aspiration of raising good citizens in all ramification as determines by the philosophy of the society. Awokoye (1980), felt that without academic and career guidance and Counselling in the schools the whole purpose of education cannot be achieved. The students must be counseled about the combination of subject which will lead to the career in which he/she has interest and motivation. He argued that no matter how good and well structured the new educational policy may be as it relates to any level of education, if guidance and Counselling services are not given priority and made an integral part of the system, it cannot succeed.
    The National Policy on Education (2004) identified guidance and Counselling as one of the major means of achieving educational goals. This is a service that enables each learner in our institutions of learning to deprive optional educational benefit. This came to the limelight during the nations 1975 – 1980 development plan. The plan was made to introduce guidance in the national educational training programme. As a follow-up to this plan, the government aptly stated in the national policy on education of 1977 (Revised in 1981 and 1989) that in view of the apparent ignorance of many young people about career prospects and in view of personality maladjustment among school children, career officers and counsellors will be appointed in post primary institutions. The school guidance programme is founded upon two primary beliefs.
    Firstly, it recognizes that each student is a worthy individual possessing unique qualities abilities and needs. Thus, the school guidance and Counselling programme focuses on the identification of, and the provision of individual’s needs of the student.
    Secondly, while acknowledging individual difference, it is also recognizes that there are needs and concerns which are common to everyone. These common needs can best be met through carefully planned sequenced programme which are provided, witnessed a remarkable growth in secondary school Counselling since the 1980s. In response to the increased recognition of the Nigerian adolescent development needs, problems and concerns perhaps in given guidance and Counselling at this points in time some recognition, the Federal Government probably believed that the objective of National Policy on Education (1998) can be brought about more easily through the services of guidance and Counselling.
    Some of important objectives of the policy are:
-    Respect for the worth and dignity of the individual.
-    Faith in means ability to make national decision.
-    Moral and spiritual value’s inter-and intrapersonal human relations.
-    Shared responsibility for the common good of society.
-    Promotion of the emotional, physical and psychologically of all children.
Therefore, a look at the Nigeria educational sector today reveals that the needs of elementary of primary school pupils for the kind of developmental assistance that school counsellors will provide have not yet been recognized. The National Policy on Education (1998), refers to the primary school as the institution for children aged normally between 6 to 11 or 12 years. It also recognizes the fact that since the rest of the educational system is built upon the primary school, it is the key to the success or failure of the whole system. However at the moment, attention seems to be focused on providing guidance service for post-primary school students why elementary school Counselling is on the other hand relegated to the background.