Influence Of Guidance On Academic Performance Of Students

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Guidance can be said to have started all over the world as a movement at the beginning of 20th Century as a reaction to change process in an industrialized society. Guidance services were set up within the department of education in September 1968 when a consultant Louis, made recommendations and was sent over to Nigeria by United Nation’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), (Summit, 1997). Globally, guidance as a major service is an essential element in management of discipline among the people in any society. It could be difficult for any society to function well without the maintaining of discipline.

School guidance programs have therefore been introduced to assist students overcome numerous challenges they experience at home and at school in other to yield positive result in their academic achievement and performances. Nziramasanga (1999) states that because of many environmental pressures imposed on the family, parents tend to spend little time with their children to give them the necessary guidance which might go a long way to affect their academic performances. However, the parents expect the school to provide solutions to the indiscipline caused by their negligence in their children (UNESCO, 2002). Nigerian adults have become more concerned with earning money and are less bothered by traditional practices that formerly contributed to the upbringing of young people.

In Nigeria, the need for guidance and counseling in schools has been recognized when a survey was done on 20 school counselors selected from different states of the federation and the main problems examined. It was noted that, there is great need for a clear rationale and guidelines for Guidance and Counseling programs, and also the Guidance Counselors (Taylor and Francis, 1998).

The main goal is to help the counselee learn to deal more effectively with himself anytime he/she is in trouble and the reality of his environment so as to improve the counselee’s academic performances.

Allis and Kame (1999) conducted a survey in Alexandria in Egypt on indiscipline among 2170 preparatory and secondary school students attending mainstream governmental schools, in this study Indiscipline among school students and its predictors were investigated. Few indiscipline cases were related to family background whereas the majority was related to the children themselves and according to the research it has a major effect on the academic performance of these students. Schools are social organizations which have several objectives to achieve and role in guidance of students in shaping their academic performances.

Guidance is a rudimentary ingredient that plays a crucial role in school system and insists on upholding the social and moral values of students. It is intended to suppress, control and redirect behavior. In a school system all students must be aware of the rules laid down through thorough guidance before disciplinary action can be administered, in which this has been a key factor to better academic performance in students. (Franken, 1998). The idea of relating discipline and guidance helps to determine the value of G&C to students in schools with respect to their academic performance.

Schools as well as parents share the responsibility of promoting values and standards which we believe will help younger people to establish not just sound academic performances but sound behavioral codes for their lives, hence parents and schools should ensure good discipline is maintained among students at all times. However, greater effort should also be made by the Ministry of Education to offer competent Guidance and counseling  teachers not only to help students to perform well in their academics but also in developing an understanding of one self and of others, supporting students to deal with their personal- social, academic and career related concerns.

Guidance also helps to facilitate development of effective study habits, motivation, identifying learning or subject related problems, helping students to see the relevance of school years in life and for future, developing skills, right attitude and interests to help making a choice in career.

Guidance and counseling, thus, promotes holistic development of every student. This shows the need for every teacher to become a ‘guidance minded’ teacher in the course of carrying out his/her duties with aim of making impacts in the students’ lives.

A major turning point in adolescents' lives involves the career choice that they make while in senior secondary school. However, this decision plays a major role in establishing youth in a career path that opens as well as closes opportunities depending on the strength of guidance they are subjected to. Adolescents with special needs like those with severe mental retardation may not even complete secondary school education because of their unique characteristics, proper guidance will assist these adolescents in their career development as early as possible. Guidance expose students to numerous career development activities in order to help them choose occupations, prepare for, enter into them successfully.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

It is a great concern for stakeholders to see students still performing poorly in their academics despite the numerous ways in which they are guided either by their teachers or parents which seems to be caused by inability of the students to follow the laid down rules and regulations. Despite the fact that, guidance and counseling programs are made available in both homes and in schools, there is still great height of indiscipline among student which contributed has influence on their academic performance. The researcher intended to examine the influence of guidance on academic performance of students.