The Role of Teacher Counselors in Promoting Discipline among Students in Public Secondary Schools in Ugunja Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Guidance and counseling programs in secondary schools have been introduced to assist students overcome challenges they experience at home and at school. Nziramasanga (1999) states that because of many pressures imposed on the family, parents tend to have little time with their children to give them the necessary guidance. Guidance and counseling is a process of helping individuals discover and develop their educational, vocational and psychological potentialities and achieve some level of personal happiness and social usefulness in society. In Kenyan secondary schools, students are in school most of the time throughout the year. This means that it is the guidance and counseling teachers who are tasked with the important duty of shaping their character. UNESCO (2002:2) indicates that, "African adults have become more concerned with earning money and are less occupied with many traditional practices that formerly contributed to the upbringing of young people". Rapid sociological changes emanating from modernization and urbanization stress students. Gitonga (2007) laments that due to educational and economic challenges they have to grapple with; parents are left with no time to positively parent their children. The result is permissive parenting style, which has its toll on the growing child. Permissive parenting style has no rules or limits. Guidance programs for secondary school students are designed to address the physical, emotional, social, vocational and academic difficulties of adolescent students. This is to complement learning in the classroom and also enhance academic performance/achievements of students. Guidance plays a vital role in preventing educational, personal, social, mental emotional and other similar problems among secondary school students. In Ugunja sub county, there are numerous cases of students burning dormitories and other forms of indiscipline in the secondary schools. It was therefore important to establish the role of teacher counselors in promoting discipline in public secondary schools in the sub county. 2. Objective of the Study The objective of the study was to find out the role of teacher counselors in promoting discipline among students in public secondary schools in Ugunja Sub-County. 3. Literature Review This chapter covered the role of guidance and counseling in promoting discipline in various parts of the world, African countries and eventually narrowed down to Kenya. Hayes and Morgan (2013) carried out a study in Mainland UK and Northern Ireland on the nature, scope and context of the practice of guidance and counseling teachers in post primary