Assesment of the structures and function on the guidance and counselling services in technical institutes of Nairobi City, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out the function and structure of guidance and counselling in technical institute of Nairobi City.

Nairobi city has 14 public and 11 private institutes. Through random sampling method three technical institutes were selected for research. These are: Baptist Mission of Kenya Secretarial College, Kabete Technical Institute and Nairobi Technical Institute. The subjects were divided into three categories, viz: principal, teacher counsellor and students. A total of 153 subjects were involved, of these, 3 were principals, 12 were teacher counsellors and 138 were students.

The data for the study were collected through the use of questionnaires. They were analyzed, interpreted, and compared with the recommendations of the Koech (1999) Commission. The study recommended that guidance and counselling services should be strengthened in both schools and colleges. These services are to be run by trained teacher counsellors who should as far as possible work together with other stakeholders, for example parents, churches, the larger community and NGOs.

The research findings revealed that a lot a effort has been put into setting up the recommended services under the dean of students' offices. However, these services are still very informal and are mainly run by teachers who are not trained counsellors, or who have not been in-serviced since leaving college. The Ministry of Education Science and Technology does not have a clear policy guideline in this area. This makes it difficult for the institute to set up formal structured guidance and counselling services.