CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, Guidance means “help or advice given to somebody, e.g. a child or young person, especially by somebody in authority”; while counselling in the other way round means “professional advice about a problem”.From the above definitions of Guidance and Counselling, it therefore means that God is the supreme counselor. Biblically, facts remain that act of guidance and counselling had been right from the creation of Adam and Eve. According to Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying “of every tree of the garden you may freely eat”, “but of the tree of the garden you may freely eat”, but of the tree of the knowledge of you eat of it, you shall surely die”. God having seen that He has put everything in such harmonious way that man should enjoy the garden, he advised.
This then proved that God himself, did not leave man to live according to his own will and dictate, but advised them on how to live and enjoy the good things from the garden.Relating Guidance and counselling to the nation, it proves unequivocal that the word is synonymous with order and administration. It becomes paramount since its spells out the general life conduct of citizenry. At any point in time, failure to adhere to this advice always come with consequences.Academically, the origin of counselling is traced to vocational guidance movement pioneered by Frank Parson in 1986 (Uwe, 2005). This movement initiated an idea of specialist called “Counsellor” whose main aim was to help individual understand the facts about the world of work and themselves, and tried to help them fit these two components of information together in some meaningful way.Also, Clifford Beers in 1988 also gave impetus to the emergence of this profession.
By this he intensified public interest in mental illness and how such people could be help.For the purpose of this project, it becomes imperative that the subject matter, guidance and counselling be defined and narrowed down to educational system, and more specifically in Nigeria. Education is believed to be the bed rock of any development, advancement and progress of any nation. No wonder this sector in recent decades has recorded unprecedented increase and expansion in Nigeria. Apart from this notable expansion in educational system in Nigeria, critical examination reveals that performance of students in our secondary schools fall bellow average. According to Odeniyi (1986) not up to 20% of certified pupils of Nigerian Primary Schools can correctly spell their names, talk less of making a correct sentence. Equally, not up to 30% of certified students of secondary schools in Nigeria can correctly make a sentence, let alone write a letter. Also not up to 60% of the written communication of graduates in Nigerian Universities could be adjudged error free.
One may then be forced to ask, what is the cause of this failure despite determined effort and huge resources government at different levels is invested in educational sector, all for the purpose of improving academic standard of students. Any way, that fact is not far fetch. This is sequel to the fact that one of the essential ingredients, which serves as a piloting compass in educational system in Nigeria has been ignored. According to Denga (2001), guidance and counselling in our school system is a major force in personal, social, educational development of students.To achieve qualitative and quantitative education which has been the song chorused by every concerned Nigerian, it becomes inevitable that government introduces guidance and counselling into that most schools curriculum. It is no doubt that most school principals, teachers and even students undermined the services of counselor.In line with this context, guidance and counselling would be defined and the aim of it services harnessed.Guidance and Counselling Essentially, guidance services are vital for the survival of the school system.