COUNSELLING FOR FUNCTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE APPROACH: A 21ST CENTURY APPROACH

COUNSELLING FOR FUNCTIONAL AND

SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION:

A 21ST CENTURY APPROACH

Edited by Agbajor, Asamaigo and Anigala

SCIENCE AND EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE, NIGERIA

EDUCATION

Counselling

CAREER

Guidance

Therapeautic Interventions Information

PERSONAL-SOCIAL

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COUNSELLING FOR FUNCTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION:

A 21ST CENTURY APPROACH

Dr. (Mrs) Helena T. Agbajor, (Editor-in-Chief) Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, P.M.B. 1251, Warri, Delta

State, Nigeria

Dr. (Mrs) E.E. Asamaigo (Associate Editor) Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, P.M.B. 1251, Warri, Delta

State, Nigeria

Dr. (Mrs) A. Anigala (Associate Editor) College of Education Demonstration Secondary School, Warri, Delta State. Nigeria


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© All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be

made without written permission.

This first edition published 2014 by


2 Church Avenue, Oke Eri Quarters

Oba Ile

P.O.Box 214, Akure

Ondo State

Nigeria

+2348122469297

ISBN: 978 – 978 – 52231 – 4 - 9

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BOARD

Abulude, F.O. (Nigeria) - President/CEO

LIST OF ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

Balogun G. A. Sanni Saag Chemical (Nig.) Ltd, 4 Sanni Way, Off Godwin Omonua, Off Banks Way, Isolo Illasamaja, Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. Prof. Mohammad S. Mubarak Chemistry Department, University of Jordan, Amman-11942, JORDAN Prof. T. T. Adebolu Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, Ondo State, Akure, Nigeria Prof. Francisco Torrens Universitat de València, InstitutUniversitari de Ciència Molecular, Universitat de València, Edificid'Instituts de Paterna, València, Spain Hon. Niyi Jones Akinyugha 30B, Olufumilayo Str., Dideolu Estate, P.O.Box 4822K, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria Prof. V. A. Aletor Elizade University, Ilara Mokin, Ondo State, Nigeria Mr. Sola Akitimehin Akinrinaye Street, Ilesha Garage, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria Prof. E. A. Aderinola Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

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CONTENTS

Board iii

Contents iv

Acknowledgments vi

Preface vii

CHAPTER 1 Counselling for Sustainable Education: Issues in The 21st Century - Agbajor, T. Helena and Alordiah Caroline Ochuko 1 CHAPTER 2 Adoption of Psychological Tests in Guidance and

Counselling: A Panacea for Educational Reform and Sustainability in Nigeria - A. A. Agbaje and A. O. Agbaje 11

CHAPTER 3 Functional and Sustainable Education in Nigeria: The 21st Century Approach - Oghiagbephan, A.D. 19 CHAPTER 4 Counselling for Effective Utilization of Information and Communication Technology Among Ekiti State Secondary School Students, Nigeria - E. O. Osakinle 30 CHAPTER 5 Criminal Gangs in Urban Areas: A Threat to Democratic Governance in Nigeria - Beetseh, Kwaghga 38 CHAPTER 6 Curriculum and Vocational Counselling for the Management of Unemployment among Nigerian Youth: Implications for Educational Reforms - Olagunju, Mukaila K. O. and Adeyemi, Shade Vivian 55

CHAPTER 7 Guidance and Counselling Needs in the Educational Programme - Edna Abibetu Abidde 70 CHAPTER 8 Counselling For Utilization of Information and Communication Technology – Anigala, A. 79 CHAPTER 9 Evaluation of Continuous Assessment Practice by

Secondary School Teachers: Counselling Implication

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for Functional and Sustainable Education - Alordiah Caroline Ochuko and Agbajor, T. Helena 86 CHAPTER 10 The Impact of Anxiety, Self-Concept and Truancy on Children With Off-Task Behaviour In Warri Metropolis - Asamaigo, E. E 98

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The President/CEO wishes to thank members of staff of Science and Education

Development Institute, Nigeria for their selfless service in making this publication a

reality.

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PREFACE PREFACE The book titled “Counselling for Functional and Sustainable Education: A 21st Century Approach” is a maiden edition of Science and Education Development Institute (SEDInst) intended for student, neophyte and professional counsellors, care givers, researchers and all that need help in educational, vocational and personal-social matters. Education is an informal and formal teaching and learning process aimed at improving knowledge and the development of skills from elementary to higher education. Counselling is a significant means of functionalising and sustaining education through its array of qualitative services meant to make education goals meaningful and achievable to its recipient. The main objective of the book which is a blend of chapters on reviewed and empirical studies is to equip individuals with relevant data for subsequent researches, satisfy their personal quest for knowledge and meet their needs. The book contains a total of ten chapters that began with an introductory presentation on “Counselling for Sustainable Education: Issues in the 21st Century” and ended with “Impact of Anxiety, Self-Concept and Truancy on the Off-Task Behaviour of primary school Children in Warri Metropolis”. Each chapter, especially chapters eight to ten were carefully selected and written with accurate and appropriate literature review, methodology, discussions, findings and recommendations. We give God all the credit for His enabling grace in making this book a reality and we deeply appreciate the privilege given to us by Mr. F. O. Abulude, the president of Science and Education Development Institute (SEDInst) in ensuring that a book chapter in counselling is accorded its apt position in the scheme of things in academic environment. The effort of meaningful scholars who contributed various chapters and authors whose materials were used that cumulated to the success of the book is also acknowledged. This edition will create possibility for subsequent editions in the realm of counselling. Dr. (Mrs) Agbajor, Helena Tsaninomi Editor – in – Chief Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, P.M.B. 1251, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria.

Knowledge for Global Development

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CHAPTER ONE

COUNSELLING FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION: ISSUES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Agbajor, T. Helena and Alordiah Caroline Ochuko

Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, Warri

ABSTRACT The study is aimed at exploring counselling as an instrument of attaining sustainable education processes at all levels. Education is relevant in fulfilling economic, political, social, cultural and technological advancement. Counselling serves as one of the agencies for creating an intervening effect in the standard of education. However, this is not without its attendant inhibitions which this study discussed and offered recommendations that can brand counselling more efficacious in the implementation of its services. KEYWORDS: Sustainable Education, Counselling

INTRODUCTION Education is a significant means of achieving economic and technological improvement when fully implemented in school and out of school situations. Its usefulness in assessing opportunities and self-enhancement in terms of career and development cannot be over-emphasized. Students and non-students alike benefit from its dividends. Education laid the foundation in which many nations of the world attained reasonable heights of technology advancement required for the rare innovations, creativity and economic rehabilitation (Maduewesi & Ezeoba, 2010). In view of this, sustaining education will amount to preserving it through the processes which Ughammadu (2006) outlined as people‘s acquisition of cultural heritage, knowledge, ideals and civilization of the future. Education can be sustained when its values, principles and processes are adhered to by the learners, teachers and counsellors who are the keepers of the tenets of education. Counselling is unique and second to none in providing assistance to teachers, students, parents, school administrators and curriculum planners in fulfilling the policies of education as it applies to each of them. The counselling process remains one of the exclusive ways of sustaining the age long system of education that has been nurtured to build useful and self-productive citizens that can transfer a nation into an acceptable level of development.


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The Concept of Education Education is a continuous process that compasses teaching and learning which commences from birth till death. These processes is what Fafunwa (1987) described as the aggregate by which a child or adult develops the abilities, attitudes and other forms of behaviors which are of positive value to the society in which he lives. Education is also perceived in three dimensions. They are development of knowledge, training of mental abilities and development of character (Anyaogu, 2011). The three areas accentuated above can be attained through the rendering of assistance to students, teachers, parents school management which is what counselling entails. Education is a mirage of all activities that involves the learners, teachers and content to be learnt or taught. In most of these activities counselling is required to make teaching and learning experiences worthwhile. A section of the National Policy on Education (NPE) states that education should be geared towards:

―Self-realization, better human relationship, individual and national efficiency, effective citizenship, national consciousness, national unity, social, cultural, economic, political, scientific and technical progress‖ (NCE, 2004).

The laudable objective indicated above cannot be achieved by teachers‘ effort alone. The input of counselling through the effort of professional counsellors is required to help pupils and students alike achieve these educational goals. The Meaning of Counselling Counselling is one to one encounter in form of a relationship between professionally trained helper and a helpee with the sole aim of rendering assistance that enables the helpee achieve set - realization and adjust to life encounters. Counselling can be defined from the perspective of learning. In this regard, it is considered as a process of learning in which individuals learn about themselves (personal characteristics, interpersonal relationships, attitudes, values and behavior) that help them in their development (Okon,1984). In other words, counselling provides learning opportunities for individuals who are willing to learn from the counsellor and make appropriate choices applicable to their area of needs. Counselling also act as a helping process whereby the helper‘s basic function is to provide facilitative and action condition necessary for change in the client‘s mode of thinking, feeling and behaviour (Alao, 1991). The facilitative role is provided by counsellors who act as guide to clients with a view to helping them make selection from a number of alternatives that relates to their prodding needs. Counselling relationships in most cases are between two persons (a counsellor and a client). In group counselling, it could be a counsellor and 10-12 persons. It could also be two counselors relating with 6 – 10 or15 individuals in a group of


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counselling section (Okobia and Okorodudu, 2004). Counselling encounter between the counsellor and clients operates not only within the confine of schools but also homes, churches, offices, industries and the society in general. It was suggested by Bulus and Okpede (2012) as one of the important guidance services that is relevant in ensuring quality education. Its usefulness in the educational parlance enables it to render assistance to individuals in their areas of need. THE ROLE OF COUNSELLING IN SUSTAINING EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY Counselling is uniquely relevant and sine qua non in the reformation and sustainability of education all over the world. It is the driving or motivating force that makes teaching and learning more meaningful to students and adults in all levels of education. Counselling is instrumental in preserving the values of education and in ensuring that educational course content of each subject or course is actualized through the facilitative role of the manager of counselling programmes ―the counsellor‖. The objectives of counselling as outlined by Adediran (1995), Ogunyemi (2003) and Mallum (2005) include the following:

1. To assist all students in making appropriate and satisfying educational, vocational and personal-social choices.

2. To assist all students in acquiring as early as possible positive image of self through self-understanding, self-direction and skills in problem-solving and decision making.

3. To develop in students an awareness of opportunities in the personal social, educational and vocational areas by providing them with appropriate, useful and usable information.

4. To help students acquire the skills of collecting, collating and using appropriate information.

5. To help students develop positive attitudes to self, others, to appropriate national issues to work and to learn.

6. To develop among them career awareness through understanding of career opportunities, lifestyles that are reflected in different types of work and job openings.

7. To help students remove barriers that may inhibit learning. 8. To help them participate meaningfully in the opportunities provided by

the school in curricular and co-curricular activities. These objectives are not only applicable to students but also to other well-meaning individuals that need counselling and they are to be implemented through counselling in order to achieve the central objectives of education. In doing this, the counselor is saddled with a huge responsibility which Ogunyemi


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(2003) noted to be a function that cannot be provided by parents, peers or teachers. The counsellor plays a fundamental function in interpreting the content of the school curriculum through individual and group counselling that involves the use of psychological techniques and theories intended to aid clients in identifying problems, explore possible solutions and carry out assignments that are targeted towards resolving challenges. The services of counsellors are expressly reflected in the three tiers of counselling which is educational, vocational and personal-social counselling. These services are meant to help individuals understand self and apply educational principles to life situations and adapt favourably to their environment. These activities of the counsellors are indicative of the ways in which counselling helps in reforming and preserving the educational norms through the modification of individual behaviour. The behaviour of individuals could be changed and made to conform to educational goals and standards through individual and group counselling. Individual Counselling Individual counselling is an interaction involving an agreement between two individuals. It is a relationship in which at least one of the parties (the counsellor) has the intent of promoting growth, development, maturity, improved functioning and improved coping with life of the other (the client) (Rogers, 1961). This kind of counselling encounter provides a kind of relationship that is therapeutic, professional and educative. Group Counselling Group counselling is a process that involves a counselling experience between one or more counsellors and a group of individuals who are provided with educational, vocational and personal - social information relating to their necessities. It is a mode of counselling based on a counsellor and four to ten clients (Clifford cited in Okobiah and Okorodudu, 2004). There is no restriction as to the number of clients that should be in the group. The goal of group counselling is to share and solve problems through group association. The major goal of these two forms of counselling according to Okobia and Okorodudu (2004)is helping the individuals, whether they are alone or in a group towards remediation of their emotional, social, psychological and educational problems and in developing a positive self- concept or a fulfilling and satisfying self-actualization. The major difference in the two forms of counselling is in each setting. The setting for individual counselling must exclude a third party while that of group counselling is an open setting.


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CHALLENGES OF COUNSELLING PRACTICE Counselling practice is meant to enhance individual‘s needs through the provision of adequate educational, vocational and personal-social information. Interestingly, the implementations of these services are not without some impediments that have reduce the efficacy of counselling practice both within school and non-school setting viz: Counselling Facilities Counselling facilities is a prominent index that has militated against counselling in all capacities. The government through its national policy on education in 1977, 1978, 1979 and revised in 2004 saw counselling as an instrument for sustaining education and effecting national development (Owuamanam, 2005 and Agbajor, 2013) and hence it‘s inclusion in the Nigerian educational system by the federal government (Sa‘idu, 2011). The implication of this is that education can be reformed and sustained when the necessary counselling facilities which (Oladele, 1987 and Isiugo – Abanihe & Odenyi, 2011) listed as psychological tests (vocational interest inventory -V11, motivation for occupation preference scale –MOPs and student problem inventory-SPI), career album, information boards, counselling office, counselling records, Suggestion boxes, tape records, computers, stationaries, etc. are provided. These counselling facilities when available in any counselling or school settings make counselling functional and the relationship a worthwhile experience. Counselling in any school environment should be to cater for pressing issues that bothers on relationships, poor study habits, poor performance, psychological and social challenges that tend to disturb learning processes. Funding Counselling practice like any other service need finance to provide facilities, run its programmes and pay its personnel where necessary. The reverse seems to be the case in the school system. Odigie (2005) is however, of the opinion that there ought to be enough financial support for counselling units for the purpose of adequate provision of utilities such as audio visuals, stationery and fund for attendance of conferences, seminars and workshops. Lack of fund in most cases, tend to thwart the effort of the counsellor in achieving counselling goals and in performing administrative roles and functions. This is the ordeal of counsellors in most cases as there is no financial budget made specifically for counselling programmes (Alao, 2005). ―There is no fund‖ is often the slangs of principals. Counsellors are consequently left to fend for themselves and their programmes which are financially involving.


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Counselors’ Relationship with School Administrative Personnel A cordial relationship ought to exist between counsellors, principals, teachers, vice principals and other counselling personnel. Hostility, rancor, role confusion, excessive workload for counsellors, degradation and disregard seems to have its toll in most counselling relationships with members of staff. Such rivalries and lack of cooperation according to Mallum (2000) affects the effort of stake holders whose input in sustaining education provided in schools and other organization where counselling is practiced is marginalized. The cause of the rivalries could be as a result of fear of counsellors taking over their roles, exercising superiority over them especially because he or she has close affinity with the students and students hold them in high esteem where counsellors are models indeed. Close relationship, support and cooperation is needed between principals, members of staff and counsellors to reduce numerous school problems like indiscipline, examination malpractice, poor academic performance, rioting, cultism, sexual immorality, truancy, premarital pregnancy, rape and others which negatively affect student‘s performance (Owuamanam, 2005). Parents are not exempted from this as they are part of the agent of educational change. Their cooperation with the counsellor is something that should be highly solicited for. Counsellors cannot achieve counselling goals when they are at pal with authorities that are. Counsellors can only be termed successful when things are going on smoothly in the school system, organizational settings and any country where counselling is practiced. Training of Counsellors Training of counsellors for the purpose of creating change and sustainable education is as important as training the recipient. One of the major challenges plaguing counselling practice is lack of adequate and qualified counselors in the schooling environment and this Aluede and Imonike (2002) noted, is largely responsible for lack of articulated guidance curriculum. Individuals without appropriate training in counselling may lack psychological skills for diagnosing, administering and analyzing psychological tests as well as employing the right therapeutic measures for treatment of certain behavioural cases. This is why they need training and according to Sa‘idu (2011), they should be competent professionals whose services are highly required in school setting. The main training for counselling is organized by universities and some colleges of education (Oladele, 1987) and the least qualification for a counsellor as stipulated by the Nigerian Policy on Education in collaboration with the counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON) is B.ED certificate in guidance and counselling (Olayinka, 1980 & Achebe, 1986). Counsellors with such qualification can upgrade themselves by going for further training to obtain M.ED and Ph.D in guidance and counselling in order to meet up to professional trends. The essence of this is for them to be well equipped to manage modern day challenges associated with clients‘ needs. Engaging in researches and participating in


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seminars, workshops and conferences are ways of advancement for counsellors. However, lack of awareness, motivation and finance are factors that have stalled their training in recent times. E Counselling E counselling seems to be a new phenomenon within the counselling parlance. It is a modern means of communication between counsellor(s) and client(s) in sessions via internet within a stipulated period of at least once a week in a year or six months with a singular purpose of assisting clients in discovering themselves and making useful choices in relation to their educational, vocational and personal-social needs. E counselling or telecounselling is an extension of information and communication technology which Ivowi (2005) prescribed as generic term employed in describing the generation, storage, dissemination and eliciting of relevant information for therapeutic encounter. Most counsellors seem to be regressive in relation to familiarization and use of information technology. Their lack of competency in the use of electronic services could deter them from relating effectively with clients who are not within their immediate reach. Electronic communication involves the use of e-mails, internet and communication aided strategies in counselling clients (Adika, 2011). Adika further added that counsellors are not left out in this all-important phenomenon which has potential to transform not only counselling practices but education as well. Counsellors who lack basic skills in electronic services may not be able to email and make internet contact with distant clients that need such help. This may have been necessitated by lack of access to the electronic gadgets or lack of training in their usage. CONCLUSION The government, federal and state ministries of education, school administrators, parents, teachers, counsellors and students have starring role to play in reforming and sustaining educational standard towards producing self-reliant citizens that can fend for themselves and others which is the major goal of education as stated in the National Policy on Education (2004). Counselling function in this regard is encompassing because it connects the home, school and society through its unique activities that offers therapeutic services in individual and group counselling. Recommendations for Managing Challenges in Counselling for Sustainable Education in the 21st Century Educational reform and sustainability is attainable if only the following recommendations that will allow for effective counselling are enforced. 1. Government, federal and state ministries of education and school heads

should as a matter of policy have annual allocation of fund that will be sufficient to manage counselling programmes.


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2. Government should make available counselling facilities that could enhance counselling activities both in school and non-school setting.

3. Organizations and schools with counselling facilities should imbibe maintenance culture that will enable equipment such as computer, office furniture, tapes and others serve for a long period of time.

4. Scholarship and subventions should be made available to counsellors by government and NGOs in order to give themselves to adequate training.

5. More effort should be made by the government to train and retrain counsellors in E communication. It gives room for a wider range of counselling activities. Individuals will have opportunity to relate with counsellors on line as it is in developed countries.

6. Government and NGO‘s should establish more counselling centers in every field of organizations in government custody. There should be at least three counsellor to a school from nursery to tertiary institutions depending on the population strength. It creates an atmosphere for early introduction of children to counselling practice which is intended to foster quality education.

REFERENCES Achebe, C.C. (1986). Training and certification of Nigerian counselors: Problems and prospects. Nigerian Journal of Counselling and Development.1 (2), 95-105.

Adediran, G. (1995). Handbook of guidance and counselling. Ado-Ekiti: Hope Paper Mills Ltd.

Agbajor, H.T. (2013). The impact of Mathematics education and economic empowerment on National development in Nigeria: Implication for counselling practice. A paper presented at the 15th Annual National Conference of National Association of Advancement of Knowledge at Cross River University Technology, Calabar, Cross River State in 11th–15th March, 2013.

Alao, A. A. (1991). Individual Counselling.In S. A.Gerinde (Ed).Readings in counselling practicum. Ibadan: Vantage Publisher.

Alao, I.F. (2005). Repositioning guidance and counselling services in the National Policy of Education in the 21st century. Knowledge Review, 112, 44 – 47.

Anyaogu, R.O. (2011). The role of parents in refocusing child education in Nigeria.In P. Egbule, J. E. Tabotnadip and D. A. Abaho (Eds.),Refocusing education in Nigeria in the 21st century (pp 348-357). Lagos: West and Solomon Publishing Ltd.

Bulus, I., & Okpede, D.O. (2012). Managing the guidance programmes in schools for quality education. Retrieved from http://www.dspace.unijos.edu.ng


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Fafunwa, A. B. (1989). Education in mother tongue, Ibadan: University Press Ltd.

Isiugo-Abanihe, I. M., & Odeniyi, O. A. (2011). Evaluation of guidance and counselling resources in secondary schools in Oyo State. Conference Proceedings of the Annual National Conference of the Counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON). 40-46

Ivowi, U. M. O. (2005). Utilizing the dynamics of information in counselling and care-giving, Keynote Address presented at the Annual Counselling Conference of the counselling Unit, University of Nigeria, Nsuka.

Maduewesi, B. U., & Ezeoba, K. O. (2010). Teacher education in Nigeria in the 21st century: Challenges and prospects. In E. C. Iluputaife, B. U. Maduewesi & R. O.Igbo (Eds.), Issues and challenges in Nigerian education in the 21st century (pp. 1-15). Onitsha. West and Solomon Publishing Coy Ltd

Mallum, A.Y. (2000). Guidance and counselling. Beginner‟s guide. Jos: Deka Enterprises (Nigeria).

Odigie, J.I. (2005). Counselling for holistic education.WAJOPHE, 9, 1, 73-80.

Okobia, O. C., & Okorodudu, R.I. (2004).Concepts of guidance and counselling. In O.C. Okobia and R.I. Okorodudu (Eds.), Issues, Concepts, Theories and Counselling Techniques of Guidance and Counselling(pp. 24-51). Nigeria: Ethiope Publishing Corporation.

Okon, S.E. (1984). Guidance for the 6-3-3-4 system of education. Zaria: Institute of Education. Ahmadu Bello University.

Oladele, J. O. (1987). Guidance and counselling. A functional approach. Lagos: Johns-Lad Enterprises.

Olayinka, M. S. (1980). Organising guidance services in the secondary school system: Poineering Approach and strategies. Nigerian Journal of Counselling and Development.1, (2), 65-76.

Ogunyemi, B. (2003). The counsellor and other school personnel: Practical collaboration for quality education. The Counsellor, 19(2), 27 – 42

Owuamanam, T. O. (2005). The role of the counsellor and other school personnel in providing quality education in Nigerian schools. The Nigerian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 10, 1, 12 – 21.

Rogers, C.R. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.


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Sa‘idu, G. (2011). Challenges facing counselling practices in Kano State, Nigeria: Implication for guidance and counseling. Conference Proceedings of the Annual National Conference of the Counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON).90-100 Ughamadu, K. A. (2006). Curriculum Concept, development and implementation. Nkpor Onitsha: Lincel Publishers.


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CHAPTER TWO

ADOPTION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS IN GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING: A PANACEA FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORM

AND SUSTAINABILITY IN NIGERIA

A. A. Agbaje

Department of Educational Foundations, Guidance and Counselling University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

A. O. Agbaje

Union Bank of Nigeria, Amuwo Odofin Branch, Festac Town, Lagos

ABSTRACT The study clarified the nature of psychological tests and portrays these tests as a stimulus presented to an individual so as to elicit a response on the basis of which a judgment is made on certain attributes and abilities possessed by that individual. The response which constitutes the basis of such a judgment is essentially a sample of the individual background behaviour from which inferences are made about the entire universe of abilities and attributes possessed by that individual. Three major categories of human attributes were highlighted and classification of psychological tests was similarly identified. The differences existing between standardized and non-standardized test were clarified, significance and functions of psychological test were spelt out to familiarize the „testers and proctors” with the relevance of psychological test and the work that lie ahead of them. A number of basic principles that can guide the selection of psychological tests within the school and non-school settings were itemized as a proof for understanding the administration, scoring and interpretation of test. Besides, it shows the benefits of using psychological tests, how it makes counselling more scientific and enhances the effectiveness of counselling programmes in making the individual more useful to self and the environment. KEYWORDS: Educational Reform and Sustainability, Psychological tests, Guidance and Counselling.

INTRODUCTION A psychological test can be observed as a stimulus presented to an individual so as to elicit a response on the basis of which a judgment is made on certain attributes and abilities possessed by that individual. The response which constitutes the basis of such a judgment is essentially a sample of the individual behaviour from which inferences are made about the entire abilities and attributes possessed by that individual. This is why some psychologists define a


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test as an objective sample of some aspects of behaviour (Bakare, 1977; Carton, 2005). The presented stimulus could be of several types and they gave rise to particular types of tests. First, there could be a written stimulus such as the question, ―what is your name‖ and if the answer is also in written form, this gives rise to paper-pencil-test. Second, there could be a performance stimulus in which the individual is required to execute some specified practical task as solving jig-saw puzzle or constructing blocks to match presented designs, such tasks give rise to performance test. Third, there could be situation – stimuli which consist of putting the individual in special situations such as: speaking before a strange audience so as to observe his reaction. This gives a view of situational stimuli and fourth, there could be an oral stimulus such as asking an oral question ―What is the capital of Nigeria‖. If an oral answer is required to this question, this gives rise to oral test, (Carton, 2005). As it could be seen from the above, various types of test stimulus rise to different types of tests. The responses to these stimuli are used to assess three major categories of human attributes. First, there is the Psychomotor Domain of human attributes which refer to the capacities involving motor abilities. Secondly, there is the Cognitive Domain which involves capacities dealing with knowledge and the acquisition and utilization of information and thirdly there is an Affective Domain which deals with feelings and values. It is from responses which individuals give to the test stimuli that psychologists infer how much of the various attributes in each domain that the individual possesses. Classification of Psychological Tests Depending on the particular criteria used, psychological tests could be classified into several major categories. In fact the above classification into psychomotor, cognitive and affective tests is one of the commonly used classifications. One more commonly accepted classification is that by Goddon (1970) which classified psychological tests thus: Achievement Tests: These types of test assess the mastery of a specified area after exposure to a course of instruction, for example, Chemistry Test, History Test, and so on. They are Standard Achievement Test (SAT) and the West Africans School Certificate Examination or General Certificate Examination. Mental Ability Tests: are also known as intelligence tests which assess an individual‘s mental capacity. Examples are the Wechsler Intelligence Adult Scale (WAIS) and the Progressive Matrice Test (PMT).


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Aptitude Tests: Assess an individual‘s ability to benefit from training. These tests predict the capacity of ―do well‖ after a period of training in an area. In layman‘s terms, it measures individuals ―Flair‖ for an area of learning. Examples of Aptitude Tests are the General Aptitude Test Battery, (GATB), TEDRO Aptitude Test in Nigeria and the newly constructed Federal Ministry of Education Test. Interest Inventories: Assess the type of activities in which an individual would like to be engaged for his own sakes without necessarily seeking remuneration - such activities are believed to be linked to occupations which would give the individual considerable satisfaction. Examples are ―The Kinder Preference Scale, The Vocational Interest Blank and the Vocation Interest Inventory‖ in Nigeria (Anne Anastasi, 1996). Personality and Attitude Tests: Personality tests assess an individual‘s more stable and enduring characteristics. Examples are ―The Cattell‘s 16 P. F.; Gordon‘s Personality Scale; The Student Problem Inventory and The Study Habits Inventory‖. Attitude Tests measure an individual pre-disposition to respond positively or negatively to people, objects, or people‘s ideas in one‘s environment. In layman‘s terms, attitude tests measure one‘s likes or dislikes in one‘s social environment. Attitude Tests are important because they predict one‘s behaviour and they are often used to predict one‘s future response to objects, places and people with whom one interacts. Standardized Vs Non-Standardized Tests: Most of the psychological tests in general use are standardized tests. The term ―standardized‖ refers to uniform test items, uniform scoring methods (most of which are objective), uniform administration conditions, uniform interpretation modes and the availability of a norm against which testees could be compared. It can be readily seen that such standard conditions of use are an indispensable prerequisite of tests which would be in use for widespread comparison purposes. Non-standardized tests such as teacher made tests do not have the characteristics mentioned above. They are often used for limited assessment purposes which do not involve major decisions (Agbakwunu, 2008). Significance and Functions of Psychological Tests Psychological tests are of a great significance especially in Guidance and Counselling. They represent the more scientific aspects of counselling without which the process becomes largely based on guesswork and intuition. Psychological tests constitute a systematic method of obtaining information on which to base important decisions. Many counselling psychologists who do not use psychological tests in their practice are hardly better and could not be expected to be more effective than peers or elders who give advice to their clients. There is considerable evidence that psychological tests would become more and more central in the counselling process.


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A look at the major stages of the counselling process, that is, Referral, Diagnosis Therapy Termination and follow-up, it becomes clear that at every stage, psychological tests have a major part to play. Similarly a look at the major forms of counselling that is ―Educational, Vocational, Personal, Psychological, Pastoral and Rehabilitation Counselling,‖ one observes the major role that psychological tests could play in making every stage of the counselling process more effective. In general it could be seen that psychological tests could be used for ―selection, Placement, Prediction, Classification, Counselling and Evaluation‖. It seems clear that in Nigerian Secondary School setting, psychological tests have all these roles to play, especially within the 6-3-3-4 and the New National Policy on Education. It is generally accepted that well-developed systems of Guidance and Counselling is an indispensable condition for the success of the new policy. The effectiveness of Guidance and Counselling within the Nigerian Educational system in turn depends on the establishment of a sound psychological testing programme. Psychological Testing would be required for major processes within the present school system. These are: Routine Counselling Programme: In this programme, students‘ vocational interest, vocational preferences as well as study habits problems, mental ability and parental problems are tested yearly. Such testing programme not only provides a picture of the student‘s development as he progresses through the school, but it would also enable the counselling psychologists to identify vocational, academic and personal problems as they arise in the student and assist in their solution. Psychological tests are now available; examples are the vocational interest inventory; Motivation for Occupational Preference Scale; Progressive Matrices; Students Habits Inventory; Student Problem Inventory and Adolescent Personality Data Inventory. ―Results from such routine administration of such tests should be recorded in the students‘ cumulative recorded folders for use in taking future decisions on the students‖(Adams & Baker, 2004). Programme of Classification at the End of the Junior Secondary Schools: A crucial factor in the new educational policy in Nigeria is classification of students at the end of the Junior Secondary School. At present the only results of the continuous assessment are utilized in most schools for such classification. The evaluation sometimes used is a central achievement oriented examination. It is necessary to add aptitude tests; mental tests and interest and interviews to enhance the validity of crucial decisions that are being made at the end of the Junior Secondary School. Tests which are available in this regard include ―The Vocational Interest Inventory; The Motivation for Occupational Preference; Progressive Matrices and The various Aptitude Tests developed by the TEDRO and the Federal Ministry of Education. Again, results obtained from these tests


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should be recorded in ―The Student‘s Cumulative Record‖ for the purpose of reference‖ The Programme of Counselling in Senior Secondary Schools and in the Vocational/Technical Schools: Tests are also useful in the counselling programme which is provided for the senior secondary schools or in vocational schools. Tests which could be used in such counselling programme include the Student Habits Inventory (SHI) for Routine Academic Counselling. The Vocational Interest Inventory (VII) and the Motivations for Occupational Preference (MOPS) for Routine Vocational Counselling and the Student Problem Inventory (SPI) for Personal Psychological Counselling. Programme of Counselling at the End of the Secondary School period including Counselling for Self-Employment: Again at the end of secondary school period important vocational decisions are made. Student could also be put in various apprenticeship training schemes. Psychological tests such as the MOPS and the VII could be very useful in assisting counselling and students in making these important decisions. Even if these students are to be self-employed these could indicate in which vocational areas are most likely to be effective and satisfied, (Adams & Baker, 2004). Selection, Administration, Scoring and Interpretation of Psychological Tests Principles of Selecting Psychological Tests: A number of basic principles should guide the selection of psychological tests within the school setting. First the particular type of problem being investigated should determine the test to be selected in investigating the problem. Thus if the problem is a vocational problem, the vocational tests should be selected, if it is a psychological problem, then personal psychological tests should be selected and if it is an educational problem then achievement, aptitude and mental ability tests should be selected. Second, the age and educational level of the students should determine the particular tests to be selected. Third, the administrative suitability of the test, its cost, the time available for its administration and scoring are factors which should be taken into accounts when selecting a test for use in a school testing programme. Administration and Scoring of Psychological Tests: Before administering psychological test, the Test Manual should be carefully read by the Tester. Instructions for administration contained in the manual should then be followed to the letter. First, adequate preparations should be made for the testing session. This includes obtaining adequate number of the selected test for the testees, obtaining a well-lighted and well-narrated testing room in which seats are well spaced to avoid, spying and offering of mutual assistance by testees. Also testing assistants known as proctors should be obtained at the ratio of about one proctor to thirty testees if large numbers of students are to be tested. After making such


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adequate preparations testees are brought into the testing room, seated and are made comfortable by establishing rapport with them before they are started off with the appropriate and specified testing instructions. Depending on whether the tests is timed or not, testees are allowed the specified time and they then stopped as specified. The completed tests protocols are then collected for scoring. ―Scoring of test protocols are done as directed in the test manual. It should be remembered that scoring of tests could be done manually be computers‖(Wrenn, 1973). Interpretation of Psychological Tests: Again the interpretation of psychological tests should be done as indicated in the Test Manual. First, what the test measures and the meaning of the test scores should have been indicated in the test manual, for instance, in some tests the higher the scores, the more the attribute being measured by the test is possessed by the individual the more desirable the situation is. This is the case in such tests as the VII and the SPI. However, in other tests, the higher the scores, the less desirable the situations. An example of this is in SHI where higher scores mean more personal problems. The first step in test interpretation therefore is to know what the test measures and the meaning of the test scores. Second, test interpretation could adapt the Ipsative Approach where intra-indiviual comparisons are made and seeking to obtain the individual‘s strengths and weaknesses in relation to the attribute being measured. Interpretation could also adopt the Normative Approach in which the individual is compared with others. ―In making any of these two comparisons, the various techniques of profile analysis could be adopted and descriptive as well as inferential statistics could be used to describe as well as find significant difference among groups‖ (Terman, 1916). Third, it should be noted that it is during interpretation that the implications of the test scores, for the major decisions facing the individual are drawn out. Such decisions could be educational, vocational, adjustment or marital ones and test scores and their subsequent analysis are used as basis for making these decisions. Some Available Psychological Tests: These available tests would just be mentioned in passing in this article since their test manuals give full descriptions and details of use and since subsequent practicum sessions would teach how to administer score and interpret them. Vocational Interest Inventory: This consists of activities which the tests is rated according to the degree of liking them. These activities are grouped into (10) major interest areas. ―Scores obtained for each interest area are transferred into an interest profile which provides a graphic illustration of the client‘s interests, then preferred interests are explored for their implored occupational patterns‖ (Ofo, 1994).


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Motivation for Occupational Preference Scale (MOPS): This scale identifies an individual‘s preferred occupation and the reasons for such preferences. These reasons provide an insight into the individual‘s occupational values and such values could form the basis of providing occupational or vocational counselling to individuals and groups. Study Habits Inventory (SHI): This inventory assesses the study habits which could hamper the individual educational progress. Results obtained from this inventory could also form the basis of educational counselling directed at improving the educational achievement of the individual. Student Problem Inventory (SPI): The scale identifies the nature of the personal problems facing an individual. The assumption here is that such problems exact a tool on the individuals‘ level of effectiveness and personal satisfaction. As in other scales, results of the inventory could form the basis of counselling to assist the individual to cope better with such problems (Bakare, 1977). Progressive Matrices: These matrices represent the most generally used measure of overall mental ability in Nigeria at present. It can be used from about the age of five (5) years throughout the life span. One major advantage of this test is that being a non-verbal test, it is relatively independent of language proficiency. This makes it ideal for subjects whose mother tongue is not English. Furthermore, it is reputed to be relatively culture free and to be tightly loaded, the central factor in general mental ability performances on this is that it is also known as to be tightly correlated with performances on technological subjects. It would therefore be useful for making decisions at the end of the ―Junior Secondary School Programme‖ (Johnson, 2002). Adolescent Personality Data Inventory (APDI): The APDI is essentially a research instrument with regards to the aspects dealing with the physical attributes of adolescents. However, the sections dealing with such personal factors as self - concept would be useful for psychological counselling. In particular, personal psychological as well as academic counselling in schools would find some aspects of APDI very useful. CONCLUSION These tests form an indispensable aspect of a school counselling programme and attempts should be made to incorporate them into such programmes. Such a step would make counselling more scientific and would enhance the effectiveness of counselling programme in making the individual more useful to himself and to the Nigerian society at large. However, their uses require adequate training so as to avoid the well-known pitfalls attendant upon the use of psychological tests.


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REFERENCES Adams, C. & Baker, K. (eds) (2004). Perspective on Pupils Assessment. A paper presented at the CTC Conference New Relationships. Teaching, Learning and Accountability. Agbakwunu, C. (2008). Psychological problems and Coping Strategies among the Aged. Owerri Reliable Publishers. American Academy for the Advancement of Science (1989). Anastasi, A. (1926). Psychological Testing. New York: The Macmillan Company. Bakare, C. G. M. (1977). Psychological Tests: Their Uses in Guidance and Counselling. Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press. Carton, C. (2005). Fairness Assessment 31st Annual Conference of International Association for Education Assessment. Abuja, Nigeria. Goddon, P. (1920). Intelligence and Society for Restrictive Immigration Laws. India: Prentice Hall Services. Johnson, R. S. (2002). Using Data to Dose the Achievement Gap. How to Measure Equity in our Schools. Thousand Oarks, C. A. Corwin. Bernard J. (2008). Ethics of Tests in Counselling Psychology. Journal of Counselling and Development, 91(1) 33-44. Ofo, J. E. (1994). Research Methods and Statistics in Education and Social Sciences, Lagos: Joju Educational Research and Publishers Ltd. Standars, W. (2005). An A-Z of Tests in Counselling Psychology, Lorain Community College 1605N Abbe Road – Elyria 44035. Terman, L. M. (1916). The Measurement of Intelligence, Boston: Houghton Mufflin. Wren, G. (1973). The World of Contemporary Counsellors. Boston: Houghton Mufflin.


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CHAPTER THREE

FUNCTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION IN NIGERIA: THE 21ST CENTURY APPROACH

Oghiagbephan, A.D.

Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, P.M.B. 1251, Warri

INTRODUCTION The developed nations did not attain their levels of development by merely wishing that their dreams and aspirations were actualized through a well thought out, planned and executed education system. The giant strides made by most Asian countries that are fast competing with the developed countries of Europe and North America had to work on the quality and functional relevance of their education system to ensure that it met their needs of science and technology. Nigeria‘s aspiration to become one of the developed countries of the world can only be actualized through a relevant, functional and quality education system. Education is synonymous with the existence of human societies. The education of any society usually reflects its whole essence. This means that it encapsulates its philosophy and way of life. The education of any society involves the transmission of all knowledge that is deemed worthwhile. Orobosa (2010) in Dienye (2011) defined education as the process by which an individual acquires the many physical and social capabilities demanded by the society to which he or she has been born into. The whole essence of education is to ensure the proper functioning and survival of an individual in his society. Education enhances an individual‘s ability to impact positively on and improve his society. Education therefore performs a most significant complex social function of the control of tools for societal development. Recognizing the role of education to the individual and society at large; Dienye (2011) noted that education involved the deliberate efforts on the part of the educator in developing the personality of the child and to prepare him for membership of his society. According to Ukeje (1986) in Dienye (2011) he described education as being powerful. It is a process of acquiring knowledge and ideas that shape and condition man‘s attitudes, actions and achievements, it is a process of developing the child‘s contributions in social reforms, it is the process of mastering the laws of nature and for utilizing them effectively for the welfare of the individual and for social reconstruction; it is the art of utilizing knowledge for a complete living.


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THE CONCEPT of QUALITY EDUCATION The quality of an education system becomes suspicious when its recipients cannot perform efficiently in society. A quality education should enhance the capability of its recipients to improve and bring about positive improvement in their societies. Quality education fulfills the needs and expectations of members of a society. Inability to fulfill the expectations of a society leads to a suspicion of the quality of that education system. This could result in looking outside that system for quality education. Quality education encompasses teaching and learning of knowledge, proper product and technical competency. It also focuses on the cultivation of skills, trades or professions as well as mental, moral and aesthetic development. Quality education is fundamental to societal development. A society that is intellectual bankrupt will automatically become socially, economically and politically bankrupt which means no development. Quality education is indispensable in a society that needs to break the cycle of poverty, ignorance and disease. It is an integral part of the social, political, economic and prosperity of all societies. Societal development can only be realized if policy makers match their words with positive actions. A society whose education system is in shamble cannot expect any reasonable level of development when policy makers pay lip service to issues that border on improving the education system, development will continue to be a mirage. The issue of government reluctance to adequately fund the education sector shows lack of commitment on the part of the government to ensure quality education. Effective teaching and adequate teacher training at all levels of the education system is very crucial in the achievement of quality education and development. The school is an important agency of education that needed to bring about a positive and desirable modification in behaviour of learners in a more systematic way. The quality of teaching must be very good to yield desired results. A high quality education is required to adequately prepare pupils for adult life roles. What this means is a type of education that is functional in enabling the learner gain thinking habits and develop the technical means needed for them to enhance their ability in solving practical problems. UNESCO/UNICEF (1983) in Maple (2011:370) viewed quality education from these three perspectives: i. Quality of education refers to the extent to which the educational system

meets or tends to respond to the economic needs of the society. ii. It refers to the effectiveness with which the educational system promotes

or reinforces among children and young people, the culture and values, morals and attitudes particular to a given society.


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iii. It refers to pupils, performances or standard of attainment in different school subjects. Quality education can therefore be said to be a well-planned, systematic training programme acquired by man to enable him function effectively in the society which he finds himself.

CONCEPT of FUNCTIONAL EDUCATION Obanya (2003) in Dienye (2011) explained the idea of functional education to mean that education should inculcate specific skills. These functional skills acquired from education are to enable learners to understand life situations, adapting to it and contributing to its development. He further explained that functional education in basic literacy programme has to do with the application of reading and writing skills to solve day to day problems, which includes the improvement of one‘s living conditions. For persons with disabilities, a functional education should equip the learner with the skills that will enable him overcome the disabilities while in vocational education it should inculcate appropriate skills to function in the labour market. A functional education should imbue the learner with skills that will lead to the consolidation of scientific behaviour. In teacher training, a quality education should be functional to the extent that it equips the teachers with the appropriate aptitudes and abilities needed to promote learning and bring out the best in learners. Functional education as an integral part of quality education is focused on helping learners acquire the skills with which to function meaningfully in society thereby contributing to societal development. To ensure societal development, Nigeria has to make a long term investment in education to ensure quality for a guaranteed future. Alabi (2003) in Dienye (2011) in his research on enhancing quality education pointed out that quality education is an essential ingredient for societal development and the greatest legacy any nation can bequeath to her citizens. He advocated the need for collaborative efforts among the different groups of personnel within the education system to achieve quality education. Education can only result in societal development if it is the type that can translate theoretical findings into usable forms which will impact on the development of the communities in which they live. This refers to a pragmatic type of education which is used for the development of the Nigerian society. It is only quality education that can guarantee this usefulness to society. CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Holbrook (2009) defined sustained development as the development that meets ones needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation


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to meet their own needs. According to Barboza (2000), sustainable development is regarded as the will to follow the national approach to economic, administration and the creation of economic policy to manage public matters efficiently and periodically, to show respect and progress to endure towards democracy, that full participation of all concerned actors while taking into account specific local circumstances. These definitions are not without criticism depending on the meaning attached to education. However, sustainable development is simply meeting and sustaining the needs of society in the global competition without sacrificing its resources. Sustainable development requires the participation of all concern actors – individuals while at the same time taking into consideration and specific local circumstances. Holbrook (2009) highlighted what he conserved as the major sustainable development issues for education as: 1. Placing a system of values and ethics at the centre of society‘s concern. 2. Encouraging the meeting of disciplines, a linking of knowledge and

expertise, and to render our understanding. 3. Encouraging lifelong learning starting from the beginning of life grounded

in life and based on a passion for a radical transformation in a society that gears towards functioning and sustainable education.

4. Ensuring priority is given to fundamental critical question to the methods as a means of applying tangible verdict by promoting dialogue along the education sector.

5. Elevating once again the importance of social subjectivity and of the qualitative dimension of social life.

6. Encouraging new alliances between the state and civil society in promoting citizens emancipation mediated by the practice of democratic peoples while fully acknowledging the complexity inherent to very human reality.

Okebukola (2007) noted in chapter 36 of agenda 21, where he emphasized that education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving capacity of the people to address environment and developmental issues. No one will doubt the fact that education is the driving force for the change needed. Similarly, there has been a common consensus that peace, health and democracy are mutually reinforcing prerequisite for sustainable development. In recognition of the importance of education on enhancing sustainable development the United Nations General Assembly in its 57th session in December 2002 declared 2005-2014 as the decade for education for sustainable development. Education is therefore a life wide and lifelong endeavour which challenges individuals, institutions and societies to see tomorrow as a day that belongs to all of us or it belongs to anyone.


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SOME MAJOR EDUCATION REFORMS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT In an attempt to remedy the poor quality of education, Government embarked on reform of policies in the education sector. Reforms in education are changes made to improve the existing conditions of education that fail to satisfy the need of individual member of the society. The Christian missionaries were the first to build formal schools in Nigeria with grants from the colonial Government. The aim of education at the time was limited in scope and content for Nigeria as a country. This was tailored to serve the purpose of the missionaries who needed interpreters, clerks and preachers to propagate their faith. From 1899 to the creation of three regions in Nigeria, about eight education policies were promulgated and tried out. They included the 1903, 1908, 1916, education codes, phelps-stokes 1925, parliamentary white paper or command. Others are the 1926 education code, 1930 memorandum on education policy and the 1948 education ordinance. Nigeria was divided into three regions - East, West and North in 1951. Education then became a regional responsibility. This marked the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) in the Western region in 1955 followed by the Eastern region in 1957. During the period the Northern region was yet to make an attempt to free education. Higher education was somehow neglected during the period 1954-1960. However, government setup a committee in 1959 (Ashby commission) on education. At that time, the only higher institution was the University College, Ibadan. In 1960 when Nigeria got her independence, the first education policy was based on the Ashby Commission report of 1960 which was titled ―investment in education‖. To improve the quality of education, the federal government assembled a group of experts from various religious bodies, groups, individuals and government representatives for a National curriculum conference held in Lagos in 1969 which led to the famous National Policy on Education (NPE) which was established in 1977, revised 1981, 1998 and 2004. This policy brought about the 6-3-3-4 system of education in Nigeria. Another major reform was the launching of the UPE scheme in 1976 by the then military government. The aim was to make Nigeria education free in 1976 and compulsory in 1979. This attempt did not fully realize its objectives as a result of so many militating factors (Azikiwe, 2007). Furthermore, the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme was launched on the 30th September, 1999 at Sokoto by the then president of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo. This was meant to provide basic education to children aged between 3 and 4 for 3years. Early children care Development and Education (ECCDE), 6years primary and 3years junior secondary education. The reform was meant to realize the two global development programmes of the United Nations (UN) namely; Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For Nigeria to achieve


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these goals, it launched the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) in 2003. The critical pillars of NEEDS are: i. Value Reorientation ii. Poverty Eradication iii. Job Creation iv. Wealth Generation v. Using education to empower the people (Obioma, 2007). The Federal

Ministry of Education (FME) in April 2009 introduced a new document known as Roadmap for the Nigerian Education Sector. The main goal of this reform is to address the identified problems in the educational sector. It focuses on four priority strategies. These include:

i. Access and Equality ii. Standards and Quality Assurance iii. Technical and Vocational Education and Training iv. Funding, Resource Mobilization and Utilization This reform intends to involve stakeholders such as; government, organized, private sectors and international funding partners to transform all Nigerian schools into producing, from all three subsectors of education namely: basic education, post basic education and tertiary education. The worrisome issue that prompted the effort to salvaging the present state of Nigerian schools is the general poor quality of the products of the sectors. In spite of the huge expenditure on education at all levels; our education has failed to produce in school leavers a combination of skills and value system that could make them self-reliant. The Nigerian educational system has been beset with a number of ills over the years. These problems arose from the general malaise that beset the leadership and the society at large. Some of these include the high incidence of examination malpractices, corruption, bribery, extortion cultism, sexual harassment and incessant strikes among the various academic staff unions at all levels of education, as well as problem of data and decay infrastructure, etc. There is a great need for quality assurance, functional and sustainable education in our educational system in order to achieve the national goals and objectives. In line with the above, quality assurance, functional and sustainable education should be adhered to. Quality, functionally and sustainability have to do with such factors as articulated national goals; well-planned curriculum at each level, assessment procedures and instrument; capacity for processing examination data; utilization of assessment outcome; and quality of student enrolled. Factors contributing to poor quality, functional and sustainable education in Nigeria are the decline in quality, functional and sustainable education in Nigeria has been a major concern due to the rapid expansion in student numbers without


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comparable expansion in resources, staff and facilities. This rapid growth has not been matched by substantial increases in the funding of educational institutions. Education quality which embraces all functions and activities within and outside the school system and for this reason, it is actually a difficult task to access quality. However, a few constraints against total quality education in Nigeria could be identified even with all the regulatory bodies put in place. i. Lack of adequate funding from the government. ii. Full accreditation report not always employed. iii. Brain Drain: the number of universities in Nigeria in the recent past has

increased tremendously without such a tremendous graduation of dons and professors. Alarming is the rate at which professors proceed to other countries without a replacement.

iv. The issue of examination malpractice. v. The level of corruption is at an alarming stage. vi. Inadequate educational facilities in our institutions. vii. Over population: Almost all the schools in Nigeria are over populated

with students. This most times leaves the teachers in a precarious situation and thus affects their classroom or lecture rooms‘ managerial ability negatively.

viii. Inadequate hostel facilities. ix. Unpreparedness among student before entry into tertiary institution. x. Absenteeism of teachers to lecture hall. xi. Political interference – appointment to high positions in most tertiary

institutions are sometimes politically motivated. xii. Entry qualifications into tertiary institutions. xiii. Lack of regular supervision. xiv. Lack of instruction materials. xv. Insufficient and qualified guidance counselors in our schools. xvi. Lack of psychological test materials for the few trained and qualified

guidance counselors in the schools. Other factors that have had a negative impact on the quality of education are the low morale of teachers, the poor quality of teachers, and lack of adequate professional support for teachers in the system. Other militating factors are the unstable environment due to frequent strikes by students and staff, the quality of students admitted to programmes, and the quality of the academic recruited. Functional and sustainable education through counseling in the 21st century Functional education provides avenues for poverty reduction. It is only through education and counseling that children can realize their potentials for self-fulfillment. The efficient and effective processing of the child through the educational system will require Guidance and counseling services. Parents and children will have to


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be psyched to realize the intrinsic value of education and the latter motivated adequately to develop their latent intellectual abilities and complete a full cycle of education. Pupils or student so guided and counseled have a better prospect of developing their latent abilities leading to self-discovery and the successful pursuit of studies for self-actualization. Functional education delivery fused with Guidance and counseling programme ensures quality teaching and learning outcomes. The scale of enrolment and participation is improved and pupils/students achievement level is enhanced as challenge associated thereto are adequately addressed. Interest in schooling and learning is generated since intellectual abilities are conditioned and used optimally for self-discovery. Pre-tertiary Guidance and counseling policy provides the alternatives to strengthen the existing policies. These children especially in deprived and remote areas are enrolled and retained in schools to develop their intellectual abilities for their future careers and to contribute to societal development. These children and others in school will be guided and counselled to complete a full cycle of education that will ensure the optimum use of their abilities for self-discovery and self-actualisation to satisfy the demands of the economy. The inadequacy of Guidance and counseling services in our schools appears to be the major cause of the rising wave of crime in the country, increased indiscipline in schools and drug abuse. The lack of Guidance and counseling in our schools has been identified as leading to the increase in HIV/AIDs cases, the increasing number of street children and high dropout rates. It is expected that the effective implementation of the pre-tertiary Guidance and counseling policy will have a significant impact on reducing schooling problems and anti-social habits likely to inhibit quality of teaching and learning outcomes. Pupils/students will be adequately prepared for the world of work and to meet life‘s challenges. It is expected that delivery of pre-tertiary education by both state and non-state sector will be directed by the new policy. For a community or nation like Nigeria to develop, there is the need to provide relevant quality, functional and sustainable education and making it accessible to all children irrespective of gender, ethnicity, religion or social status. The yardstick of rapid socio-economic development of a nation therefore hinges on its children or citizens taking advantage of existing education opportunities to realize their potential. The critical factors are teacher supply, accessibility, relevant educational content, and skills acquisition to satisfy the socio-economic aspirations of the nation and even guidance and counseling techniques to be adopted by the counselors themselves. These can facilitate poverty reduction, a goal which the government is relentlessly pursuing.


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Various educational researchers have established the fact that educational processes and development take place in three areas namely, cognitive, effective and psychomotor domains of an individual. The philosophy of the country‘s educational system dwells on the creation of well-balanced individuals with requisite knowledge, skills, values and aptitudes for self-actualization and for socio-economic and political development. Achieving this philosophy involves intellectual, spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical development of individuals. It aims at the holistic development of individuals who are expected to make significant contribution to the economic growth of the nation. This can be achieved through the functional and sustainable educational process cycle of enrolment in the rural and riverine areas, knowledge or skill acquisition and attitudinal change or skill application. CONCLUSION Nigeria is a land flowing with milk and honey blessed with rich human and natural resources. These resources can be harnessed for the provision of adequate human, financial and material resources for qualitative education. Several steps to take towards making education functional and sustainable in Nigeria have been proffered. The development of functional and sustainable skills is crucial to tackling the skills gap. Functional education is a key to success because it opens doors to learning, life and work. Making education functional and sustainable will equip the youths to face the technical complexities of the physical and social universe and give them the moral direction to understand themselves. It is high time Nigerians participated in the promotion of functional education in their various capacities so that they can make Nigeria a better place to live in (Enaibe, 2001:264). THE WAY FORWARD There is great need for functional and sustainable education in Nigeria. Though there is malfunctioning of the educational system, the ideal situation can still be attained. Education can be made functional and sustainable in Nigeria by the following ways: 1. There should be practical war against greed and corruption in the

educational sector. In short there should be reinforcement of culture of examination ethics.

2. To operate a rational and functional education system, there is need to decolonize the mentality of the Nigerian educated elites who hold power and authority.

3. The government should be de-emphasizing paper qualification as the only criterion for entry into higher schools and for employment.

4. Trained counselors should be posted to all schools at all levels for counseling.

5. A total overhaul of all the systems in education is very crucial.


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6. There is need to review the philosophy and goals of the nation in order to incorporate workable national education goals.

7. Moral and religious values should be emphasized in the school curriculum. They should be made core courses at all levels of the educational system.

8. The government – local, state and federal should increase the budget allocation to education to at least 35%. Moreover, infrastructure provision and rehabilitation of existing buildings, supply of equipment, materials and psychological tests should be done by the government.

9. Learners should be guided to improve their levels of functional and sustainable education even ICT to support their needs to have a workforce that is enterprising, productive and equipped to compete in business. This will enable them to work confidently, effectively and independently in life.

10. Education needs to be qualitative for the recipients in order to empower them socially, economically, politically, technically and scientifically.

11. The curriculum should be made relevant to the lives of the recipients. That is, it should be geared towards meeting the emerging socio-economic demands of the 21st century through skills acquisition and computer literacy.

12. Conferences, workshops and in-service-training programmes should be organized for reliable and qualified officers on how to implement policies and programmes. These people will detect gaps between theory and practice and proffer solutions from time to time.

13. Only qualified teachers, guidance counselors, psychologists should be retained. It is easy to know the qualified one if only we can shun corruption and ―godfatherism‖ or ―long-leg‖ in our society.

REFERENCES Azikiwe, U. (2007). Reforms in education and the future of Nigeria: sociological perspective. Keynote address presented at the maiden conference of the National Association of Sociologists of Education (NASE) held at Pankshin, Plateau State, October, 16th-19th, 2007. Dienye, V.U. (2011) ―Education and society: The quality Imperative‖. African Journal of Education and Technology, Vol. 1 (3), PP. 15-24. Enaibe, P.U. (2011). ―Making Education Functional in the 21st century: state of Affairs of the Nigerian situation‖ in Egbule, P; Tabotndip, J.E and Aboho, D.A. (Eds). Refocusing Education in Nigeria in the 21st century. Onitsha: West and Solomon Gyang, T.S. (2011). Human Resources Development in Nigeria: The Roadmap for vision 20:2020. International Journal of Economic Development Research and Investment, Vol. 2 (1).


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Holbrook, J. (2009). ―Meeting challenges to sustainable development in Africa through science and technology education‖. Conference concept paper at ICASE (International Council of Association for Science Education) African Regional Conference. Sheraton Hotel, Abuja May 24th-29th. Maple, E.E. (2011). ―Quality Promotion in Nigerian Education System‖. In Olubadewo, S., Onwuka, E.C. and Ajaegbo, D.I. Issues and challenges in Nigerian Education in the 21st century. Vol. 2, Onitsha: West and Solomon Publishing Co. Ltd. PP. 378-385. Obioma, G. (2007) Attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Nigeria‘s experience in education reforms Keynote address presented at the national conference of the faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka August, 6ht-9th, 2007. Okebukola, P. (2000). Trends in tertiary education in the state of education in Nigeria. UNESCO, Abuja office, Nigeria. Okebukola, P.A. (2005). ―Quality Assurance in teacher education in Nigeria. The role of faculties of education.‖ A paper presented to Committee of Deans of Education in Nigerian Universities Meeting. Ilorin. Wasagu, M.A. (2009). ―Meeting the challenges of Education as Means of Achieving Sustainable Development in Nigeria‖. Being a Lead paper at the 2009 Annual National Conference organized by Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto. From 27th-29th July 2009.


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CHAPTER FOUR

COUNSELLING FOR EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AMONG EKITI STATE SECONDARY

SCHOOL STUDENTS, NIGERIA.

E. O. Osakinle

Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT The study investigated the effective utilization of information and communication technology in counselling among Ekiti State Secondary School Students in Nigeria. The importance of guidance and counselling programme in secondary schools is to assist students in having an increased understanding of the educational, vocational and social information needed to make wise choices. In our society there are many influencing forces responsible for the gradual recognition of formal guidance among young people in various educational levels. The essence of incorporating guidance and counselling into the school system was to eliminate overwhelming ignorance of many young people on their choices of career prospects and personality maladjustment among school children. The role of ICT in guidance can be seen as a tool, as an alternative, or as an agent of change. The paper recommends that principals should make provision for guidance and counselling on the school time table. Most importantly secondary school ICT adoption should be encouraged by the ministry of education. KEYWORDS: Counselling, Effective Utilization of ICT

INTRODUCTION Counselling is a process where the client and counsellor work together to come up with different ways of resolving various challenges. Counselling is an opportunity to talk about what troubles you and to be listened to in a way which assists you to understand yourself better, including your thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The process that occurs when a client and counsellor set aside time in order to explore difficulties which they want to discuss may include the stressful or emotional feelings of the client. The act of helping the client to see things more clearly, possibly from a different view-point can enable the client to focus on feelings, experiences or behaviour with a view of facilitating positive change. A relationship of trust and confidentiality is paramount to successful counselling. Counsellors will usually explain their policy on confidentiality, they may, however, be required by law to disclose information if they believe that there is a risk to life. Counselling can help you to explore difficult feelings and


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work out some ways of living your life more positively or constructively and by this the client is satisfied and happy within himself. Counselling provides a form of education, which the students receive from their counsellors. In the National Policy of Education (2004, 4th edition) the 6-3-3-4 system demand for guidance and counselling is apparently made clear. There was agreement also, with a very negligible deviation that the school time-table does not make provisions for guidance and counselling activities. The essence of incorporating guidance and counselling into the school system was to eliminate overwhelming ignorance of many young people on their choices of career prospects and personality maladjustment among school children. The role of ICT in guidance can be seen in three ways: as a tool, as an alternative, or as an agent of change. The growth of websites and help lines as forms of technically mediated service delivery means that the potential of ICT as an agent of change is now greater than ever before. The telephone, websites and e-mail, alongside face-to-face facilities, could be alternative services; or they could be portals into a wide, flexible and well-harmonized network of services. The importance of guidance and counselling programme in secondary schools, include assisting the students to have an increased understanding of the educational, vocational and social information needed to make wise choices. In our society there are many influencing force responsible for the gradual recognition of formal guidance to young people in various educational levels. This review paper focuses on the role of ICT on guidance and counselling in secondary schools. However principals have false impression that a school can function effectively and profitably without a guidance counsellor. The paper recommends that principals should make provision for guidance and counselling on the school time table. Most importantly secondary school ICT adoption should be encouraged by the ministry of education. Information Communication and Technology (ICT) can be utilized effectively in the following ways:

1. Engage and enthuse learners, 2. Raise achievement 3. Enable better understanding 4. Foster improved communication 5. Have a positive impact on workload

ICT (information and communications technology or technologies) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning. ICTs are often spoken of in a particular context, such as ICTs in


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education, health care, or libraries. The term may be more common in the United States. According to the European Commission, the importance of ICTs lies less in the technology itself than in its ability to create greater access to information and communication in underserved populations. Many countries around the world have established organizations for the promotion of ICTs, because it is feared that unless less technologically advanced areas have a chance to meet up, the increasing technological advances in developed nations will only serve to exacerbate the already-existing economic gap between technological "have" and "have not" areas. Internationally, the United Nations actively promotes ICTs for Development as a means of bridging the communication gap. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have become common issues in all aspects of life. In the past twenty years the use of ICT has fundamentally changed the practices and procedures of nearly all forms of endeavour within business and governance. Education is a very socially oriented activity and quality education has traditionally been associated with counsellors having high degrees of personal contact with learners. The use of ICT in education lends credence to more student- learning centres. But with the world moving rapidly into digital media and information, the role of ICT in education is becoming more and more important and this importance will continue to grow and develop in the 21st century. In this paper, a literature review regarding the use of ICT in education was provided in the following areas: Effective use of ICT for Education, along with ICT use in the teaching learning process; quality and accessibility of education; learning motivation, Learning environment and an overview of the ICT and scholastic performance. According to Daniels (2002), ICTs have become within a very short time, one of the basic building blocks of modern society. Many countries now regard the understanding of ICT and mastering the basic skills and concepts of ICT as part of the core of education, alongside reading, writing and numeracy. However, there appears to be a misconception that ICTs generally refers to ‗computers and computing related activities‘. This is fortunately not the case, although computers and their application play a significant role in modern information management, other technologies and systems that also comprise of the phenomenon that is commonly regarded as ICTs. Pelgrum and Law (2003) state that near the end of the 1980s, the term ‗computers‘ was replaced by ‗IT‘ (information technology) signifying a shift of focus from computing technology to the capacity to store and retrieve information. This was followed by the introduction of the term ‗ICT‘ (information and communication technology) around 1992, when e-mail started to become available to the general public (Pelgrum & Law, 2003). According to a United Nations report (1999), ICTs cover Internet service provision, telecommunications equipment and services, information technology equipment


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and services, media and broadcasting, libraries and documentation centres, commercial information providers, network-based information services, and other related information and communication activities. According to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) (2002), information and communication technology (ICT) may be regarded as the combination of ‗Informatics technology‘ with other related technology, specifically communication technology. The various kinds of ICT products available and having relevance to education, such as teleconferencing, email, audio conferencing, television lessons, radio broadcasts, interactive radio counselling, interactive voice response system, audiocassettes, CD ROMs, etc have been used in education for different purposes (Sharma, 2003; Sanyal, 2001; Bhattacharya & Sharma, 2007). The field of education has been affected by ICTs, which have undoubtedly affected

teaching, learning, and research (Osakinle et al., 2009). A great deal of research has

proven the benefits to the quality of education (Al-Ansari, 2006). ICTs have the potential

to innovate, accelerate, enrich, and deepen skills, to motivate and engage students, to

help relate school experience to work practices, create economic viability for tomorrow's

workers, as well as strengthening teaching and helping schools change. Davis and Tearle

(1999), states that much has been said and reported about the impact of technology,

especially computers, in education. Initially computers were used to teach computer

programming but the development of the microprocessor in the early 1970s saw the

introduction of affordable microcomputers into schools at a rapid rate. Computers and

applications of technology became more pervasive in society which led to a concern

about the need for computing skills in everyday life. Hepp, Hinostroza, Laval and

Rehbein (2004) claim in their paper titled ―Technology in Schools: Education, ICT and

the Knowledge Society‖ that ICTs have been utilized in education ever since their

inception, but they have not always been massively present. Although at that time

computers have not been fully integrated in the learning of traditional subject matter, the

commonly accepted rhetoric that education systems would need to prepare citizens for

lifelong learning in an information society boosted interest in ICTs (Pelgrum & Law,

2003).

The 1990s was the decade of computer communications and information access, particularly with the popularity and accessibility of internet-based services such as electronic mail and the World Wide Web (WWW). At the same time the CD-ROM became the standard for distributing packaged software (replacing the floppy disk). As a result, educators became more focused on the use of the technology to improve student learning as a rationale for investment. Any discussion about the use of computer systems in schools is built upon an understanding of the link between schools, learning and computer technology. When the potential use of computers in schools was first mooted, the


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predominant conception was that students would be ‗taught‘ by computers (Pelgrum & Law, (2003). In a sense it was considered that the computer would ‗take over‘ the teacher‘s job in much the same way as a robot computer may take over a welder‘s job. Collis (1989) refers to this as ―a rather grim image‖ where ―a small child sits alone with a computer‖. However, the use of information and communication technologies in the educative process has been divided into two broad categories: ICTs for Education and ICTs in Education. ICTs for education refers to the development of information and communications technology specifically for teaching and learning purposes, while the ICTs in education involves the adoption of general components of information and communication technologies in the teaching learning process. In Ekiti State the Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi made sure that every student in all the senior secondary schools in Ekiti State as well as their teachers were given laptops to enhance effective teaching and learning in the schools among the students. However, a few of the students used the laptop contrary to what they are met for. For example, a few of them used it to watch pornography films, playing music on it, making of yahoo yahoo (using the laptop to dupe innocent foreigners). This is the evident in the cases of raids carried out by police men in Ekiti State. A few of the cases are in court not only in Ekiti State but in other parts of the country. Furthermore, there are a few students that use the laptops positively to browse for assignment given as well as becoming proficient for typing projects for their undergraduates relations. CONCLUSIONS Globalization and information revolution is increasingly changing the learning process in higher education in Europe and America. Globalization has challenged higher institutions in Nigeria and in particular South East Universities to face new type of learning involving the use of ICT facilities to improve counselling which is expected in Ekiti State as well. It has been observed that there is a lack of ICT infrastructure in schools. It is recommended that attention must be given to the availability of ICT facilities in schools. According to Osakinle, Adegoroye and Olajubutu (2009), the internet is the core of computer mediated communication. The internet system is worldwide and connects millions of computer networks, providing an incredible array of information adolescents can access. And because of these capacities, the internet has more up-to-date information than books. Youths throughout the world are increasingly using the internet, despite substantial variation in use in different countries around the world and in socioeconomic groups. The question is: what do adolescents do when they are online? E-mail is the most frequent activity they engage in and more than 70 percent of the adolescents who go online connect with a chat room. Furthermore; the internet holds a great deal of potential for increasing adolescents‘ education. However, the internet also has limitations on viewing and adolescent behaviour.


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The internet is a technology that needs guide, the societies as well as parents need to monitor and regulate adolescents‘ use of it. RECOMMENDATIONS From the review of the effective utilization of ICT among Ekiti State Secondary School Students, it is discovered that the availability of Internet services in schools will help the counsellors and students. Therefore, the researcher recommends that: 1. Government should provide ICT facilities for students, counsellors and

lecturers in higher institutions. 2. Electricity is very essential and should be provided in Universities so that

counsellors, teachers and students will participate in the information and communication technology age.

3. The schools should have counselling labs provided with air conditioners as well as standing generating sets to preserve the facilities and counter the effect of persistent power outage.

4. Counsellors should give their students assignment that requires e- learning. 5. School counsellors should improve their use of the Internet for counselling.

They need to use the Internet as a tool for e-learning to gain more professional knowledge and help students in their learning.

REFERENCE Arnett, J.J. (1999). Heavy metal music and Reckless Handbook of Children and the Media. Thousand behaviour among adolescents. Adolescents, 20: 572-592. Calvert, S., (1999). Children‟s journeys through the Education and the mind in the information age. New York: McGraw-Hill. Daniels, J.S. (2002). “Foreword” in Information and Communication Technology in Education–A Curriculum for Schools and Programme for Teacher Development. Paris: UNESCO. Davis, N.E., & Tearle, P. (Eds.), (1999). A core curriculum for telematics in teacher training. Available: www.ex.ac.uk/telematics.T3/corecurr/tteach98.htm Duffy, T., & Cunningham, D. (1996). Constructivism: Implications for the design and delivery of instruction, Handbook of research for educational telecommunications and technology (Pp. 170-198). New York: MacMillan. European Commission, (2013). Survey of School: ICT in Education, Published on Digital Agenda for Europe (http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda).


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Fister, K. R., & McCarthy, M. L. (2008).―Mathematics instruction and the tablet PC‖. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. 39 (3), 285-292. Flecknoe, M. (2002). ―How can ICT help us to improve education‖? Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 39, (4) 271-280. Fuchs T & Woessman, L. (2004). ―Computers and Student Learning: Bivariate and Multivariate Evidence on the Availability and Use of Computers at Home and at School‖, CESifo Working Paper. No. 1321 November. Munich. Girasoli, A. J. & Hannafin, R. D. (2008). ―Using asynchronous AV communication tools to increase academic self-efficacy‖. Computers & Education, 51 (4), 1676- 1682. Hannafin, M. J., Hall, C., Land, S., & Hill, J. (1994). ―Learning in open-ended environments: assumptions, methods and implications‖. Educational Technology, 34 (8), 48–55. Harris, S. (2002). Innovative pedagogical practices using ICT in schools in England. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 449-458. Hepp, K. P., Hinostroza, S.E., Laval, M.E., & Rehbein, L. F. (2004). Technology in Schools: Education, ICT and the Knowledge Society OECD. Available: www1.worldbank.org/education/pdf/ICT_report_oct04a.pdf. Huston, A.C., Siegle J. & Brenner M., (1983). Family environment television use by pre-school children. Paper presented at the biennial meeting for the society for Research in Child Development, Detroit. Osakinle, E.O., (1997). Maladaptive behaviour of in-school adolescents in Ekiti State.Unpublished M.Ed Thesis in the Department of Guidance. Osakinle, E.O., Adegoroye, B.S. & Olajubutu, F.T. (2009). The Roles of Media and Technology in Adolescents‘ Development in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 4 (4): 307-309 Pelgrum, W. J. & Law, N. (2003). "ICT in Education around the World: Trends, Problems and Prospects"UNESCO-International Institute for Educational Planning. Available:www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/02d077080fcf3210a19afeb4da09e526.html. Strasburger, V.C. & Wilson B.J., (2002). Children, adolescents and the media. How young people use the internet for health. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.


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Roberts, D.F., Henricksen L. & Foehr U.G., (2004). Adolescents and the Media. In R. Lerner and L. Steinberg (Eds), Handbook of Adolescent Psychology 2nd Ed. New York: Wiley. Steinberg, L. (2001). We know some things. Adolescent-parent relationship in retrospect and prospect. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 11, 1-19.


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CHAPTER FIVE

CRIMINAL GANGS IN URBAN AREAS: A THREAT TO DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Beetseh, Kwaghga

Library Department, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria

ABSTRACT Criminal gangs have been the major issue that confronts democratic governance. These gangs have been considered as a source of violence and insecurity at the urban areas and the society at large. For any meaningful development to take place, the society must be crime free. This will pave way for development. Many urban cities are turned into cities of criminal gangs where people are afraid of carrying out their legitimate functions based on the activities of these hoodlums. The insecurity posed by these groups of people make the urban cities unsafe, as their activities have reached unprecedented levels in many cities in the developing world. Today more than 50% of the world population lives in the cities, and developing countries account for over 90%. This research work has adopted role theory as its theoretical framework in addressing this issue. KEYWORDS: Criminal gangs, Democratic governance

INTRODUCTION Cities provide diverse opportunities for social mobility as they become centers of socio-economic activities. Yet, they serve as arena of violence, which can be attributed to the crisis of governance, especially in developing countries with many years of political instability and poor leadership. Most political decisions are taken in urban areas, and as a result of this practice, general reactions to the quality of governance largely occur there. The syndrome of urban violence has come to limelight with the rapid increase in the rate of urbanization worldwide. The proportion of the world‘s population living in urban areas has increased from less than five percent in 1800 to 48 percent in 2002, and it is expected to reach 65 percent in 2030, while more than 90 percent of future population growth will be concentrated in cities in developing countries, and a large percentage of this population will be poor (UNICEF, 2002; United Nations, 2002 & United Nations, 1991). The present rate of urbanization in Africa- 40 percent- is projected to reach 54 percent by 2025 when 60 percent of the world‘s population would be living in cities, and developing countries would constitute most of the larger urban agglomerations (Massey, 2002). In 1900, the five largest cities were London, New York, Paris, Berlin and Chicago, while in 2015 they will be Tokyo, Bombay, Lagos, Dakar and Sao Paolo (Massey, 2002 & United Nations, 1999).


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Urbanization usually reflects the patterns of social change in a society, and cities are often described as cradles of civilization and sources of cultural and economic renaissance (UNICEF, 2002). In their discourse on the trends of urbanization in Africa, Annez, Buckley & Kalarickal (2010: 222) noted that: ―Urbanization in Africa is ―flight,‖ reflecting choices made under duress, rather than migration to unduly attractive cities.‖ This observation is however incomplete as urbanization could be based on natural growth in human population and voluntary or involuntary migration. Estimates on the rate of urbanization in Nigeria showed that the proportion of the Nigerian populations living in urban areas increased from 11 percent in 1952 to 31 percent in 1985 and 46 percent in 2002, respectively (Ogun, 2010). It can be deduced from the abovementioned estimates that the crisis of urban violence could affect over 50 percent of the Nigerian populations. As shown in a report from the World Bank (2011), Nigeria‘s population has increased from 140 million people in 2006 to 154.7 million people in 2011 but its major problems include inadequate infrastructure, corruption and policy instability. Virtually all the six geo-political zones in Nigeria have experienced rapid urbanization due to high rate of population growth in the country. Lacey (1985) recognized the rapid urbanization across different Nigeria‘s regions, including Aba, Benin, Enugu, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Sapele and Warri in south-eastern Nigeria; Jos, Kaduna, Kano and Zaria in northern Nigeria; and Ibadan and Lagos in south-western Nigeria. In the light of the foregoing, the socio-economic and political situations in Nigeria are addressed in the present paper through an examination of the crisis of governance and urban violence in the country. Nigeria is one of the countries with accelerating rate of urbanization, and its emergence in the context of colonialism by the British government has generated several crises that are yet to be satisfactorily resolved. The crisis of governance remains central to other crises in the country since the colonial era. The major fallout of the Nigerian crisis of governance is the proliferation of urban violence of various dimensions such as ethno-religious violence, electoral violence, youth militancy and civil unrest. There are several studies in this area of research, especially from Western perspectives (Goldmann et al, 2011; Grubesic, Mack & Kaylen, 2011; Moran, 2011; Simpson & Arinde, 2011; Spano & Bolland, 2011; Steenbeck & Hipp, 2011; Warner & Burchfield, 2011; Harrnoff-Tavel, 2010; Malesevic, 2010; Warner, Beck & Ohmer, 2010; Cockburn, 2008 & Kennedy, 2008). Three cases of urban violence were cited by Harroff-Tavel (2010). The first case is the 2005 French experience of a wave of violent disturbances which beset the Paris suburbs; it eventually spread to 200 cities in France. The second case is the 2008 experience of armed violence among different gangs in Cape Town, South Africa. The third case is the 2010 Brazilian experience of armed violence between drug gangs and police in


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Rio de Janeiro. Consistent with the Brazilian experience of urban violence, Penglase (2011) mentioned the July 2010 case of Wesley de Andrade, an 11 year-old boy killed by a stray bullet while at school. The death of Andrade led to protests by students on the downtown beach of Copacabana as well as several days of primetime television coverage and the dismissal of the commander of the local police battalion. Similarly, Mark Duggan, a 29 year-old Black man was killed in August 2011 by a stray bullet from a British police in Tottenham in North London (Simpson & Arinde, 2011). Like the case of Andrade in Brazil, the death of Duggan in Britain resulted in mass unrest and riots by youth in major cities including Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham. In the report by Simpson & Arinde (2011), it was shown that 16,000 police officers were deployed to quell the riots in the affected areas of the United Kingdom. Memories of previous cases of urban violence in the UK can be recalled. In the summer of 2001, for example, civil disturbances took place in several northern English towns (Cockburn, 2008). Another example is the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots, which resulted in serious tension between the Black community and the UK police. There are many instances of urban violence across the world but some instances of urban violence may follow a different trajectory in each country. Thus, the increasing waves of urban violence in the Nigerian cities suggest the need for further studies that will focus on contemporary issues in governance and urbanization. The present paper therefore examines crisis of governance and urban violence in Nigeria. The discourse is organized into five major sections as follows: crisis of governance in Nigeria, dimensions of urban violence in Nigeria, consequences of urban violence, theoretical bases to urban violence and peace-making processes. The study concludes with recommendations based on a synthesis of different ideas across the sections of democratic governance. CONCEPTUAL EXPLICATION Criminal gang, also called street gang or youth gang, a group of persons, usually youths, who share a common identity and who generally engage in criminal behaviour. In contrast to the criminal behaviour of other youths, the activities of gangs are characterized by some level of organization and continuity over time. There is no consensus on the exact definition of a gang, however, and scholars have debated whether the definition should expressly include involvement in crime. Some gangs, but not all, have strong leadership, formalized rules, and extensive use of common identifying symbols. Many gangs associate themselves with a particular geographic area or type of crime, and some use graffiti as a form of nonverbal communication. Exactly how a criminal gang or street gang is defined has not found a consensus among the most prudent researchers on the topic. For research purposes, a gang


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definition is extremely important to define, for operational uses, for cross disciplinary work and for comparative analysis. Cities, states and countries all have differing views on what a gang is, and for the prosecution of gang members, the state of California derived the definition below in 1988. A criminal street gang is defined as any organization, association or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, which (1) has continuity of purpose, (2) seeks a group identity, and (3) has members who individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal activity (Reference section 186.22(f) of the California Penal Code). What's unique about the definition above is that it is NOT defining the term "gang" or "street gang" but rather the State is defining "criminal street gang" and then using the same term "criminal" in the definition. The definition is awkwardly written, vague and redundant; and offers an extremely simplified view of a gang. Because of this, any youth who participates in a gang can be labeled as a "criminal" regardless of their individual activity or role. Prosecutors have been able to use the flaw in the definition to their benefit by applying gang-related "enhancements" that can transform a simple misdemeanor offense into a felony which carry heavier penalties, including prison time. In California court, gangs are always called "criminal street gangs" because of the statutory definition and young people who have brief, temporary experiences with gangs, can get the unfortunate situation of getting arrested for an offense that then gets enhance to a gang related offense, regardless of whether or not gangs played any role in the offense. It‘s extremely prejudicial for a prosecutor to tell a jury that "Johnny" is part of a "criminal street gangs," and it becomes virtually impossible for a gang member to receive a fair trial. One of the first gang definitions was published in Frederic Thrasher's 1927 study of gangs in Chicago in The Gang and in it he defined a gang as: The gang is an interstitial group originally formed spontaneous, and then integrated through conflict. It is characterized by the following types of behavior: meeting face to face, milling, movement through space as a unit, conflict, and planning. The result of this collective behavior is the development of tradition, unreflective internal structure, esprit de corps, solidarity, morale, group awareness, and attachment to a local territory (Thrasher, 1927: 57). …who act in concert to achieve a specific purpose or purposes which generally include the conduct of illegal activity or control over a particular territory or type of enterprise (Spano, 2011). …an organization of young people usually between their early teens and early twenties, which has a group name, claims a territory or neighborhood as its own,


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meets with its members on a regular basis, and has recognizable leadership (UN, 1999). …group of associating individuals which has an identifiable leadership and organizational structure, either claims a territory in the community, or exercises control over an illegal enterprise; and engages collectively or as individuals in acts of violence or serious criminal behavior (Penglase, 2011). … Group whose members meet together with some regularity, over time, on the basis of group-defined criteria of membership and group-determined organizational structure, usually with some sense of territoriality (Jim Short 1990), ...group of individuals with a common ethnic and/or geographic identity that collectively and/or individually regularly engage in a variety of activities, legal or illegal that claim to be the dominant group in their locale, exercising territoriality either fixed or fluid and that engage in at least one rivalry and/or competition with another organization (Alonso, 1999). A gang is a group of people who make money from criminal enterprises, and South King County has its share of gang activity. Common crimes associated with gang activity include auto theft, burglaries, drugs and prostitution. Gang wars also lead to gun violence in public settings. A trend among gang-related activity is that most offenders live outside of the communities where the youth commit their crimes. DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE The culture of a democratic governance moves beyond the mere procedures of democracy and the establishment of democratic institutions. It involves promoting the sustainability of democracy which includes an enduring capacity for: the separation of powers and independence of the branches of government; the exercise of power in accordance with the rule of law; the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; and, the transparency and accountability of a responsible civil service, functioning at both the national and local levels. A state which identifies with the culture of democratic governance is one which welcomes a wide scope of political participation embracing a pluralistic system of political parties, a vibrant civil society and media. Further, strong democratic institutions promote and integrate women and minorities in all levels of the government and society as a whole. Also, a state which embodies the culture of democratic governance is one which protects the rights and dignity of children. Therefore, the promotion of the culture of democratic governance involves an integrated approach to sustainable governance for and by all people. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK


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The major attempt to understand the cause of criminal gang in urban areas has been a major problem faced by scholars over time. Criminal gang in urban area by its nature is naturally beyond any causation. In this research work, we considered the role theory as it framework of analysis The theoretical perspective that best addresses behavior of this type is role theory (Biddle, 1979, 1986; Heiss, 1981 & Turner, 1990). Role theory holds that a substantial proportion of observable, day-to-day social behavior is simply persons carrying out their roles, much as actors carry out their roles on the stage or ballplayers perform theirs on the field. Propositions in role theory: The following propositions are central to the role theory perspective;

1. People spend much of their lives participating as members of groups and organizations.

2. Within these groups, people occupy distinct positions (fullback, advertising executive, police sergeant and the like).

3. Each of these positions entails a role, which is a set of functions performed by the person for the group. A person‘s role is defined by expectations (held by other group members) that specify how he or she should perform.

4. Groups often formalize these expectations as norms, which are rules specifying how a person should behave, what rewards will result for performance and what punishment will result for non-performance.

5. Individuals usually carry out their roles and perform in accordance with the prevailing norms. In other words, people are primarily conformists; they try to meet expectations held by others.

6. Group members check each individual‘s performance to determine whether it conforms to the group‘s norms. If an individual meets the role expectations held by others, then he or she will receive rewards in some form (acceptance, approval, money and so on). If he or she fails to perform as expected, however, then group members may embarrass, punish or even expel that individual from the group. The anticipation that others will apply sanctions ensures performance as expected.

IMPACT OF ROLE THEORY Role theory implies that if we (as analysts) have information about the role expectations for a specified position, we can then predict a significant portion of the behavior of the person occupying that position. According to role theory, to change a person‘s behavior, it is necessary to change or redefine his or her role. This might be done by changing the roles expectations held by others with respect to that person or by shifting that person into an entirely different role (Allen &Van de Vliert, 1982). For example, if the football coach shifted Craig from fullback to tight end, Craig‘s behavior would change to match the role demands


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of his new position. Craig himself may experience some strain while adjusting to the new role, but hi behavior will change. Role theory maintains that a person‘s role determines not only behavior but also beliefs and attitudes. In other words, individuals bring their attitudes into congruence with the expectations that defines their roles. A change in role should lead to a change in attitude. One illustration of this effect appears in classic study of factory workers by Lieberman (1965). In the initial stage of this study, researchers measured the attitudes of workers toward union and management policies in a Midwestern home appliance factory. During the following year, a number of these workers changed roles. Some were promoted to the position of foreman, a managerial role; others were elected to the position of shop steward, a union role. About a year after the initial measurement, the workers‘ attitudes were reassessed. The attitudes of workers who had become foremen or shop stewards were compared to those of the workers who had not changed roles. The recently promoted foremen expressed more positive attitudes than the non-changers towards the company‘s management and the company‘s incentive system, which paid workers in proportion to what they produced. In contrast, the recently elected shop stewards expressed more positive attitudes than the non-changers towards the union and favoured incentive system based on seniority, not productivity. The most efficient explanation of these results is that the workers‘ attitudes shifted to fit their new roles, as predicted by them. In general, the roles that people occupy not only channel their behavior but also shape their attitudes. Roles can influence the values that people hold and affect the direction of their personal growth and development. Limitations of Role Theory Despite its usefulness, role theory has difficulty explaining certain kinds of social behavior. Foremost among these is deviant behavior, which is any behavior that violates or contravenes the norms defining a given role. Most forms of deviant behavior, whether simply a refusal to perform as expected or something more serious like the commission of a crime, disrupt interpersonal relations. Deviant behavior poses a challenge to role theory because it contradicts the assumption that people are essentially conformist – deviant behavior violates the demands of roles. Of course, a certain amount of deviant behavior can be explained by the fact that people are sometimes ignorant of norms. Deviance may also result whenever people face conflicting or incompatible expectations from several other people (Mile, 1977). In general, however, deviant behavior is an unexplained and problematic exception from the standpoint of role theory. Even critics of the role theory acknowledge that a substantial portion of all social behavior can be explained as conformity to established role expectations. But role theory does not and cannot explain how role expectations came to be what they are in the first


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place. Nor does it explain when and how role expectations change. Without accomplishing these tasks, role theory can provide only a partial explanation of social behavior. Dimensions of Urban Violence in Nigeria It is widely acceptable that an urban area is a relatively large and dense permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous peoples (Perchonock, 1994). This description shows some features with far-reaching implications for urban violence and its escalation. In his description of violence and humanitarian actions in urban areas, Harroff-Tavel (2010) distinguished urban violence from violence that is purely criminal. He mentioned different forms of urban violence including social and political uprising, hunger riots, identity-based violence among ethnic or religious groups, clashes between territorial gangs, terrorism and acts of xenophobic violence directed against migrants. However, urban violence has intertwined with different forms of violence in urban areas. This situation was described by Harroff-Tavel (2010: 347): Armed urban violence between groups that are generally considered as criminal (drug dealers, territorial gangs, mafia-type groups, etc.), or between those groups and government forces or private militias, raises some complex legal (and political) problems. This is particularly the case when that fighting is between groups engaged in a collective confrontation of major intensity, which testifies to a high degree of organization. As conceptualized in the present paper, all forms of violence in urban areas constitute a serious social problem irrespective of their nomenclatures. Any form of violence that constitutes a threat to security of lives and property of a large number of people in an urban area is considered an urban violence, as used in the present paper. This conceptualization is based on recognition of the fact that urban violence can be more devastating compared to violence in a rural setting. In a recent study by Aliyu, Kasim and Martin (2011), urban violence was expressed in terms of ethnic and religious conflicts. Also, Penglase (2011) argued that representations of urban violence are often centered upon concerns with transgression. Such representations always reinforce anxiety and fear among members of the public. Different waves of urban violence have occurred in Nigeria since the advent of colonialism by the British government. Resistance to colonialism in the Nigerian cities constitutes the bedrock of urban violence exemplified with different records of mass unrest and riots including the 1929 riots in Aba, the 1945 general strike by the Nigerian labour and the 1953 riots in Kano. The trends of urban violence continued in the Nigerian cities even after the 1st October 1960 celebration of the Nigerian political independence from the British government. Cases of urban violence were recorded in the Nigerian cities in the 1960s and beyond. Such cases include the riots that erupted from political party conflicts in the 1964 general


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election and the civil war that extended across the Nigerian rural and urban areas between 6th July 1967 and 7th January 1970. Historians have shown that the Nigerian civil war led to the death of many people and damage to property worth billions of pound measured in term of the Nigerian official currency, which was established in 1958 and used till 1973 when the Nigerian pound was changed to the Nigerian naira (Falola & Genova, 2009). The major causes of the war include ethnic rivalry, corruption, political instability and agitation for resource control. The end of the war laid the foundation for the emergence of a new social class who made huge profits from supplying arms and ammunition to warriors in violence-prone areas (Bamgbose, 2009; Odoemene, 2008; Erinosho, 2007; Obi, 2006 & Adejumobi, 2005). Some vicissitudes of urban violence in Nigeria between 1960 and 1998 have been summarized by Falola (1998). His views are highlighted as follows: When the country won its independence in 1960, the most destabilizing factor was ethnicity […] the 1993 election of a civilian president was complicated by conflicts between Muslim and Christian candidates […] But the most notable crisis occurred in 1978 in Zaria […] In 1980, the Maitatsine crisis claimed thousands of lives […] On the last day of October 1982, eight large churches were burned in the prominent city of Kano[…] A major riot in Kaduna that same year claimed at least four hundred lives. In 1984, violence sparked by Muslims in Yola and Jimeta killed approximately seven hundred people (including policemen) and left nearly six thousand people homeless […] At Ilorin, the capital of Kwara state, Palm Sunday turned disastrous as Christians clashed with Muslims, leading to the destruction of three churches. In the south, at the University of Ibadan, Muslims set fire to a sculpture of Jesus in front of the Chapel of Resurrection […]. In 1991, the religious crisis in Bauchi State reached the breaking point, leading to numerous deaths and massive destruction. In the same year, Kano and Katsina witnessed a series of riots. In 1992, large-scale violence returned to Kaduna state, with severe clashes in Zangon-Kataf, Kaduna, and Zaria […]. In May and June 1995, a new crisis erupted in Kano […]. In May 1996, eight people lost their lives when the police clashed with a group of Muslim students (Falola, 1998: 2-4). About 50 episodes of urban violence, which culminated in the death of over 10,000 persons and internal displacement of over 300, 000 people, were recorded in Nigeria between 1999 and 2003 (USAID, 2005). Over 51,000 people were displaced during the 2006 religious violence in northern Nigeria (IRIN News, 2006). Estimates on the 2007 violence in northern Nigeria showed that 29 persons died; 12 churches were destroyed; 90 people were injured, and 3,500 people were displaced (US Commission on International Religious Freedom, 2008). More recently, violent clashes involving various militant groups and the Nigerian government‘s Joint Task Force (JTF) escalated between 2004 and 2009. It was reported that militant activities resulted in over 92 attacks on oil companies in 2008, and as a result, over 1,000 people were killed, and crude oil exports


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declined to 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in March 2009, down from 2.6 million bpd in 2006 (International Crisis Group, 2009). The Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) declared an ―oil war‖ which led to repeated attacks on oil companies and death of several people in the Niger Delta cities including Warri, Yenagoa and Port Harcourt. The MEND later declared a unilateral ceasefire but revoked it on 30 January 2009, following the JTF‟s attack on the camps of some militants. In reprisal, militants attacked a civilian helicopter in the Niger Delta on 25 February 2009 through a General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), which seriously wounded at least one passenger and forced the local Aero Contractor-operated Sikorsky to make an emergency landing (International Crisis Group, 2009). Another fresh violent conflict erupted in Jos from 28 to 29 November 2008; this resulted in the death of over 700 persons and destruction of properties worth millions of naira. In July 2009, over 600 deaths were recorded in a series of attacks associated with ―Boko Haram‖ violence in Bauchi and its environs (Adinoyi, 2009; Balogun, 2009 & Eya, 2009). Most of the cases of urban violence in Nigeria can be attributed to crisis of governance, given different perspectives on the issue. Urban violence has become pronounced in different cities in each of the six geo political zones in Nigeria. Specific instances of urban violence in northern Nigeria include ethno-religious violence in Kano, Kaduna, Zaria and Maiduguri. The instances of urban violence in northern Nigeria were buttressed by Adesoji (2010: 97) with the following examples: These include the Kano metropolitan riot of October 1982, the Ilorin riot of March 1986 […] the Kafanchan/Kaduna/Zaria/ Funtua religious riots of March 1987, the Kaduna Polytechnic riot of March 1988, the acrimonious, nationwide debate on Sharia (Islamic law) at the Constituent Assembly in October/November 1988, the Bayero University crisis of 1989, the Bauchi/Katsina riots of March/April 1991, the Kano riot of October 1991, the Zangon-Kataf riot of May 1992, the Kano civil disturbance of December 1991. Focusing on the waves of urban violence in central Nigeria, Kendhammer (2010) observed that Jos has become the site of repeated deadly ethnic riots since the democratic transition in 1999. The riots in Jos resulted in the deaths of 3000 people between 2001, 2004 and even 2013; such riots have been described as religious, ethnic, or between ―settlers‖ and ―indigenous‖ populations. Several instances of urban violence equally occurred in eastern Nigeria in the fourth republic, especially through the activities of the Bakassi Boys in Aba, Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Onitsha. Similarly, the OPC has contributed to waves of urban violence in western Nigeria, particularly in Lagos and Ibadan. In southern Nigeria, several cases of urban violence were recorded in Warri and Port Harcourt during militant attacks on multinational companies in the area. The Nigerian experience of urban violence resonates with Malesevic‘s (2010) discourse on the continuity of the trauma of war. Citing the intellectual contributions of classical sociologists such as Marx, Durkheim, Weber &


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Malesevic (2010) mentioned the major reflections of the collective violence in the 19th and 20th centuries. Additional cases of urban violence in the Nigerian cities show some instances of urban violence associated with political party conflicts, which have characterized the Nigerian fourth republic since 1999, a period that marked the beginning of the fourth republic. It is noteworthy that the third republic, which would have commenced on 1st October 1993, was aborted by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. The second republic was terminated on 31st December 1983 via a military coup led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari, whereas the first republic lasted for five years (1st October 1960 – 15th January 1966) due to military coups. It can be observed that both the military and democratic rulers in Nigeria have been accused of arbitrary governance by different groups of people in the Nigerian cities. Those groups have promoted different forms of urban violence as a counterforce against arbitrary governance in Nigeria. Thus, the discourse on urban violence in Nigeria can be extended beyond the cases of political party conflicts. A review of the socio political situation in Nigeria by Kendhammer (2010) suggests that the effect of party politics on ethnicity has been paradoxical, indicating the fact that policies designed to end ethnic outbidding and the ethnicization of party politics have resulted in higher levels of ethnic violence. An implication of a practice among members of the PDP was highlighted in a way by Kendhammer (2010: 48). The People‘s Democratic Party (PDP) succeeds as a multi-ethnic coalition on the basis of informal bargains and accommodations. The practice of zoning‗, which distributes the spoils of office according to an ethnic formula, produces incentives for local elites to embark upon ethnic violence or ethnic mobilisation as a way of advancing the interests of their local constituencies. The proliferation of urban violence in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has also been traced to the Nigerian crisis of governance: Violent conflicts have persisted in the Niger Delta communities of Nigeria despite efforts by successive governments and international organisations to broker peace in the region […]. One of the major factors contributing to the lack of peace in the region is the pervasive perception by local communities of the Nigerian government‗s inability to satisfy their basic human needs. As an example, approximately 96 per cent of all government revenue comes from the Niger Delta region. However, many of these communities are still poor and do not feel they are receiving a fair share of the resources in their territory (Akinwale, 2008: 8). Some other factors contributing to violence in the region include collusion between foreign investors and local elites; poverty and ignorance; the rise in youth militancy; structural barriers, and divergent interests of state elites and local leaders. The Nigerian experience of violence is analogous to situations in many African societies where: Violent conflicts continue to undermine human security; they pose a major threat in many parts of the continent. Analysis of civil strife in countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of


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Congo, Sudan, Côte d‗Ivoire, Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi, reveals that war and violent conflict have retarded development; conflict has had pernicious societal effects, including extensive damage and loss of human life, infrastructure and natural resources. (Institute for Security Studies, 2008: iv) CRIMINAL GANGS IN URBAN AREAS: A THREAT TO DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE IN THE NIGERIAN SCENE The above mentioned consequences of urban violence require further elaboration since the issues raised thereon can be situated within the ambit of experience of different groups in the Nigerian cities. The Nigerian crisis of governance has been aggravated by urban violence, before, during and after elections. Nigeria has not been able to recover from the damage to the 12th June 1993 presidential election, given the abrogation of the third republic and the riots that erupted from it. Elections conducted in the fourth republic were tainted by acrimony and confrontations over alleged malpractices such as rigging of elections. Falola & Genova (2009) argued that the 19th April 2007 presidential election was blatantly dysfunctional, given the violence and voting irregularities that characterised it. The 2007 and 2011 presidential election in Nigeria has actually brought more urban violence as the activities of boko haram has drastically increase. The recent killing of police personnel at Lakyo village in Nasarawa state, 9th July2013 River State house Assemble political crisis which should be seen as a state of anarchy, Factions of Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), past killings in the northern part of country and the Monday 29th July, 2013 bombing in Kano State where 45 persons were reported dead, has seriously poses a threat to our democracy. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The causes of urban violence in Nigeria are a combination of poverty and persistent inequality in wealth distribution together with the establishment of liberal democracy that saw all hopes of modifying and narrowing the gap between rich and poor frustrated. While in previous decades ―the majority of those politically excluded were workers fighting to be granted the status of citizens, nowadays, the majority of the socially excluded are the unemployed or those employed in precarious jobs who concentrate their energies on trying to survive (Jerome, 2004). The political equality which democracy established has not led to an end of economic inequality. The authoritarian legacies that survive after the arrival of democracy, such as the working practices, habits and uses of the security forces and the institutional weakness of the state, accentuate the inability of governments to resolve conflicts and prevent violence. Yet this incapacity to provide citizens with security does not mean that Nigerian state is a failed state, nor does it call into question its essence as a state, not even in those examples where the homicide rate is very high or where organized crime like urban violence pose particular threats. While it may be true that the state does not guarantee security, it can be considered as a


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state where the rule of law is discontinuous, where part of the territory or the functions of the state are threatened with a certain degree of success by armed groups. But the other capacities of the state remain intact and in working order and the national territory are free from the threat of violence; thus the state continues to function internally and internationally as state. This is the case of Nigeria. It has demonstrated that state can survive historic processes like these and that ultimately a state can only be strengthened by the reconstruction of its institutions. Violence can form part of a historical process of state formation; however, urban violence and the cases presented here are not clearly related to the formation of states since violence is not accompanied by successfully articulated political, economic or social demands. In other words, if the main cause of urban violence is the combination of poverty and an unequal distribution of wealth, it could be said that, ultimately, violence is a demand for the transformation of social relations, the social contract and the state. However, in practice this type of violence weakens the state since it does not intend to transform and transcend an inefficient state, but instead is a weapon used for short term gain and to guarantee survival. In the case of organized crime and drug trafficking, both produce sufficient violence to weaken the state. Not even when they play an administrative role by providing help in the shanty towns or poor neighborhoods can they be considered to have replaced the state, because their ultimate objective is the illegal reproduction of wealth. Despite these considerations, nobody can fail to recognize those illegal groups, the street gangs, often help to integrate young people, creating an identity for them which neither the state nor their families have been able to provide. The social exclusion, drugs, police persecution, widespread discrimination and wealth which surround these young people leave them without any sense of value for their own lives, a disregard widely shared by the rest of society and the state towards them. Institutional strengthening is crucial: not only the strengthening and the democratization of the state‘s repressive apparatus, but also of those institutions which form part of the lives of these marginalized populations through education, training and prevention programmes. As institutional strengthening programmes are costly and lengthy; in the short term local initiatives should be promoted. Regional organizations, donor governments, the European Union and international bodies should include the fight against violence in their agendas, identifying it as a key factor in aiding the strengthening of institutions. The vicious circle of social exclusion poverty disenfranchisement and violence, which weakens the state and holds back development, can be broken in this way. The key to resolving urban violence is to reintegrate young people by strengthening institutions, creating consensus and increasing the resources dedicated to Education, training, prevention and security. As has been


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highlighted here, local programmes can be successful. Local governments have to reach cross party consensus in relation to prevention and security policies in order to ensure that changes in the electoral fortunes of one party do not lead to a wider negative effect for the issue of urban violence. Two types of programmes would seem to be the most appropriate: those which restrict the carrying of weapons and alcohol consumption, and training and prevention programmes backed up by help in accessing the labor Market through job centers, trade apprenticeships, improvement of neighborhoods and communities. Adapting the education system to the skills demanded by the labor market is also worth serious consideration. Another kind of programme aimed at the wider population should emphasize the causes and consequences of social differences and seek to decriminalize poverty and build a consensus on the need to modify social structures for the benefit of all. For all the self-exclusion the higher earners in society try to bring about, the poverty, marginalization and fear that form part of the landscape beyond the locked gates of their private neighborhoods do not change. One of the threats which the normalization of violence brings is that it inevitably leads to an increase in authoritarianism and the abuse of power by the security forces, affecting the quality of life of all in the long term (Chizea & Iyare, 2006). REFERENCES Adejumobi, S. (2005). Identity, Citizenship and Conflict: The African Experience. In W. A. Fawole, & C. Ukeje. (eds.). The crisis of the state and regionalism in West Africa: Identity, citizenship and conflict. Dakar: CODESRIA Alonso,A.A.(1999).Territoriality Among African American Street Gangs in LOS Angeles. Unpublished Master thesis. Department of Geography. University of Southern Californial. Aliyu, A. A., Kasim, R. and Martin, D. (2011). Impact of Violent Ethno-religious Conflicts on Residential Property Value Determination in Jos Metropolis of Northern Nigeria: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Findings. Modern Applied Science, 5(5), 171-183. Cockburn, T. (2008). Fears of Violence Among English Young People: Disintegration Theory and British Social Policy. New Directions for Youth Development, 119, 75-91. Erinosho, L. (2007, September). Social Values in a Reforming Society. Keynote address delivered at the Nigerian Anthropological and Sociological Association (NASA) National Conference, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Falola, T. (1998). Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies. Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press.


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Falola, T. & Genova, A. (2009). Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press. Goldmann, E; Aiello, E.; Uddin, M.; Delva, J.; Koenen, K.; Gant, L. M. & Galea, S. (2011). Pervasive Exposure to Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Predominantly African American Urban Community: The Detroit Neighborhood Health Study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 24(6), 747-751. Grubesic, T. H.; Mack, E. A. & Kaylen, M. T. (2011). Comparative Modeling Approaches for Understanding Urban Violence. Social Science Research, 41(1), 92-109. Harroff-Tavel, M. (2010). Violence and Humanitarian Action in Urban Areas: New Challenges, New Approaches. International Review of the Red Cross, 92(879), 329-350. Institute for Security Studies. (2008). Peace and Security in Africa: Beyond the African Union Charter, Peace, Security and Justice. Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies. Jerome, A. (2004). Governance and Development Crisis in Nigerian Struggle for Democracy and Governance, Ibadan University Press. Kennedy, A. C. (2008). An Ecological Approach to Examining Cumulative Violence Exposure Among Urban, African American Adolescents. Child Adolescent Social Work Journal, 25, 25-41. Lacey, L. (1985). Interurban Flows of Population and Occupational Skills to Three Cities in Nigeria. International Migration Review 19 (4), 686-707. Malesevic, S. (2010). The Sociology of War and Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Massey, D. S. (2002). A Brief History of Human Society: The Origin and Role of Emotion in Social Life. American Sociological Review 67(1), 1-29. Moran, M. (2011). Opposing exclusion: The Political Significance of The Riots in French Suburbs (2005-2007). Modern and Contemporary France, 19(3), 297-312. Obi, C. I. (2006). Conflict and Peace in West Africa. Retrieved March 16, 2009 from http://www.nai.uu.se/press/newsletter/nigeria0703/


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Odoemene, A. (2008). The Contexts of Colonialism and Ethnicity in Indigene Settler’s Relations: Comparative Historical Evidence from Social (dis)order in Two Nigerian Cities. In B. Zewde (Ed.). Society, state and identity in African history. Addis Ababa: Forum for Social Studies. Ogun, T. P. (2010). Infrastructure and Poverty Reduction: Implications for Urban Development in Nigeria. Urban Forum, 21, 249–266. Hropological Quarterly, Vol. 84, No. 2, p. 411–438. Penglase, R. B. (2011). Lost Bullets: Fetishes of Urban Violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ant Perchonock, N. (1994). Urban Sociology in Africa. In O. Otite (Eds.). Sociology: Theory and Applied. pp. 104-118. Lagos: Malthouse Press. Simpson, T & Arinde, N. (2011). UK Burning: Deadly Violence Spreads across Britain. The Amsterdam News, 102(32), 1-28. Spano, R. & Bolland, J. M. (2011). Is The Nexus of Gang Membership, Exposure to Violence and Violent Behavior a key Determinant of First time Gun Carrying for Urban Minority Youth? Justice Quarterly, 28(6), 838-862. Steenbeek, W. & Hipp, J. R. (2011). A Longitudinal Test of Social Disorganization Theory: Feedback Effects among Cohesion, Social Control, and Disorder. Criminology, 49(3), 833-871. 355–369. The World Bank (2011). The Africa Competitiveness Report 2011. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Thrasher,F.M.(1927).The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago. Chicago IL: University of Chicago press. UNICEF (2002). Poverty and Exclusion among Urban Children. New York: UNICEF. United Nations (1991). World Urbanization Prospects. New York: United Nations. United Nations (1999). World Urbanization Prospects. New York. United Nations. United Nations (2002). Press Release. New York: United Nations Warner, B. D. & Burchfield, K. (2011). Misperceived Neighborhood Values and Informal Social Control. Justice Quarterly, 28(4), 606-630. Contemporary Justice Review, 13(4),


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Warner, B. D.; Beck & Ohmer, M. L. (2010). Linking Informal Social Control and Restorative Justice: Moving Social Disorganization Theory beyond Community Policing. Contemporary Justices Review, 13 (4), 355-369.


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CHAPTER SIX

CURRICULUM AND VOCATIONAL COUNSELLING FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG NIGERIAN YOUTH:

IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORMS

Olagunju, Mukaila K. O. and Adeyemi, Shade Vivian

School of Education, Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Noforija – Epe, Lagos State.

ABSTRACT Misinformation or the lack of it has been a major harbinger of the problem of mismatched vocational choices and unemployment faced by most Nigerian youth. This misinformation has increased the problem of inadequate self-identity among students, lack of social roles have influenced the inability of some youth to critically analyse vocational interests and opportunities while choosing a vocation. It is in view of this, that this paper examines curriculum and vocational counseling as implication for educational reforms and management of unemployment among Nigerian youth. The paper advocates that curriculum and vocational counselling are effective means through which curriculum development and policies can be appropriately utilised to combat career disinterest, unemployment among the active population and improve a country‟s socio-economic status and standing in the world. The new curriculum designed for Senior Secondary Schools in Nigeria, the concept and theories of vocational counselling, and recommendations for developing and utilizing appropriate and effective counseling services are presented in this paper. KEYWORDS: Educational Reforms, Unemployment, Curriculum, Vocational Counselling.

INTRODUCTION Nigeria has witnessed different issues of unemployment and socio-economic instability over the years owing to varying reasons. However, two main reasons which may have facilitated these challenges are low academic performance of students in examinations (Secondary and the Tertiary level) and lack of effective vocational skills among a large number of Nigerians. The latter having resulted from the unfortunate misconception owned by most Nigerians that schooling and graduation is to facilitate employment rather than create employment through the training and skills the academic and vocational environment had offered. The end result of this misconception is that Nigeria has a nation consume more goods and services than what it is willing to produce. A situation that is observable in the high rate of job-seekers and the limited numbers of local


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employers and entrepreneurs available in Nigeria. This in itself is bad for the economy and it does not enhance a sense of autonomy and self-efficacy in people. The term unemployment can be defined as a state in which an individual willing to work or take up a job in order to be rewarded with a daily or monthly wage or salary finds it difficult to secure such regardless of his/her efforts. The International Labor Organization (2012) defines unemployment as an economic indicator that refers to the number or proportion of people in an economy who are willing and able to work, but are unable to get a job. Unemployment is a grave issue in Nigeria and the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (2012) in computing the unemployment rate, divides the total population into labour force (currently active) and non-labour force (not currently active). In this division, the labour force which could also be referred to as the employable Nigerians are persons aged 15-64years covers 56.3% of the total population. This statistics reveals that the labour force makes up more than half of the total population of the populace showing the risk a society is exposed to socio-economically when the active populace is faced with likely redundancy. Below is a statistical illustration of unemployment in Nigeria from 2009 – 2011:

YEAR PERCENTAGE (%)

2009 19.7%

2010 21.1%

2011 23.9%

Source: Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (2012) The above results show the gradual increase (19.7%, 21.1% and 23.9%) in the rate of unemployment in Nigeria out of the 56.3% that makes up the active employable group. Till date little difference can be assumed to have been achieved since the clamour for more youth empowerment programmes which stipends are inadequate for the benefactor to live on still exists. A major reason for the limited success recorded in the so many youth empowerment programmes is that majority of the benefactors perceive it as a salary paying job rather than a training scheme designed to equip them for vocational and entrepreneurial roles. In addition to this, most of the bodies which equip these individuals with training skills do not provide essential facilities for them to start off as entrepreneurs and engage in little follow-ups once the programme ends. Effects of Unemployment Unemployment is a reflection of inadequacy, either on the part of the jobseeker or the nation. It is debilitating for the growth and socioeconomic stability of a nation. This means that unemployment impoverish both the unemployed and the nation at large as finances would be diverted to combat the unemployment crisis


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rather than used for other germane developmental programmes. Aside this, unemployment negatively affects an individual‘s self-worth, identity, self-efficacy and stretches resilience to the extreme. This may then lead to socio-psychological problems of aggression and violence, isolation, hate, and depression. The affected individual may perceive others around him or the society as a whole as responsible for his/her plight and this could lead him/her to commit crime and other antisocial behaviours. To him/her this could seem the only way out of his/her problems. Moreover, it may be assumed that the fear of unemployment sometimes trigger criminal behavior (frauds, blackmail and embezzlement) among the working class as a means of ―saving for the raining day‖. Thus, the prevalence and associated negative effects of unemployment have influenced governments at all levels and in various countries to continually strive to curb and manage the rate and the likely increase of unemployment among the active group in their countries. The various management strategies, policies and programmes embarked on include youth empowerment schemes, curriculum review at all level of the educational grade (primary, secondary and tertiary) and so on. However, as much as these programmes were designed with the good intent of resolving the problem of unemployment, little or limited attention were given to counseling programmes which would serve as bedrock of assuring the success of the other programme. What this portends is that most of the policies and programmes thus designed became crash solutions which could not effectively meet the affected individuals‘ needs, improve his/her self-belief and values and appropriately curb and manage the problem of career disinterest and unemployment among Nigerian youth. The aim of the paper is to create the awareness in people and the government at every level that vocational counseling is an essential tool germane to providing balance in developing a quality, qualified and autonomous individuals among Nigerian youth. The paper examines the existing psychologically synchronization existing between an individual‘s state of mind, interest and vocation and the exhibited behavior and achievement that is associated with such. It further highlights theories on vocational counseling and considers the psychological and emotional disunity likely to result when school subjects are wrongly chosen or matched, limited vocational information and counseling are given to students, and the negative effect of selecting vocational choice based on availability and financial worth. Vocational Misconceptions Vocational choice may be enforced on students by parents owing to perceived associated high label or socio-economic status of professionals in the discipline. The parents affected by this misconception do not encourage children to become fine artists, teachers, cobblers, fabric makers or ceramic or glass designers but place emphasis on disciplines such as accountancy, medicine, pharmacy, engineering or some others. The underlying problem with such familial influence


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is that students are not given the freewill to explore their self, values and interests. Moreover, many of these students do not make the requirement necessary to gain admission for admission for further training in these professional courses and when they do perceive it as something done to please the parents. End result is that some of the students who fail to make the necessary requirements for further training are forced to re-sit their examinations or left in confusion as to what to do next. For the others who may actually have been successful to go through the training, they may be lacking in interpersonal relationship as they are not personally motivated to give more than what could satisfy their parents and not self. In addition, the qualifications they therefore gain are to make them amenable to professional instructions and not to give instructions. Aside parents, many students have been misled in their secondary schools by peers and teachers owing to their intelligence. It is an assumed norm in Nigeria that students who are in the 80 and above percentile should be considered most eligible for the field of science and technology while students vast in language are placed in the arts. This unfortunate belief has placed a lot of students into the corner and has forced them to embrace professions which they would not have chosen if the proper vocational counseling and placement was done. Thus, it is important for people, especially the significant individual‘s in a student‘s life to understand that vocational choice should not be defined based on academic performance but on a student‘s interests, values and self-efficacy belief. Vocational Counselling In Nigeria, adequate emphasis on the importance of counselling services and the utilization of the professional counselling assistance is yet to be achieved. Unfortunately, a lot of crisis exist in Nigeria that appropriate counseling programmes could have helped prevent. For instance, development of self-concepts in people, relationship and anger management skills and vocational counselling are just a few out of the intervention programmes that counselling proffers to people and which could have prevented some of the socio-psychological and emotional problems experienced in Nigeria. However, with the introduction of the new Senior Secondary school curriculum and the overall awareness that there is a major socio-economic crisis in Nigeria it is believed that vocational counselling would be given relevant recognition it deserves. Vocational counselling is the drive that would make the new curriculum survive since it is the professional responsibility of the vocational counselor to provide orientation, identification of career interests and self-efficacy of students as well as vocational placements. The Curriculum In the last few decades, the secondary schools have been called upon to do much more than teach the basics. The need to develop the mindsets of students to


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understand that vocational aspiration goes beyond employability but equally encompasses creating and providing jobs for others has become essential. In a bid to achieve this, the present Nigerian senior secondary schools curriculum have been classified into four area; science and mathematics, humanities, business studies and technology. These classifications may have been adopted because it caters for the link needed in all vocation a student may engage in. Moreover, the curriculum would guide students‘ vocational decisions or instill in them vocational skills. Thus, the new curriculum encompasses the following vocational subjects as indicated by Orji (2012):

1. Auto body repair and spray painting 2. Auto electrical work 3. Auto mechanical work 4. Auto parts merchandising 5. Air conditioning refrigerator 6. Welding and fabrication engineering craft practice 7. Electrical installation and maintenance work 8. Radio, TV and electrical work 9. Block laying, brick Laying and concrete work 10. Painting and decoration 11. Plumbing and pipe fitting 12. Machine woodworking 13. Carpentry and joinery 14. Furniture making 15. Upholstery 16. Catering and craft practice 17. Garment making 18. Textile trade 19. Dying and bleaching 20. Printing craft practice 21. Cosmetology 22. Leather goods manufacturing and repair 23. Keyboarding 24. Data processing 25. Store keeping 26. Book keeping 27. GSM maintenance 28. Photography 29. Tourism 30. Mining 31. Animal husbandry 32. Fisheries 33. Marketing 34. Salesmanship


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The aim of the vocational subjects is to expose and equip students with the needed psychological sense of autonomy, self-reliance, self-efficacy, resilience, motivation and interest germane in making appropriate career choices and decisions. A worthy policy one may say in combating unemployment, however, there is need for another cogent programme to be in place on which the curriculum implementation can ride on to ensure the programme success. A cogent programme that would provide this important role is curriculum and vocational counseling, the teachers and trainers need to understand why particular sets of students are assigned to them for teaching and training and the students also need to understand why they are best suited to a particular training or vocation rather than another. The answer to these questions are not gained in the classroom but are the sole responsibility of the vocational counselor in order to ensure a smooth and effective running of programmes in the schools. Vocational counselling is a blend of self-development, learning and assimilation of vocation, in which educational and labour market information are provided to individuals. Below is an illustration demonstrating the interaction between the student, vocational counselling and vocation.


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Interaction between the student, vocational counselling and vocation

Student

Career Counselling

Business studies

-Auto parts

merchandising

-Store keeping

-Book keeping

-Tourism

-Marketing

-Salesmanship

-Textile trade

Humanities

-Painting and

decoration

-Keyboarding

- Photography

-Catering and craft

practice

- Garment making

-Dying and bleaching

-Printing craft

practice

-Cosmetology

Science & Mathematics

-Data processing

-GSM maintenance

-Mining

-Animal husbandry

-Fisheries

-Auto electrical work

-Auto mechanical work

-Electrical installation and

maintenance work

-Radio, TV and electrical

work

Technology

-Auto body repair and spray

painting

-Air conditioning refrigerator

repair

-Welding and fabrication

engineering craft practice

-Block laying, brick Laying

and concrete work

-Plumbing and pipe fitting

-Machine woodworking

-Carpentry and joinery

-Furniture making

-Upholstery

-Leather goods


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Theories on Vocational Counselling Vocational counselling is a process of helping individuals make career-related decisions, effectively manage careers over the life course and develop the emotional resilience to cope with the challenges that arise as their working lives progress (Kidd, 2006). It is the professional assistance given to students to help them fully realize their talents and potentials and be adequately guided into organizing this for future vocational sustainability. Thus, vocational counseling can be regarded as a fluid solidified yet systematic process of helping students explore both themselves and their possibilities and to decide, with awareness, what they want to do at different stages of their life. There is no way the term vocational counselling can be considered without reflecting on the threefold framework associated with vocational development. The threefold framework is vocational decision making, vocational management, and vocational resilience (Kidd, 2006). The frameworks given by Kidd (2006) illustrate the whole essence of vocational counselling. Moreover, it easily gives an idea of the role a vocational counselor would play in career development. Some of this role includes assisting people of all ages at different stages in their careers resolve vocational concerns such as frustrations of redundancy and unemployment; assist people and students decide on study or work, and find ways to balance life and job roles. The European Union (2008) report refers to vocational guidance and counseling as an instrument useful in effectively combating social exclusion and increase citizens' employability. Also, it is referred to as a trend which is relevant and responsive to the times and to the individuals who are its consumers (UNESCO, 2002). Savickas (2005) views vocational counseling as an effective process in these changing times. In profiling vocational counselling, Herr (1997) made five observations. These are that:

1. The principal content in vocational counselling is the perceptions, anxieties, information deficits, work personalities, competencies, and motives that persons experience in their interactions with their external environment;

2. Vocational counselling is not a singular process, but a term used to summarize a range of interventions that deal with emotional or behavioral disorders that accompany or confound the career problem;

3. Vocational counselling is no longer conceived as a process principally focused on ensuring that adolescents make a wise choice of an initial job;

The Person-Environment-Fit Theory of Vocational Counselling Vocational counseling is a unique discipline built on a foundation of vocational theory and counselling theory (Patton & McMahon, 2006). These theories have been broadened and new theories have been proposed, and the world of work has undergone dramatic and irreversible change (Brown, 2002 & Patton &


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McMahon, 1999). However, this paper examines the person-environment-fit theory of vocational counselling. The person-environment-fit theory emphasizes diagnosis and assessment. Holland‘s (1997) proposes that people seek occupations that are congruent with their occupational interests (preferences for particular work activities). His theory states that people and occupational environments can be categorized into six interest types: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. It is considered that occupational choice is the result of attempts to achieve congruence between interests and environments while congruence results in job satisfaction and career stability. Holland‘s main proposition, that individuals choose occupations that are congruent with their interests may not fully hold through for most people choosing a vocation in Nigeria especially when vocational counselling is not sought in vocational decision making. Most vocational choices in Nigeria are influenced by family‘s name, tradition and pedigree as well as the financial benefits associated with the vocation. This means that people tend to think more specifically about the job status and financial benefits that would ease their acceptance among friends and significant others in their lives rather than what vocation would suit them. To cite Arnold (2004), socio-economic status of most people has made occupational titles inadequate descriptors of work environments and work effectiveness. A situation that has contributed and lend credence to emotional dissonance associated with many professionals on the job. Thus, the theory of person-fit-environment theory has seen in this paper explains individual vocational interest and choice, especially as a motivator for career aspiration resilience in the face of academic or vocational training challenges. Moreover, the person-fit theory is a theory counselors would find useful in developing counseling strategies effective in enhancing autonomy among students and youth, useful in expanding their interests and in developing the appropriate skills necessary in making them employable and employers. Role of the Vocational Counsellor It can be assumed that the main role of vocational counselling is to proffer essential assistance, support and guidance to people in the management of vocational and socio-psychological challenges. Aside this, the vocational counselling is effective in assisting people to develop:

1. Self-concepts and self-understanding. 2. Develop students‘ occupational concepts, getting to know about the world

of work and identifying how to choose among career alternatives. 3. Develop students‘ occupational self-concepts, deciding what you want

from work and establishing career goals.


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4. Develop students‘ extra-occupational concepts, deciding what you want from life beyond the work place through being able to identify road blocks and solving problems.

5. Provide psychometric testing useful in making in-depth psychological profiles to assess personality and intellectual levels.

The Processes in Vocational Counselling Kidd‘s (2003; 2006) views the vocational counseling process as comprising four stages with associated tasks. These stages have been explained as thus: Stage 1: Building the Relationship The image of the career counsellor as a professional, offering advice and recommendations on suitable jobs is an enduring one. Many students expect vocational counseling to consist mainly of information about occupations but it is important to help students understand that vocational counseling is a collaborative venture and that they need to be active participants throughout the process. Agreeing on a client-counsellor ―contract‖ at an early stage is seen as crucial. This contract may cover issues of confidentiality; the number, length, and frequency of meetings; and, the nature of the vocational counseling process. Stage 2: Enabling Students’ Understanding The task here is helping students gain a deeper understanding of their situation and the issues that concerns them. Vocational counselling would help many students gain important insights about self and vocational development. To do this, structured assessment techniques and tools are used. These assessment tools are useful for client self-understanding and exploration rather than in making predictions or recommendations. In addition, the information produced from assessment is something to be shared, and students may be encouraged to express their feelings about its accuracy and usefulness. Two categories of assessment tools used are informal (graphic or written portrayals, such as life-lines, or written answers to questions, checklists, card sorts, and rating scales) and formal (psychometric tests and inventories) Stage 3: Exploring New Perspectives Students who are challenging may have stereotypes and inaccurate beliefs about some vocations. Some of these inaccurate beliefs may have been influenced by culture, religion or gender stereotypes and this situation poses as key tasks for counsellors undertaking the vocational counselling. In addition, vocational counselors should view themselves as general practitioners with respect to knowledge of occupational and educational opportunities (Nathan & Hill, 2006). This stems from the fact that different clients groups will need different types of labour market information. Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey (2002) outline three responsibilities in career information; these include


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using only high-quality printed materials, computer-based systems, and web sites. Stage 4: Forming Strategies and Plans Reviewing vocational counseling progress and contract may be assumed to be an integral part of the career-counselling process at various stages. Setting time aside for a review is also seen as useful in assessing the progress made. Thus goal setting is important. It involves effective goals, which are clear and behaviorally specific, measurable, achievable, owned by the goal setter, congruent with the client‘s values, and appropriately time-scaled (Miller, Crute & Hargie, 1992). Moreover, the vocational counselling process has been referred to as goal setting in research (Egan, 2004). Goals of Vocational Counselling The goals of vocational counselling refer to the aims and objectives of the discipline. The following has been stated as thus:

1. Understand the importance of values, work, friends, family, income and self-fulfillment to personal and career development.

2. Develop self-control over life and work, explore abilities, potentials, needs, aspirations, self-monitoring, self-defeating behaviours, self-help skills and use of resources.

3. Strengthen orientation for post-secondary school opportunities and identify steps to be taken, anticipate opportunities and barriers (influence of class, sex, disability and race).

4. Examine a variety of occupations; learn about the education and training, licensing, certification or registration, working conditions and work-life style of the occupations.

5. Learn decision-making and apply it to career decisions including setting specific goals

6. Examine self and analyse past experience, including what one has and has not accomplished and the reasons for successes and disappointments

7. Develop transition skills of continuously developing competencies in the face of adversity and opportunity; obtain information on the transferability of one‘s skills to new opportunities and of engaging in continuous learning.

Importance of Career Counselling A lot of benefits would accrue when vocational counseling is adequately inculcated into schools‘ curriculum and some of these benefits include assisting students to:

1. Choose a life rather than simply living 2. Identify job interests that will shape their present and future life styles

and persons.


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3. Make appropriate subjects combinations which would be useful in vocational interest and choice, and enhance entrepreneurial skills.

4. Become employable and entrepreneurs 5. Develop social skills, anger/self-management skills useful in

maintaining a positive and stable emotional and socio-psychological wellbeing.

6. Develop self-efficacy belief; resilience and self-identity essential in transiting successfully into the world of work aside the scholastic preparation for working roles they are exposed to in the classroom.

Moreover, vocational counseling would assist people develop a sense of self-worth and an understanding of the various opportunities they could choose from in developing a sustainable career and socio-economic wellbeing. This would therefore reduce the rate of crime and violence experienced in Nigeria owing to joblessness and a state of financial incapacitation. In addition to this, it would build the nation to a much better standing among other countries owing to high rate of autonomous individuals existing in its various communities and who are entrepreneurs with adequate self-beliefs system and would also increase the gross domestic earnings of the country. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This paper focused on curriculum and vocational counseling as implication for educational reforms and management of unemployment among Nigerian youth. It has given a comprehensive view of the relevance and importance of vocational counselling in curriculum implementation and management of unemployment among Nigerian youth. Moreover, the paper examined the new senior secondary school curriculum and the person-fit theories of vocational counseling. In addition, it highlights the role of the vocational counselor and the likely implication when counseling services and programmes are not made part of government policies to address the problem of career choice and unemployment among Nigerian youth. In order to put things in shape and encourage effective implementation of policies designed to prevent unemployment, the following recommendations are given: Government should support vocational counseling at all levels by establishing an office with responsibility to prepare the vocational counseling curriculum, fund its programmes and services and provide training and continuing education for vocational counsellors and teachers. The vocational counseling centers should be in schools and local government offices which are easily accessible to students and other individuals needing the vocational counseling services.


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In addition to this, they should encourage research and development for identifying and creating new techniques of conducting educational and vocational counselling. Moreover, teaching and learning should be designed to be fun and not a chore as this would help in increasing the retention of learners at school and reduce the numbers of dropouts from schools. This is because illiteracy is equally a problem facilitating unemployment among some Nigerian youth. Also, the government should authorize the collection, classification and publishing of labour market information that is useful to economic development efforts, vocational training programme and educational and vocational counselling. The schools and other educational bodies should equally assist the government in providing a functional counseling centre where the professional counsellor is given a free hand to practice the profession without hitch or barrier. This would encourage students and people needing the service to visit. Also, students should be encouraged to receive curriculum-based counselling which has a relationship with their choice of academic subjects and would motivate them into improvement in their academic performance. Moreover, individual counselling for satisfactory achievement should be made available for both students and staff while the counselling service should be given its due respect as a specialized function possessing the required competencies. Moreover, counselling associations and bodies existing in Nigeria should engage in campaign drives to enlighten people as to their importance and relevance in all aspects of the society. In addition, counselling practitioners should engage in continuing education both internationally and locally to update their knowledge and training as professionals. Moreover, individuals should not shy away and deny themselves the opportunities of enjoying the benefits associated with engaging in a professional vocational counselling service with a qualified practitioner. A lot of times, simple mistakes that have much greater effects on our lifestyles in future have been made owing to lack of proper counselling. Most people would like to give individual counsels but what makes a professional counselor stands out is the objectivity involved. Aside this, counselling as a profession has the sole aim of making an individual a better person through scientific research and guiding principles. REFERENCES Arnold, J. (2004). The congruence problem in John Holland‘s theory of vocational decisions. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77, 95–113. Brown, D. (2002). Career choice and development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.


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Egan, G. (2004). The skilled helper: A problem management and opportunities development approach to helping. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. European Union (2008).Council Resolution on Better Integrating Lifelong Guidance into Lifelong Learning Strategies. (Resolution No. 14398/08 EDUC 241 SOC 607) October 31, 2008. Herr, E. L. (1997). Perspectives on career guidance and counselling in the 21st century. Educational and Vocational Guidance, 60, 1-15. Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. International Labor organization (2012).Department for Work and Pensions. In SquareDigital Media Ltd. www.politics. Kidd, J. M. (2003). Career development work with individuals. In R. Woolfe & W. Dryden (Eds.), Handbook of Counselling Psychology (pp. 461–480). London: Sage. Kidd, J. M. (2006). Understanding career counselling: Theory, research and practice. London: Sage. Miller, R., Crute, V., & Hargie, O. (1992). Professional interviewing. London: Routledge. Nathan, R., & Hill, L. (2006). Vocational counseling (2nded.).London: Sage. National Bureau of Statistics (2012). In Nigeria businessdayonline.com Niles, S. G., & Harris-Bowlsbey, J. (2002).Career development interventions in the 21st century. Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall. Orji, S. (2012). The Trade/Entrepreneurship Curriculum for Nigeria Senior Secondary Schools: Presented at a Sensitization & Advocacy Workshop for Teachers in Taraba State from 23rd – 24th August, 2012. Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). Parsons, F. (1909).Choosing a vocation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Patton, W. & McMahon, M. (1999).Career development and systems theory: A new relationship. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Patton, W. & McMahon, M. (2006).Career development and systems theory: Connecting theory and practice. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.


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Savickas, M. (2005).The theory and practice of career construction. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counselling: Putting research and theory to work,42–70. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Super, D. E. (1957).The psychology of careers. New York: Harper & Row. Super, D. E., Thompson, A. S., Lindeman, R. H., Myers, R. A., & Jordaan, J. P. (1988). Adult career concerns inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. UNESCO (2002).Handbook of career counselling. Paris: Author.


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CHAPTER SEVEN

GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING NEEDS IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME

Edna Abibetu Abidde

Department of Psychology/Guidance & Counselling, College of Education Warri, Delta State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT Guidance and counselling service is an integral part of an overall well planned programme with specific process guided with its aims and objectives based on the need programme for students, process, product and the ability to understand and solve their problems by themselves and make appropriate adjustment to their environment. Major guidance programme include students appraisal, information giving, placement and follow up with ten criteria used in evaluation. This paper focus on the need of guidance and counselling services and its relevance providing students and other individuals with potentials from a well-planned guidance and counselling programme to achieve the desired goals of services rendered. KEYWORDS: Educational Programme, Needs, Guidance and counselling.

INTRODUCTION The Guidance and counselling Programme, like any other educational programme, requires careful and consistent research and development. This ensures that the programme respond to the unique needs of its clients. It provides benefits to students and other individuals by addressing their intellectual, emotional, social, personal and psychological needs. For any guidance and counselling programme to meet successfully the needs of all individual or students as the case may be, it must be developmental, preventive and remedial rather than crisis-oriented. Further, a comprehensive and developmental guidance and counselling programme is not only preventive but also pro-active in preventive orientation. Consequently it must be well-planned, goal-oriented and accountable. It is an integral part of the school programme, and complements other school activities. It is important for today‘s guidance and counselling programme to be developmental, so that it assists students who are growing up in a complex world. It should help them to develop into full human beings, capable of maximizing their potential in all personal, educational, social or career-related respects.


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A comprehensive guidance programme should be balanced, and encompass all the four fundamental areas of guidance, viz.: psychological, educational, social and vocational. It should provide students with the assistance necessary for their maximum development. The programme should also decide what services to offer, such as information, consultation, referral, counselling, placement, career follow-up and evaluation services. The programme should use all staff members and determine their roles in it. It, therefore, demands consultation, co-operation and co-ordination. A programme should define the role of the guidance personnel, who should be fully informed about the programme. It should create a teamwork approach, in which every member of staff is considered responsible for contributing to the success of the programme. For a guidance programme to be comprehensive, it should also be relevant for the clients, and not merely maintain a status quo. It must be purposeful, and designed to meet the priority needs of the clients. These needs should be met in an efficient and effective manner. It should be stable and unaffected by the loss of personnel, as this determines the extent to which it meets the desired goals and objectives. Each programme must be specifically designed for the clients it serves. There is, therefore, a possibility for both similarities and differences in programmes. Effective programmes are flexible, since this allows for adaptation to future growth and effectiveness. Programme development not only calls for needs assessment but reflects other characteristics of the clients, such as age, location or environment, religious belief, cultural background, sex and economic status. Any service as comprehensive as guidance and counselling must be carefully planned if it is to meet the desired goal. When the programme is well organized, there is no doubt that all involved will participate to the fullest extent. The teachers should see it as their own, rather than the headmaster‘s or the guidance counselling programme. Their involvement is crucial right from the start. Education function as an opportunities to provide to students to enable them reach full potentials in the areas of educational, vocational, personal, social, and emotional development. Guidance and counselling as an integral part of education is centered directly to function and prepare individuals to assume increasing responsibility for their own decisions, responsible for their ability to develop their own ability to make intelligent choices (Gibson, 2008 & Kauchak 2011). Guidance and counselling draws upon the past of an individual and brings it to bear on the present of the same individual in order to fashion a future that ensures self-realization and self-actualization of such individual.


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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING IN SCHOOL PROGRAMMES. The aims and objectives of guidance and counselling services are similar to the purposes of educational programs. The major aim is to facilitate the personal development of students. The purpose of guidance and counselling provide emphasis on the value of the educational programs in relationship to the vocational, psychological, social, economic activities to educational programs. Ipaye (1983:11) suggested the following as the objectives of guidance and counselling in Nigeria secondary schools 1. To help students develop the skills of self- study, self-analysis and self-

understanding. 2. To help students develop an awareness of opportunities in their personal-

social and vocational areas by providing them with appropriate useful and usable information.

3. To help students acquire skills of collecting and collating by synthesizing appropriate information.

4. To assist students in making appropriate and satisfactory personal-social, educational, vocational and recreational choices.

5. To help students develop positive attitudes towards self, others and to appropriate national issues to work and to learn

6. To help students use their potentials to the maximum. 7. To help students acquire as early as possible in their life a positive image of

self through self-understanding and self-direction. 8. To assist students in the process of developing and acquiring skills in

problem-solving and decision-making. 9. To help student build up or sharpen the perception of reality, develop a

sense of autonomy and to whip up the motivation for creativity and productivity.

10. To help the student learn to work co-operatively with significant others in his life.

11. To help route the nation‘s human resources into appropriate, useful and beneficial channels, thus preventing unnecessary economic bottlenecks.

12. To help identify and nurture human potentialities in various fields of study or human endeavours, thereby ensuring adequate manpower in the various sectors of Nigerian economy.

13. To help build in the individual positive attitude towards others and a sense of total commitment to the unity of the nation.

Objectives of Guidance and Counselling in the 6-3-3-4 System of Education Some of the objectives of guidance and counselling in the 6-3-3-4 system of education, according to Oladele (1991:10) who cited Williamson are as follows: (a) To help individual direct his experience (b) To help the individual have define goals (c) To help him appreciate his values


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The breakdown of these aims by Oladele (1991: 10-12) shows that guidance in school programme can assist students, teachers, parents, counsellors and government in the following categories: Assist Students: i. Progress towards a productive and rewarding career through making

appropriate and satisfying personal-social and vocational choices. ii. Enter school, Select school courses and pre-vocation subjects that will enable

pupils to acquire further knowledge and develop their skills. iii. Effect smooth transition from primary to junior secondary school and from

junior to senior secondary or to vocational schools and from there to institutions of higher learning.

iv. Develop learning skills and values v. Remove barriers that might inhibit learning. vi. Participate meaningfully in the opportunities provided by the school

curricular and co-curricular activities. vii. Develop positive image of self through self-understanding, self-direction

and through acquisition of skills in problem solving and decision making. viii. Develop interpersonal relationships with other human beings for healthy

growth and development. A school guidance programme aid teachers to: i. Understand and utilize the service of the guidance programme. ii. Participate in helping the students attain the guidance objectives. iii. Understand and utilize the service of the guidance programme. iv. Develop a flexible curriculum to provide a meaningful education for each

student. v. Plan programmes of educational and vocational training consistent with

their goals. Oladele (1989) further outlined how a school guidance and counselling programme would assist parents, counsellors and the government for effective teaching and learning.

Assistance to parents: a. For understanding their children‘s educational progress and develop a

realistic perception in relationship to their potentials. b. For understanding of the information about educational and occupational

opportunities and requirement available to them and their children and to utilize the services made available.

c. To participate in helping their children attain guidance objectives.


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To counsellors, the programme will assist them as follows:

a. To understand the educational programme for the benefit of the students for whom they are responsible.

b. To participate in helping in the attainment of‘ the guidance objectives. Assists the government to: Understand the characteristics of schools/students‘ population, and the conditions under which learning takes place and to assist in attaining in set aims and objectives of the programme. In the citation of Makinde (1978), Durojaiye (1972) and others, Makinde (1988) said that for guidance to be meaningful, its services to individuals in developing countries as Nigeria should be focused largely on: a. Decision-making skills b. Interpersonal skills c. Educational skills d. Vocational and life planning skills e. Counselling and placement skills f. Enhancement of teacher and parent effectiveness g. Value identifications. h. psychological skills. Makinson & Jones (1975) suggested that school based career-guidance should involve teachers, counsellors, administrative workers and be organized around the following career development themes:

a. Problem solving. b. Understanding of self and others. c. Understanding the world around and the nation at large. d. Obtaining skills and experiences. e. Achieving identity-self-social and functional identity.

Relevance of Guidance and Counselling in Educational Programme The benefits of Guidance and Counselling Programme development cannot be over emphasized; it is a systematic process that requires following series of steps. A developmental and comprehensive school guidance and counselling programme not only benefits the students, but also the parents, teachers, administrators and the business community. The benefits to the various groups are as follows: Students 1. Increases self-knowledge and how to relate effectively to others. 2. Broadens knowledge about the changing environment in helping to reach full academic potential.


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3. Provides opportunities for career exploration, planning and decision-making 4. Provides an opportunity for networking with services and thus establishes an

effective support system to teach responsibility to behaviour. Parents 1. Provides parents with support for their child‘s educational and personal development. 2. Increases opportunities for parental involvement in the education of the child and equip parents with the necessary skills to support their ward. Teachers 1. Enables students to master effectively their subjects with an understanding of the importance of each one. 2. Provides an opportunity to work in collaboration with other teachers and parents. Administrators 1. Enhances the image of the school in the community and improves the general

appearance of the school. 2. Allows for systematic evaluation and provides structure which can be monitored easily. Business, Industry and the Labour Market 1. It provides the potential for a well-informed workforce, with positive attitudes and the necessary skills. 2. It provides an opportunity for collaboration with teachers in preparing students for the ―World of work through participation in career programme and other career guidance activities‖ COUNSELLING TECHNIQUES IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME: In other to achieve the goal of guidance and counselling programme there are skills and techniques to follow. Counselling techniques are those skills applied in counseling to achieve a desired goal in a therapy class. Three steps to have an effective counseling as follows; Establishing relationship Having knowledge of symptoms or causes Knowing when to terminate therapy Further guide in the selection of strategies by counsellors are as follows;

1 Recognizing and taking advantage of teachable moments. People learn new behaviour every day.

2 Establish a positive and friendly rapport, first impression matters in a counselling relationship. This is the bases in which a successful counselling session can hold.


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3 Some people learn to function more effectively by becoming aware of certain characteristics about themselves and their environment.

4 By allowing people to take decision for themselves and by themselves 5 Having the attitude to listen very well and having good and effective

communication skills 6 The contingents of reinforcement in a person‘s environment is likely to

influence the way the person behave and it is expected to influence change in behavior, such attitude needs to be watched out for

Evaluation of Guidance and Counselling Programms Evaluation consists of making systematic judgments of the relative effectiveness with which goals are attained in relation to specified standards. In evaluating a function like guidance and counselling services, there are attempts to determine to what extent the objectives of the service have been attained. The major objectives of guidance are to assist individuals to develop the ability to understand themselves, to solve their own problems, and to make appropriate adjustments to their environment as the situation dictates (Gibson, 2008). Evaluation is the means by which school personnel can better judge the extent to which these objectives are being met (Popham, 2010). Cobia, 2007; Dimmitt, Carey & Hatch, 2007 & Gybsers 2006, gave the following ten characteristics ascriteria for evaluating the effectiveness of a school's guidance and counselling services: Students Needs Effective guidance programs are based on students‘ needs. Some needs are typical among given age; others are specific to certain individuals in particular regions or schools. In effective guidance programs, teachers, counsellors, and administrators listen carefully to what students say, because they know they are expressing either personal or situational inadequacies. Cooperation The staff of effective guidance and counselling programme works cooperatively. Cooperation is exhibited in the degree of active interest, mutual help, and collaboration among teachers, counsellors, and administrators. Process and Product Effective guidance programs are concerned with both process and product. The questions "How well is the program operating?" and "What are the outcomes?" guide the focus in effective guidance programs. The most important outcome of a guidance program is desirable change in the behavior of students, such as improved school attendance, better study habits, and better scholastic achievement, fewer scholastic failures, lower dropout rate, better educational planning, and better home-school relations.


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Balance Effective guidance and counselling programs balance corrective, preventive, and developmental functions. Personnel in such programs know when to extricate students from potentially harmful situations, when to anticipate student difficulties, and when to provide assistance necessary to a student's maximum development. Stability The ability to adjust to loss of personnel without loss of effectiveness is associated with program quality. Stability requires that the system is able to fill vacant positions quickly and satisfactorily. Flexibility Effective guidance and counselling programs manifest flexibility. Flexibility enables the program to expand or contract as the situation demands without significant loss of effectiveness. Qualified Counselors Counsellors hold a graduate degree in counselling and are fully certified by the state in which they practice. Adequate Counsellor-Student Ratio Most accrediting agencies for example require a counsellor-student ratio of one full-time counsellor for 250 to 300 students. A caseload of this magnitude is satisfactory if counselors are to have adequate time to counsel students individually and in small groups, as well as consult with faculty, administrators, and parents. Physical Facilities Are the facilities for guidance work sufficient for an effective program? Physical facilities that are well planned and provide for adequate space, privacy, accessibility, and the like are characteristic of quality guidance programs. Record keeping Appropriate records are maintained on each student including achievement test scores, information supplied by teachers, administrators, parents, employers, and other professional personnel. Although many of the aforementioned ten characteristics are useful, they should not be accepted unquestioningly. To some extent each guidance programme is unique to its particular setting and consequently would either add other characteristics.


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CONCLUSION Guidance and counselling services play an integral part in the overall student services department of any secondary school. The aims of guidance and counselling programs in schools are to assist individuals to develop the ability to understand themselves, to solve their own problems, and to make appropriate adjustments to their environment. Major guidance services include student appraisal, information giving, placement and follow-up, and counselling. Ten criteria are used in evaluating guidance and counselling programs: student needs, cooperation, process and product, balance, stability, flexibility, quality counsellors, adequate counsellor-student ratio, adequate physical facilities, and appropriate record keeping. REFERENCES Dimmitt, C., Carey, J. C., & Hatch, T. (2007). Evidence-based school counselling: Making a difference with data-driven practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Durojaiye, M. O. A. (1986). Psychological guidance of the child. Ibadan: Evans Brothers Ltd. Gibson, R. L. (2008). Introduction to guidance and counselling. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gysbers, N. C. (2006). Developing and managing your school guidance programme. Washington. DC: American Counselling Association. Ipaye, T. (1982). Guidance and counselling practices. Ile-ife University of Ife Press. Makinde, F. W (1989). Indigenous African counselling therapy in theories of counselling and psychotherapy. Ibadan: Practice Continental Press. Makinde, F. W (1988). Foundation of guidance and counselling. London. Macmillan Publisher. Neukrug, R. C. (2011). Counselling theory and practice. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Oladele, J. O. (1989). Fundamentals of psychological foundations of education. Lagos: Johns Lad Publishing Limited, 34d edited. Kauchak. D. P. (2011). Introduction to teaching: Becoming a professional. Upper Saddle River. NJ: Prentice Hall.


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CHAPTER EIGHT

COUNSELLING FOR UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Anigala, A.

College of Education Demonstration Secondary School, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT This paper was fashioned to establish the applicability of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in guidance and counseling. The research was carried out in Delta State of Nigeria. One hundred and twenty (120) professional counselors were drawn from a population of 320 counselors in Delta State Secondary Schools through stratified random sampling technique. The design was descriptive survey. The instrument for data collection was a researcher designed questionnaire. Statistical mean was used in answering the only research question. The findings established the relevance of ICT in facilitating guidance and counseling services. Therefore it calls for improved guidance and counseling services and the provision of ICT in our secondary schools. KEYWORDS: Communication Technology, Information, Counselling

INTRODUCTION Information in its general sense is ―knowledge‖ communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance (Alan, 2004). Although information cannot be predicted it resolves uncertainty. The uncertainty of an event is measured by its probability of occurrence and is inversely proportional to it. The more uncertain an event is the more information is required to resolve that uncertainty. This is because the individual needs adequate, appropriate and useable information in decision – making and in any meaningful interaction. The people who are able to gain control over their lives are those who can make intelligent decisions (Okere, 2005). Furthermore, Luciano (2010) posits that the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraints, communication, control and data which help in decision making. Educational decisions are unavoidable. They must be made by students or for the students. Information is needed not only in relation to courses and careers to which the individual must adapt but also in relation to self (Ipaye 1983). It is difficult to choose what one does not know.


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Neither can one make firm decisions on assumptions. The quality of information is usually assessed among other parameters by its timeliness, accuracy, brevity and understandability. Obsolete or unreliable information is useless in decision – making. Over the years, various sources and technologies have emerged in the mode and technique of gathering and managing information. Among these, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) take precedence over others. Communication means the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech and writing of signs. For the purpose of this study, communication refers to the transfer of information from the sender to the receiver with the information being understood by the receiver. A Management Information System (MIS) provides information that organizations require to manage themselves efficiently and effectively. Management Information Systems are typically computer systems used for managing five primary components namely hardware, software, data (information for decision making) procedures (design, development and documentation) and people (individuals, groups or organizations). Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the study of how individuals, counselors, groups and organizations or schools evaluate, design, implement, manage and utilize systems to generate information to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision making. This is what is encompassed by Information Technology (IT). Furthermore, Information Technology (IT) is the application of computers and tele-communications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data (Daintith, 2009). On the other hand, communication technology (CT) involves telegraph, telephone, radio and television. Since both ―IT‖ and ―CT‖ are interrelated, a more generic term for the comprehensive description of the generation, storage and dissemination of information is ―Information and Communication Technology‖ (Ivowi, 2005). ICT can therefore be defined as the acquisition and dissemination of information by a micro-electronic based combination of computing and telecommunication. Simply put, it is the study of the technology used to handle information and aid communication. Information and communication technology today usually means computer – based management of data or ideas. In a broader sense, communication and information technologies are the foothold on which mankind distinguished itself from other animals. The vast difference between today‘s information and communication technologies and mankind‘s first simple and shared concepts hints on what these now mean to our world. The human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme UNDP (2001) states that ―ICT‖ is a pervasive input to almost all human activities. It breaks barriers to human development in at least three ways: by breaking barriers to knowledge, by breaking barriers to participation and by breaking barriers to economic opportunity. Even in the daily lives of teachers


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and guidance counselors, the rapid advances in ICT can create new things such as storing information, retrieving information, handling, distributing and utilizing information. The advancement of ICT according to Ocampo, (2002) is intertwined with globalization and together creates a new paradigm called the network age. The scenario above tends to create the same ripples in the area of school counseling and more specifically on the Job of the guidance counselor in trying to perform her role in the changing environments of the schools today. In Nigeria and other countries school counselors are increasingly recognizing the benefits of using computer technology to increase their efficiency, to assist in the supervision of counseling interns, to aid in delivering developmental guidance lessons and to facilitate individual counseling. Counsellors in the 21st century need to be conversant with its applications for proper utilization of the components. Studies abound in the area of utilization of ICT in counseling. Anyamene, Nwokolo and Anyachebelu (2012) carried out a study on the availability and use of ICT resources for counseling in the South East States. Their study comprised of 10,800 respondents. They observed that counselors utilized ICT for counseling in Nigerian tertiary and secondary schools but the availability was low. Also, Research findings from Chun-chun (2001) and Phrema, (2006) reported significant positive impact of ICT on counseling. On the other hand, (Green and Yallow, 2002 and Chun-Chun (2001) observed that ICT has generated high level of enthusiasm and commitment during the counseling process as well as increased reasoning ability of learners, increased attention and concentration. The problem of this study therefore was to establish ways of utilizing the ICT in guidance and counseling. The study will be of immense benefit to counselors and their clients as they will become better equipped with skills for practicing in today‘s environment. This study was carried out in Delta State of Nigeria. Research Question One research question guided the study. To what extent can Information Communication Technology (ICT) be utilized in guidance and counseling? METHODOLOGY This study used a descriptive survey research design. The sample comprised of 120 professional guidance counselors purposely drawn from 320 guidance counselors in Delta State Secondary Schools, through stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a researcher designed questionnaire for guidance counselor. It is a four point Likert type scale


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comprising 16 items that sought information on the extent of applicability of ICT in guidance and counseling. The scale is graduated as follows: 4 Very High Applicability (VHA) 3 High Applicability (HA) 2 Low Applicability (LA) 1 Non Applicable (NA) The face validity of the questionnaire was established by two experts in guidance and counseling of the Delta State University Abraka. A test of internal consistency using the Cronbach Alpha yielded an alpha of 0.72. This ensures the reliability of the instrument. Data Collection Copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents with the aid of five trained assistant. The copies of the questionnaire were collected on the spot after responding to the instruments. Data Analysis Data were analysed using quantitative procedures. The researcher made use of mean scores to answer the research question. Any item with a mean score of less than 2.5 was regarded as Low and therefore was rejected. But items with mean scores of 2.5 and above were accepted as applicable. RESULTS The results of this study are presented in the table below based on the research question raised in the study.

APPLYING ICT IN GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING

S/NO

ITEMS

MEAN SCORE

1. Group counseling can be done on many sites at a time 3.22

2. Client inter-personal problem can be guided through the use of e-mail, GSM

3.60

3. Courses and occupations data bases can be navigated on website

2.95

4. Guidance services can be assessed easily saving time and space with ICT application

3.03

5. Clients can use MENU of search criteria to find data relevant to their needs

2.86

6. Vast amount of clients data can be stored in computer 3.50

7. Clients data can be retrieved very fast 3.58

8. The use of office files in storing information about clients is of no use anymore

2.40


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9. The one to one counseling interviews may be overtaken by the development of ICT

2.28

10. Non-verbal behaviour may suffer with the use of the internet in counseling

3.86

11. The use of cumulative record folder can be overtaken 2.85

12. Web-based recruitment agencies can offer guidance on careers 2.70

13. Career concerns of clients can receive counseling from counselors across the globe.

3.20

14. Assessment of skills, interests can be diagnosed using ICT 2.61

15. Web-based recruitment agencies can offer guidance on careers 2.70

16. A client can sit by his computer and exchange information with a counselor elsewhere in the world

3.08

Table 1 shows that out of the 16 items on the applicability of ICT to guidance and counseling services 14 had mean scores above 2.5 showing the acceptance of the respondents of the items. The respondents accepted that the one to one counseling interviews will be overtaken by the development and use of ICT (2.28). Similarly the respondents believe that the non-verbal behaviour may suffer with outright use of the internet in counseling (3.86). The respondents equally did not accept that the use of office files in storing information is of no use anymore (2.40). DISCUSSION The result of this study reveals that the Professional Counsellors have the awareness of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in carrying out their responsibilities but the problem is probably in its application. It is worthy of note that appropriate use of ICT requires access to relevant technological training, application and strategic planning. For our counselors to embrace these technological developments there is the need to upgrade the curricula of the programme for the training of our students. It is also necessary to re-train Guidance Counselors on the application of ICT so that they will be conversant with current practices and required skills (Nwamara, 2005). The result of this study corroborates the findings of Chun-Chun (2001) and Phrena (2006). Furthermore, the study by Nwamara (2005) also confirms the results of this study in the sense that in guidance counseling ICT has the potential to significantly increase access to guidance service and free it from the constraints of time and space. Based on the findings on items 8, 9, and 10, the researcher noted that the one on one interview in counseling cannot be completely wiped out neither will office files cease to exist. ICT will complement and improve on the traditional counseling methods.


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CONCLUSION This paper began by defining information and communication technology. Information is pivotal in decision – making and planning. The paper stressed that the student needs adequate and reliable information for educational, occupational and socio-personal purposes. The paper also establishes the relevance of ICT in facilitating guidance and counseling services. Therefore, every school needs to establish a standard internet link and guidance counseling resource center. Schools can seek external support for this. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. All institutions of learning especially secondary schools should be

equipped with ICT facilities. 2. In line with the ICT driven age, the Federal Ministry of Education in

conjunction with states should review the national curricula for education to include computer courses and intensify ICT training skills to make our students acquire skills for today‘s world.

3. The government should also engage technical support staff at all levels of our institutions of learning

4. Counsellors should be encouraged in all schools to adopt ICT in their guidance and counseling services.

REFERENCES Alan, L. (2004). The laws of cool: knowledge work and the culture of information, University of Chicago. Chun-Chun, (2001). Students‘ perception of ICT related support in counseling placements. Journal of Psychological Studies, P 2, 147-151 Daintith, John, ed, (2009). A Dictionary of Physics, Oxford University Press, retrieved 25th June 2013 Green, R. & Yallow, R. (2002). Technology and its impact in classroom (2nd ed) New York; Cambridge University Press. Ipaye, T. (1983). Guidance and Counseling practices, Ife: University of Ife Press Ivowi, U.M.O. (2005). Utilizing the dynamics of information in counseling and care-giving, keynote address presented at the Annual Conference of the Counseling Unit, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Luciano, F. (2005). Semantic Conceptions of Information. The Standard Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2005 Edition)


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Nwamara, G.M. (2005). The role of Information and Communication Technology in guidance and counseling presented at the Annual Conference of the Counseling Unit, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Nwokolo, C.N & Anyachebelu, F.E. (2010). Information technology as a gateway for effective counseling. A paper presented at annual conference of the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, 30th August – 3rd September, 2010. Ocampo, P.D.S, (2002). Enhancing Phillipine Science and Technology through ICT preface. Transactions of the National Academy of Science and Technology, 24 V-VI Okere, A.U. (2005). Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and learning environment being a paper presented at CUDIMAC workshop, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Phrema, K (2006). Integrating ICT in the classroom, (3rd ed). Cambridge MN: Harvard Business School Press. UNDP, (2001). Human Development Report, making new Technologies work for Human Development, Technology report UNDP, New York.


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CHAPTER NINE

EVALUATION OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT PRACTICE BY SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS: COUNSELLING IMPLICATIONS FOR

FUNCTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION.

Alordiah Caroline Ochuko and Agbajor, T. Helena

Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, Warri, Nigeria

ABSTRACT In order to promote effective counselling in schools, the counsellor needs good records of the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain from the teacher. This calls for a proper practice of continuous assessment in schools. This study investigated the evaluation of the practice of continuous assessment of secondary school teachers. The study was an ex-post-facto type by design. A sample of 229 teachers was purposefully selected from the public and private schools in six local government area of Delta State in Nigeria. The instrument used was a 21 items structured questionnaire. Percentage, mean, standard deviation, Z-test and one-way analysis of variance statistical tools were used to analysis the data. The findings revealed that the characteristics of continuous assessment, cumulative and systematic is well implemented but that of comprehension and guidance/diagnostic is poorly implemented. There was a significant difference in the continuous assessment practice of public and private secondary school teachers with the later doing better than the former. Also, years of experience of teachers do not significantly influence teachers‟ continuous assessment practice. It was therefore recommended that teachers should be exposed to more seminars and workshops on continuous assessment procedure. KEYWORDS: Counselling, functional education, sustainable education, continuous assessment.

INTRODUCTION Counselling is an integral part of education and if well practiced it will promote good conduct in our students and make them to be more focused in their academic pursuit. This will in turn produce a functional and sustainable education for Nigeria. Functional education is the education given to an individual to develop life skills that will make him to become practical, serviceable and useful in addressing his environment. While sustainable education is education that meets the needs of the present without impairing the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. Functional and sustainable


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education aimed at providing learning, training and practical experience that would foster personal development and community development. Guidance and counselling is a caring and helping discipline. It sets out to assist the individual who has voluntarily submitted him/herself for help, to redirect his/her goals in life, with the aim of having a more fulfilled and satisfied life (Egharevba, 2012). A student with a fulfilled and satisfied life after schooling is a person that is serviceable and useful to his environment. It is the duty of the counsellors to render counselling services and guide students to become useful to their society. To achieve this Gidado (2003) stated some of the objectives of counselling services in the educational sector as:

1. To effect a positive change in the behaviour of children. 2. To diagnose cases of mal-adjustment and arrive at remedial treatment of

the client. 3. To prevent and alter mal-adjustment behaviour I learners. 4. To make learners aware of their own strengths, weaknesses and possible

limitations. 5. To acquaint learners with educational and vocational opportunities. 6. To provide learners with skills and tools that will enable them to confront

social inadequacies. 7. To assist students to move in the direction of fulfilling their potentials or

achieve an integration of conflicting elements within themselves. 8. To involve all stakeholders such as parents, teachers, administrators, social

workers and psychologists in the total growth and development of the child within the school/learning environment.

9. To facilitate creative abilities among the learners and the teachers. 10. To develop a positive interpersonal relationship among the learners. 11. To achieve these laudable objectives, the counsellors need a lot of records

from the school. Some of such major records are the records provided by continuous assessment procedure. The counsellors need records in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains to be able to achieve these objectives. Such records will serve as spring board on which the counsellors can counsel and guide the students towards taking useful decisions. If the records from continuous assessment (CA) are inappropriate, inadequate, substandard or fictitious, it can affect the counsellors‘ usage of such records. This is so because; the information from such records will misguide the counsellors in the course of counselling the students.

Continuous assessment is a method of finding out what the students have gained from learning activities in terms of knowledge, thinking and reasoning, character development and industry (Osokaya and Odinka, 2005). According to the Federal Ministry of Education Handbook on continuous assessment (1985), continuous assessment provides a more valid and reliable assessment of the learners overall


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ability and performance. It provides a basis for monitoring a child‘s for effective guidance. It gives teachers greater involvement in the assessment of his/her students. It reduces examination malpractice. The following features characterize continuous assessment; it is systematic (the type of assessment tools to be used and when assessment will take place), comprehensive (takes into account the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains and many instruments are used in determining the performance of the students. The use of table of specifications is indispensable.), cumulative (the scores of the students at a particular time takes into account the previous scores of the student), diagnostic (monitoring of students‘ progress in order to identify each child‘s strengths and weaknesses and help the students to overcome the weaknesses) and guidance oriented(the performance of a student in a particular test is used to guide the student towards improving his performance in subsequent test and in guiding the students to make appropriate educational and career decisions). Continuous assessment (CA) assesses learning in the three domains namely cognitive (measures our intellectual abilities), affective (measure our feelings), and psychomotor (measures our manipulative dexterity). If continuous assessment is properly implemented in secondary schools, it will go a long way to provide standard records that will be of help to the counsellors. The assessment of the three domains will be valuable to the counselors, the intellectual, emotional and manipulative dexterity are important tools for counseling. The major actor in the continuous assessment procedure is the teachers themselves. The success of the implementation of continuous assessment all things been equal is depended on the teachers‘ wiliness to carry it out properly. This is in line with what Hargreaves (1994) said,―It is what teachers think, what teachers believes and what teachers do that eventually determine the kind of learning that young people receive.‖ The implementation of continuous assessment is supposed to be very effective by now for the fact that it has been in operation for more than two decades now. However it is feared that many teachers in the secondary schools may not be implementing continuous assessment as expected of them. It is against such background that the researchers conceived the idea to assess the current assessment practices in our secondary schools in Delta State, Nigeria. The theoretical model for this study is the decision making model of evaluation-Discrepancy evaluation model. It was developed in 1969 by Malcom Provus to provide information for programme assessment and programme improvement (Steinmetz, 2002). This is a procedure where by differences between a standard of performance and the performance are found and corrected. The researchers are interested in determining whether the present practice of continuous assessment among secondary school teachers are in conformity with the actual way continuous assessment should be practice.


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Statement of the Problem The counselor needs continuous assessment records as tools that will help him to counsel students towards the right direction that will help to achieve functional and sustainable education. There is need to find out if CA is practice by secondary school teachers the way it should. Hence the statement of the problem of this study is put in question form as: Is the current practice of CA by secondary school teachers in line with the actual way CA should be practice? Purpose of the Study The main purpose of the study is to evaluate CA practices by secondary school teachers in Delta Stat. The specific objectives are to: 1. Find out the qualification of secondary school teachers. 2. Determine the current view of CA among secondary school teachers. 3. Determine the extent of implementation of CA with respect to the

characteristics of CA. 4. Assess the difference between CA practices of public and private secondary

school teachers. 5. Assess the influence of teachers‘ years of experience on CA practice. Research Questions 1. What is the qualification of secondary school teachers? 2. What is the current/general view of Continuous assessment among secondary school teachers? 3. What is the extent of implementation of continuous assessment with respect to the Characteristics of continuous assessment?

і. Comprehensive, іі. Cumulative, ііі. Systemati, іv. Guidance/diagnostic Hypotheses 1. There is no significant difference between the continuous assessment

practice of public and private secondary school teachers. 2. Years of experience of teachers do not significantly influence CA practice

of the teachers. Significance of the Study The study intends to make all stakeholders associated with the practice of CA in secondary schools to know the current way teachers are implementing CA in the secondary schools. Such stakeholders include counselors, parents, teachers, educational administrators and government. The findings of the study will necessitate the stakeholders to advice on how best teachers can improve their level of implementation of CA in the secondary school system. Scope of the Study The study was delimited to types of school, years of experience of teachers and the current implementation of CA in secondary schools.


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Design of the Study The design for this study was an ex-post-facto design which focused on school type, teachers‘ years of experience and evaluation of the practice of continuous assessment (CA) among teachers in secondary schools in Delta state of Nigeria. The population for the study comprises of all secondary school teachers in Delta state. However, focus was mainly on secondary schools teachers in Delta North Senatorial District which is made up of six local government areas (LGA) comprises of Ika South, Ika North East, Oshimili North, Oshimili South, Aniocha North and Aniocha South. The sample consisted of 229 teachers that were purposively selected from the six local government areas in the senatorial district. Instrument The questionnaire used to collect the required data is Evaluation of the practice of continuous assessment questionnaire (EPCAQ). The instrument was constructed by the researchers based on the information from related literature and input from the teachers. The EPCAQ has two sections A and B. Section A provided general information about the schools and the teachers. Section B contains 21 statements which were used to elicit information about the practice of continuous assessment by the teachers. The response format of section B was the five-point Likert type responses of strongly agreed (SA), Agreed (A), Neutral (N), Disagreed (D), and strongly disagreed (SD) with scoring point of 5,4,3,2 and 1 respectively. The acceptance point for the item was 3.0. The items with mean values of 3.0 and above were regarded as being positive while those with values less than 3.0 were regarded as being negative. However there were some negative items in the instruments which were converted. The face and content validity of the instrument EPCAQ was determined by measurement and evaluation expert and secondary school teachers. The instrument showed reliability co-efficient of .76 using Cronbach alpha reliability method. This shows evidence of internal and external consistency of the instruments. The researchers with the aid of assistance administered the instruments on the subjects. About 250 questionnaires were administered. However, only about 229 were returned back. The retuned rate was about 91.6%. The responses from the respondents were analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviation for the research questions while Z-test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to verify the hypotheses formulated.


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RESULTS Research Question one: What is the qualification of secondary school teachers?

Table 1: Frequency count of Teachers Qualification

QUALIFICATION FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

SSCE 2 .9

NCE 57 24.8

B.SC/B.A 66 28.8

B.ED 76 33.2

OND/HND 21 9.2

M.ED 5 2.2

PHD 2 .9

TOTAL 229 100

Table 1 shows that there are 140 (61.1%) qualified teachers and 89(38.9%) unqualified teachers among the teachers sampled out for the study. Research Question two: What is the current/general view of continuous assessment among secondary school teachers? Table 2: Descriptive Statistics of current view of CA among secondary school Teachers

S/N ITEM MEAN SD

1 CA is a good way of evaluating students periodically. 4.66 .66

2 CA is the best way to evaluate students. 4.15 .97

3 CA is not difficult to implement 2.79 1.28

4 I prefer giving examination at the end of term to the practice of CA

2.52 1.28

5 The work load involve in CA is comparable to the salary paid to teachers

3.25 1.31

6 The practice of CA is not stressful 2.88 1.27

7 Total 20.25 6.77

Average 3.38 1.13

Table 2 shows that the mean of the current or general view of CA among secondary school teachers is 3.38 which is slightly above the acceptable mean of 3.0. This indicate that the current or /general view of CA among secondary school teachers is slightly above average. Research Question Three: What is the extent of implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics of CA. і. Comprehensive іі. Cumulative ііі. Systematic іv. Guidance/diagnostic


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і. Comprehensive

Table 3: Descriptive Statistics of implementation of CA- Comprehensive

S/N ITEM MEAN SD

1 I regularly assess the affective domain. 1.53 .88

2 I regularly asses the psychomotor domain 1.94 1.08

3 I regularly assess the cognitive domain. 3.90 1.04

4 I use table of specification to prepare my test and examination questions

1.29 .68

Total 8.66 3.68

Average 2.165 0.92

Table 3 revealed that the mean of teachers regularly assessing the affective domain is 1.53 which is below the acceptable mean of 3.0. This revealed that teachers do not regularly assess the affective domain. The table shows that the mean of teachers regularly assessing the psychomotor domain is 1.94 which is below the acceptable mean of 3.0. This revealed that teachers do not regularly assess the psychomotor domain. The table also showed that the mean of teachers regularly assessing the cognitive domain is 3.90 which is above the acceptable mean of 3.0. This revealed that teachers regularly assess the cognitive domain. The table further revealed that the mean of teachers‘ regular use of table of specifications to prepare test and examination question is 1.29 which is below the acceptable mean of 3.0. This revealed that teachers do not regularly make use of table of specifications to prepare their test and examination questions. Generally the table revealed that the implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics-comprehension is poor because the mean 2.165 is less than the acceptable mean of 3.0. The table clearly showed that the standard deviation ranged from 0.68 -1.08 which was less than 1.96. This indicated that the respondents were not too far from the mean. This adds further validity to the mean. іі. Cumulative Table 4: Descriptive Statistics of implementation of CA- Cumulative

S/N ITEM MEAN

1 The final scores of the students takes into account the previous scores of the students.

3.85 1.08

2 I have a mark book showing the scores of the students from the beginning of the term to the end of the session.

4.18 1.05

Total 8.03 2.13

Average 4.02 1.07

Table 4 revealed that the mean score of teachers‘ implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics- cumulative is 4.02 which is above the acceptable


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mean of 3.0. This shows that the implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics- cumulative is good. The standard deviation ranged from 1.05- 1.08 which was less than 1.96. This indicated that the respondents response were not too far from the mean. This adds further validity to the mean ііі. Systematic

Table 5: Descriptive Statistics of Implementation of CA- Systematic

S/N ITEM MEAN SD

1 I tell students the number of assessment that will be carried out in a term

3.42 1.24

2 Students need to know the topics each assessment will cover.

3.11 1.36

3 Students are told the type of assessment instrument that would be used.

4.0 1.01

Total 10.82 3.61

Average 3.61 1.20

Table 5 revealed that the mean score of the teachers‘ implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics- systematic is 3.61 which is above the acceptable mean of 3.0. This shows that the implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics- systematic is good. The standard deviation ranged from 1.01-1.36 which was less than 1.96. This indicated that the respondents‘ responses were not too far from the mean. This adds further validity to the mean. iv. Guidance/Diagnostic Table 6: Descriptive Statistics of Implementation of CA- Guidance/Diagnostic

S/N ITEM MEAN SD

1 The number of assessment in a term does not makes it difficult for the teacher to mark students‘ scripts promptly

1.77 .94

2 There is enough time for the teacher to use the students test scores as a guide to improve their weaknesses.

1.74 .95

3 I answer the test questions generally in the class 3.70 1.34

4 I use CA to find out the leaning problems of students. 4.14 .94

Total 11.35 4.22

Average 2.84 1.05

Table 6 shows that the mean scores of teachers implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics- guidance/diagnostic is 2.84 which is below the acceptable mean of 3.0.This shows that the implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics- guidance/diagnostic is poor. The standard deviation ranged from 0.94 – 1.34 which was less than 1.96. This indicated that the respondents‘ responses were not too far from the mean.


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Hypothesis one: There is no significant difference between the continuous assessment practice of public and private secondary school teachers. Table 7: Summary of Z-test statistics on CA practice of Public/Private secondary school Teachers

School Type

N Mean SD Df Zcal Ztable Sig. MD 95% CI Lower Upper

Decision

Private 115 72.94 6.76

227 2.65 1.96 .009 2.35 1.18 3.53

significant

Public 114 70.59 6.69

N=229, MD=mean difference, CI=confidence interval, P≤0.05 level of significance As shown in table 7, the computed z-value of 2.65 was found to be significant at df =227, P≤0.05. That is, the P value of 0.009 for 2-tailed test is less than the chosen alpha of 0.05, the null hypothesis under consideration is therefore rejected. Hence, there is significant difference between the CA practice by public and private secondary school teachers. The mean difference (MD) of 2.35, P≤0.05 alpha level that lies between the upper limits bound and lower limits bound was found to be statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval (CI). The conclusion is drawn that the effect of 2.35 which was in the favour of private secondary school teachers indicates that they practice CA better than the public school teachers. Hypothesis two: Years of experience of teachers do not significantly influence teachers CA practice. Table 8: ANOVA on influence of years of experience of Teachers on CA practice

Source Sum of Square Df F Sig. Decision

Between 169.59 84.79 1.84 0.16 Not significant

Within Group 10420.06 46.11

Total 10589.65

The computed F is 1.84, which is significant at 0.16 but not significant at 0.05. Therefore the hypothesis that years of experience do not significantly affect teachers CA practice is accepted. F (2, 224) = 1.84, P> 0.05. In other words, there is no significant difference between the CA practice of teachers who have less than 5 years‘ experience, between 5 to 10 years‘ experience and more than 10 years‘ experience.


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DISCUSSION The result obtained in this study shows that 61.1% of the teachers sampled have the minimum qualification as stipulated in the Nigerian National Policy on Education. This implies that the teachers have the prerequisite professional training to teach in secondary schools. It is believed that professional teachers should be able to understand what CA entails. However there is need for the other unqualified teachers to upgrade their educational qualification. Table 2 revealed that the current/general view of CA among secondary school teachers is slightly above average. This is not good enough since CA has been in practice for more than two decade. Table 3 indicated that the extent of implementation of CA with respect to the characteristics with regard to cumulative and systematic is good but with regard to comprehensive and guidance/diagnostic is poor. The teachers regularly assess the cognitive domain but they do not regularly assess the affective and psychomotor domain. This is in line with the claim of Mgbor and Mgbor (2005) that Nigeria secondary schools especially in Edo and Delta state give test that only measure the cognitive domain even though the result sheets for students still have columns for affective and psychomotor domain. It would seem that the schools are now going back to one shot final examination. The result of the study also indicated that teachers do not use table of specification to prepare their test and examination questions. This is alarming because according to Harbor-Peters (2003) "Unless a table of specifications is used as a guide in test items construction, there is the tendency to over load the test with items that cover only a limited content area or limited levels of objective‖. The use of such a device prevents the construction of tests that are biased. From table 6 it can be deduce that teachers do not mark students‘ scripts promptly and they do not use students test scores as a guide to improve the students‘ weaknesses. This is in line with the study carried out by Alordiah (2010). The exposure of students to guidance, that is, by using their performance in test to find out the weaknesses and strengths of the students as well as using it to improve students‘ performance in subsequent test is a sure way of improving the general performance of a child. The study also showed in table 7 that there is significant difference between the CA practice of public and private secondary school teachers. The private school teachers practice CA better than the public secondary school teachers. This is in agreement with Kojigili (2011) who also found out that the private school teachers implemented CA better than the public school teachers. Table 8 also showed that years of experience of the teachers do not significantly affect teachers CA practice. This is alarming because it is expected that the experienced teachers should practice CA better. CONCLUSION Continuous assessment is a vital aspect of the teaching and learning process which helps to provide important records for the counselors to perform their duties. Sequel to the findings of this study, the level at which CA is being practice


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by secondary school teachers should be improved upon. If CA is properly implemented at the secondary school level it will help to improve the performance of school counselors in giving out counseling services. RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made 1. Teachers should be regularly exposed to seminar and workshops on

continuous assessment. 2. Teachers should assess the three domains (cognitive, affective, and

psychomotor). 3. Test scripts should be marked, returned to the students and should be used to

identify and find solution to students‘ weaknesses. 4. A continuous assessment committee should be set up in all secondary schools

to help monitor the implementation of continuous assessment in schools. The counsellor of the school should be a member of this committee.

5. School counsellor should counsel the teachers on the importance of the records gotten form the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain, to the school counsellors in handling issues pertaining to students.

REFERENCES Alordiah, C. O (2010). Relative effectiveness of two assessment procedure on junior secondary School students‘ achievement in mathematics in Agbor, Delta state.Unpublished master‘s thesis, Delta State University, Abraka. Egharevba, A. O. (2012). The Counsellor‘s Role in Educational Resource Management and its relationship to Teachers Education: Implications for National Development. In R. O. Olubor, S. O. Okotete & F. Adeyanju (Eds.), Book of Readings: Resource Management in Education and National Development, (pp. 330 - 347). Benin City: Institute of Education, University of Benin. Federal Ministry of Education (1985). A handbook on continuous assessment. Lagos:Federal Ministry of Education. Gidado, J. F. (2003). Handbook on Guidance and Counselling for Universal Basic Education. Lagos: Megavans. Harbor-Peters, V.F. (2003). Introduction to continuous assessment in B.G. Nworgu (Ed), Educational Measurement and Evaluation. (pp 30-40). Nsukka: Hallman Publishers. Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers‟ work and culture in the post-modern age. Toronto: University of Toronto press.


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Kojigili, S.T. (2011). An assessment of the implementation of CA system in primary school mathematics in Adamawa state: Implications on basic education. ABACUS (mathematics - education series), 36(1), 45-55. Mgbor, M.O & Mgbor, M.A.(2005).Continuous assessment in Edo & Delta states. In Afemikhe & G.T. Adewal (Eds), Issues in educational measurement and evaluation in Nigeria in honour of Wole Falayajo (pp460-473). Ibadan, Nigeria. Osakaya, M.M &Odinka, M.N (2005). The practice of continuous assessment in primary schools in E.E. Adenike & C.V. Abe (Eds), Evaluation in Theory and Practice, (pp140-154). Ibadan: Penservices. Steinmetz, A. (2002). The Discrepancy Evaluation Model. Evaluation in Education and Human Services, 49, 127-143.


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CHAPTER TEN

THE IMPACT OF ANXIETY, SELF-CONCEPT AND TRUANCY ON CHILDREN WITH OFF-TASK BEHAVIOUR IN WARRI METROPOLIS

Asamaigo, E. E.

Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT The study investigated the influence of self-concept, anxiety and truancy on children with Off-Task behaviour in Warri Metropolis Delta State, Nigeria. Using the correlation research design, one research question and three hypotheses were generated; data collected from three hundred (300) randomly selected adolescents from ten junior secondary schools in Warri were analyzed. The instrument used for the study was self-constructed and validated questionnaire. The reliability co-efficient of 0.78 was obtained for the questionnaire using Kuder Richardson formula (KR-21). The Multiple Regression Analysis and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) statistical tools were utilized in testing the three null hypotheses generated for the study at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that there were relationships between self-concept, anxiety and truancy with off-task behaviour among school children. The implications of these were discussed in the study. KEYWORDS: Self-concept, Anxiety, Truancy, Off-task behaviour.

INTRODUCTION Students who have chronic difficulties paying attention in class face the risk of poor grades and even school failure. Inattention may be a symptom of an underlying condition such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. One of the most common reasons for referral to school support personnel is ―off-task‖ behaviour— students who are inattentive, distractible and; or fail to complete assignments. For example, off-task behaviour might serve the purpose of gaining adult or peer attention or access to more preferred activities, such as talking with peers or playing with materials; or the off task behaviour might serve the purpose of escaping or avoiding undesirable activities such as writing or reading. Off-task behaviors may also serve more internal functions as might be the case for students with a neuro-behavioural disorder such as Tourette‘s Syndrome or Attention Deficit Disorder. However, teachers should not overlook other possible explanations for student off-task behaviour. It may be, for example, that a student who does not seem to be paying attention is actually mismatched to instruction (the work is too hard or too easy) or preoccupied by anxious


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thoughts. Or the student may be off-task because the teacher's lesson was poorly planned or presented in a disorganized manner. It is also important to remember that even children with ADHD are influenced by factors in their classroom setting and that these students' level of attention is at least partly determined by the learning environment. Teachers who focus on making their instruction orderly, predictable, and highly motivating find that they can generally hold the attention of most of their students most of the time. Here are some ideas to consider in boosting rates of student attention and improve on-task behaviour: Capture Students' Attention Before Giving Directions (Ford, Olmi, Edwards, & Tingstrom, 2001; Martens & Kelly, 1993): Gain the student's attention before giving directions and use other strategies to ensure the student's full understanding of them. When giving directions to an individual student, call the student by name and establish eye contact before providing the directions. When giving directions to the whole class, use group alerting cues such as 'Eyes and ears on me' to gain the class‘ attention. Wait until all students are looking at you and ready to listen before giving directions. When you have finished giving directions to the entire class, privately approach any students who appear to need assistance. Quietly restate the directions to them and have them repeat the directions back to you as a check for understanding. Class Participation: Keep Students Guessing (Heward, 1994): Students attain better during large-group presentations if they cannot predict when they will be required to actively participate. Randomly call on students, occasionally selecting the same student twice in a row or within a short time span. Or pose a question to the class, give students 'wait time' to formulate an answer, and then randomly call on a student. Employ Proximity Control (Ford, Olmi, Edwards, & Tingstrom, 2001; Gettinger& Seibert, 2002 and U.S. Department of Education, 2004): Students typically increase their attention to task and show improved compliance when the teacher is in close physical proximity. During whole-group activities, circulate around the room to keep students focused. To hold an individual student's attention, stand or sit near the student before giving directions or engaging in discussion. Give Clear Directions (Gettinger & Seibert, 2002; Gettinger, 1988): Students will better understand directions when those directions are delivered in a clear manner, expressed in language the student understands, given at a pace that does not overwhelm the student, and posted for later review. When giving multi-step directions orally, write those directions on the board or give to students as a handout to consult as needed. State multi-step directions one direction at a time and confirm that the student is able to comply with each step before giving the next direction.


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Give Opportunities for Choice (Martens & Kelly, 1993). Allowing students to exercise some degree of choice in their instructional activities can boost attention span and increase academic engagement. Make a list of 'choice' options that you are comfortable offering students during typical learning activities. During independent seatwork, for example, you might routinely let students choose where they sit, allow them to work alone or in small groups, or give them 2 or 3 different choices of assignment selected to be roughly equivalent in difficulty and learning objectives. Instruct at a Brisk Pace (Carnine, 1976; Gettinger & Seibert, 2002): When students are appropriately matched to instruction, they are likely to show improvement on-task behaviour when they are taught at a brisk pace rather than a slow one. To achieve a brisk pace of instruction, make sure that you are fully prepared prior to the lesson and that you minimize the time spent on housekeeping items such as collecting homework or on transitions from one learning activity to another. Make the Activity Stimulating (U.S. Department of Education, 2004): Students require less conscious effort to remain on-task when they are engaged in high-interest activities. Make instruction more interesting by choosing a specific lesson topic that you know will appeal to students (e.g., sports, fashion). Or help students to see a valuable 'real-word' pay-off for learning the material being taught. Another tactic is to make your method of instruction more stimulating. Students who don't learn well in traditional lecture format may show higher rates of engagement when interacting with peers (cooperative learning) or when allowed the autonomy and self-pacing of computer-delivered instruction. Pay Attention to the On-Task Student (DuPaul & Ervin, 1996; Martens &Meller, 1990): Teachers who selectively give students praise and attention only when those students are on-task are likely to find that these students show improved attention in class as a result. When you have a student who is often off-task, make an effort to identify those infrequent times when the student is appropriately focused on the lesson and immediately give the student positive attention. Examples of teacher attention that students will probably find positive include verbal praise and encouragement, approaching the student to check on how he or she is doing on the assignment and friendly eye contact. Provide a Quiet Work Area (U.S. Department of Education, 2004): Distractible students benefit from a quiet place in the classroom where they can go when they have more difficult assignments to complete. A desk or study carrel in the corner of the room can serve as an appropriate workspace. When introducing these workspaces to students, stress that the quiet locations are intended to help students to concentrate. Never use areas designated for quiet work as punitive 'time-out' spaces, as students will then tend to avoid them.


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Provide Attention Breaks (DuPaul & Ervin, 1996; Martens & Meller, 1990): If students find it challenging to stay focused on independent work for long periods, allow them brief 'attention breaks'. Enter a contract with students to give them short breaks to engage in a preferred activity each time they finished a certain amount of work. For example, a student may be allowed to look at a favorite comic book for 2 minutes each time that he has completed five problems on a mathematic worksheet and checked his answers. Attention breaks can refresh the student –and also make the learning task more reinforcing. Reduce Length of Assignments (DuPaul & Ervin, 1996; U.S. Department of Education, 2004): Students' attention may drift when completing overly long assignments. For new material, trim assignments to the minimum length that you judge will ensure student understanding. When having students practice skills or review previously taught material, break that review into a series of short assignments rather than one long assignment to help to sustain interest and engagement. Schedule Challenging Tasks for Peak Attention Times (Brock, 1998): Many students with limited attention can focus better in the morning, when they are fresh. Schedule those subjects or tasks that the student finds most difficult early in the day and save easier subjects or tasks for later in the day, when the student's attention may start to wane. Select Activities That Require Active Student Responding (Gettinger & Seibert, 2002; Heward, 1994): When students are actively engaged in an activity, they are more likely to be on-task. Avoid long stretches of instructional time in which students‘ sit passively listening to a speaker. Instead, programme your instructional activities so that students must frequently 'show what they know' through some kind of active [visible] response. For example, you might first demonstrate a learning strategy to students and then divide the class into pairs and have students demonstrated the strategy to each other while you observe and evaluate. Transition Quickly (Gettinger & Seibert, 2002; Gettinger, 1988): When students transit quickly between educational activities and avoid instructional 'dead time', their attention is less likely to wander. Train students to transit appropriately by demonstrating how they should prepare for common academic activities, such as group lecture and independent seatwork. Have them practice these transitions, praising the group for timely and correct performance. Provide additional 'coaching' to individual students as needed. During daily instruction, verbally alert students several minutes before a transition to another activity is to occur. Use Advance Organizers (U.S. Department of Education, 2004): One strategy to improve on-task behaviour is to give students a quick overview of the activities


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planned for the instructional period or day. This 'advance organizer' provides students with a mental schedule of the learning activities, how those activities interrelate, important materials needed for specific activities, and the amount of time set aside for each activity. All students benefit when the teacher uses advance organizers. However inattentive students especially benefit from this overview of learning activities, as the advance organizer can prompt, mentally prepare, and focus these students on learning right when they most need it. Use Preferential Seating (U.S. Department of Education, 2004): Seating the student near the teacher is one tried-and-true method to increase on-task behaviour. Preferential seating simply means that you seat the student in a location where he or she is most likely to stay focused on what you are teaching. Remember that all teachers have an 'action zone', a part of the room where they tend to focus most of their instruction. Once you have analyzed your 'action zone' as a teacher, place the student's seat somewhere within that zone. Of course, the ideal seating location for any particular student will vary, depending on the unique qualities of the target student and of your classroom. When selecting preferential seating, consider whether the student might be self-conscious about sitting right next to the teacher. Also, try to select a seat location that avoids other distractions. For example, you may want to avoid seating the student by a window or next to a talkative classmate. However when some of these strategies are not put in place, there will be the tendency of increased anxiety, low self-concept and truancy among students and invariably accelerated rate of off-task behaviour among students. Theoretical framework This study is based on the assumption that the phenomenon of off-task behaviour among children and adolescents alike is increasing at an extraordinary rate. Several theoretical models suggest that factors such as anxiety, low self-concept, truancy etc, could impact negatively on the incidence of off-task behaviour among children and adolescents in school. For instance, the theory of reasoned action and cognitive theory of depression emphasizes the role of social norms in guiding teens' intentions and motivations regarding cognitive behaviours. This indicates that for most individuals with a healthy social support network, major stressors in life can be more easily handled. However, for individuals with dormant social network, or those with a negatively reinforcing social network, these major life events can cause greater harm to the individual because of a lack of support that most individuals have. A dormant social network cannot handle the pressure of an individual looking for support, and a negatively framed social network cannot reinforce thoughts of hopelessness, failure, and a feeling of worthlessness. Without this support, it is more likely for the individual to develop symptoms of depression. Base on this context, this study examined the impact of factors such as anxiety, self-concept, and truancy


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on children with off-task behaviour in Warri Metropolis. Based on the above premise, the following research question and hypotheses are formulated: Research Question 1. To what extent could all the independent variables (anxiety, self-concept, and truancy) predict the dependent variable (off-task behaviour) among children? Hypotheses 1. There is no significant relationship between self-concept and children with off-task behaviour 2. There is no significant relationship between anxiety and children with off-task behaviour 3. There is no significant relationship between truancy and children with off-task behaviour METHOD This study adopted a (ex-post facto) research method. The participants for the study were all junior secondary school students (JSS1) (between ages 11-13yrs) (mean age: 12 years) in Warri Metropolis Delta, State Nigeria. Population The population of the study consists of all junior secondary school students in Warri Metropolis Delta, State Nigeria. Sample The sample for the study consisted of three hundred junior secondary school students in Warri Metropolis Delta State Nigeria. Sampling technique The participants for the study were all junior secondary school students (between ages 11-13yrs) in Warri Metropolis Delta State Nigeria who were randomly selected from ten (10) secondary schools in the designated area of study. A total of 300 participants were used for the study. This number comprises of thirty (30) students male and female randomly selected from each of the ten (10) schools (by balloting) amounting to a total of three hundred (300) students selected for the study. Instrument The instrument used for this study is a research designed questionnaire. The questionnaire which was specifically designed by the researcher was the principal instrument used for this research work. It adopted the modified Likert‘s type of scale for self-rating. Responses were rated on a 4-point Likert scale


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ranging from 1 to 4 where: 4=Strongly Agreed, 3=Agreed, 2=Strongly Disagreed, and 1=Disagree. The items in the questionnaire were divided into sections A, B, C, D and E. Section A is on personal information such as student‘s sex, age, class, family type, mothers and fathers occupation etc. Other sections are in scale-like format with varied items. Section B contains 12 items on Self-concept. Section C contains 10 items on Anxiety. Section D contains 8 items on Truancy while Section E contains 8 items on issues of off-task behaviour. These sections of the instrument have simple straightforward positively and negatively worded items. The reliability of the instrument was calculated using a (test-re-test) method by administering the questionnaire twice (within a two-week interval). The Coefficient Alpha for each of the scaled items were; section B (self-concept) 0.8398, section C (anxiety) 0.8870, section D (truancy) 0.7998 and section E (off-task behaviour) 0.8217. This shows that the instrument is very reliable. Administration of the instrument The researcher personally distributed and collected the completed questionnaire from the students. Permission was obtained from significant authorities to facilitate the process. The school principals, counsellors and form teachers cooperation were solicited for, to aid the process. Participants were adequately informed of the adherence to confidentiality and the need to be precise and truthful in filling the questionnaire. Three hundred questionnaires were administered (300) and successfully collected back by the researcher. Data analysis The data were analyzed with Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and multiple regression analysis statistical tools. Multiple Regressions was used to find out the combined and relative contributions of the three independent variables (self-concept, anxiety and truancy) on children with off-task behaviour. PPMC was used to determine if the level of relationship between the variables was statistically significant to warrant rejection or acceptance of the hypotheses. RESULTS The influence of self-concept, anxiety and truancy on children with learning disabilities is presented as thus: Research Question 1: To what extent could all the independent variables (self-concept, anxiety and truancy) predict the dependent variable (off-task behaviour) among children?


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Table 1: Measured influence of self-concept, anxiety and truancy on children with Off-task Behaviour. Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Matrix of Relationship between variables

Variables N Mean StdDev 1 2 3 4

Off-task Behaviuor 300 62.41 10.449 1.000

Self-concept 300 30.03 6.103 .543 1.000

Anxiety 300 63.88 12.066 .679 .524 1.000

Truancy 300 62.38 12.73 .496 .441 .595 1.000

Table 1 gives description of measures of association between the variables identified in this study. The scores indicate significant relationship between the variables (self-concept, anxiety and truancy). The table shows that anxiety has the highest correlation on children with off-task behaviour (r=.679, p<0.05). Table 2: Regression summary table showing the joint effect of the independent variables on children with off-task behaviour

Source Sum Squares (ss) Df Mean Square F-Ratio Sig

Regression 16798.118 3 55999.37 10384.75 .000

Residual 15846.452 296 53.54

Total 32644.570 299

R=.717 R2=515 Ajd R2=.510 Std Error=7.317

Based on the result presented in Table 2, the three independent variables made a joint contribution of 51% to the total prediction on children with off-task behaviour. The composite effect of the independent variables as jointly contributive on children with off-task behaviour are revealed as thus, r = .717, R2= .515, Adj. R2= .510 and Std. error of estimate 7.317. The result of the multiple regression analysis produced an F-ratio (3.296) = 10384.75 which was significant at p<0.05 alpha level. Ho1: There will be no significant relationship between self-concept and off-task behaviour Table 3: PPMC summary table showing relationship between self-concept and off-task behaviour

Variables N Mean SD R df P

Off-task Behaviour 300 62.41 10.449 .543 298 Sig

Self-concept 300 30.03 6.103


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Table 3 shows that the variable self-concept significantly correlates with off-task behaviour. r (298) = .543, p<.05. The mean and standard deviation for self-concept is 30.03 and 6.103 respectively. With this result the Ho1: is thus, rejected. This implies that self-concept has a significant impact on school children expressed level of off-task behaviour. Table 4: PPMC summary table showing relationship between anxiety and off – task behaviour


Off-task Behaviour 300 62.41 10.449 .679 298 Sig

Anxiety 300 63.88 12.066

Table 4 shows that the variable, anxiety positively and significantly correlates with off-task behaviour. r (298) = .679, p<.05. The mean and standard deviation for social support is 63.88 and 12.066 respectively. With this result the Ho: is thus, rejected. This implies that anxiety has great influence on school children expressed level of off-task behaviour. Table 5: PPMC summary table showing relationship between truancy and off – task behaviour.


Off Behaviour 300 62.41 10.449 .496 298 Sig

Trauncy 300 62.38 12.723

Table 5 shows that the variable truancy correlates significantly with off-task behaviour. r (298) = .496, p<.05. The mean and standard deviation of truancy is 62.38 and 12.723 respectively. With this result the Ho: is thus, rejected. This implies that truancy could enhance the development of off-task behaviour in school children. DISCUSSION Research Question One To what extent could all the independent variables (self-concept, anxiety and truancy) predict the dependent variable (off-task behaviour) among children? The study indicates that the independent variables (self-concept, anxiety and truancy) have significant predictive influence on off-task behaviour among children. The reason for this can be projected along the expressed views of Gerald (2012) who reported that millions of children expressing off-task behaviour in Europe, U.S, the Caribbean and Africa (Nigeria inclusive), have trouble in learning. Most of these children may not be able to read at all, while many might be considered slow readers. Besides being a slow reader, many children in Africa lack the basic reading and writing skills associated with learning in schools. Giving credence to this assertion, Boyle, Decoufle and


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Yeargin-Allsopp (1994) affirmed that off-task behaviour are a group of disorders which are characterized by difficulty in learning, paying attention, and storing information which could affect individuals with average or above average intelligence. This implies that off-task behaviour has to do with inattention, short attention span and high level of distractibility. Therefore, off-task behaviour could make academic task and attainment very difficult for children. Hypothesis one: There will be no significant relationship between self-concept and off-task behaviour. The result of the study shows that self-concept significantly correlates with off-task behaviour among children, R (298) = .543, p<.05 thus, the hypothesis is rejected. The reason for this development can be adduced to the fact that most children with off-task behaviour develop low self-concept, emotional deprivation, resulting from societal stigma and rejection, negative attitude to school, etc. These issues in no small measure affect the functional ability of most children expressing off-task behaviour. Thus, there is a general consensus that most children with off-task behaviour tend to have low self-concept and self-esteem levels than those without off-task behaviour (Elbaum & Vaughn, 2001). Also, for a variety of reasons their academic achievement is generally lower (although this does, of course, depend on the nature of the difficulty and the child in question), which in itself is a possible source of lowered self-perceptions. Also, they are less likely to be accepted by their peer group and are sometimes bullied (Eaude, 1999). Hypothesis Two: There will be no significant relationship between anxiety and off-task behaviour. The result reveals that anxiety positively and significantly correlates with off-task behaviour among school children, r (298) = .679, p<.05 thus, the hypothesis is rejected. The reason for this can be attributed to the fact that anxiety disorders have been reported as one of the most common forms of psychological distress for people with off-task behaviour and for children with off-task behaviour, research evidence available suggests high levels of anxiety disorders in children vary from 8.7% (Dekker & Koot 2003) to 21%. Therefore, it could be implied that in children with off-task behaviour, anxiety disorders are well recognised though it may be underreported and under diagnosed. Hypothesis 3: There will be no significant relationship between truancy and off-task behaviour. The study reveals that truancy correlates significantly with off-task behaviour among children, r= (298) = .496, p<.05 thus, the hypothesis is rejected. The reason could be aligned to the fact that the reasons students fail to attend school are multifaceted and complex. Causes could occur at the individual, family, school and community levels. For example, students may skip school because of school phobia, off-task behaviour, learning disabilities or difficulty getting along with other students or teachers. Families may have chaotic living situations or parents may have poor parenting skills that affect their ability to monitor and encourage their child‘s school attendance and


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commitment to their school task. Likewise, school factors affecting truancy rates include problems with bullying and teaching methods perceived as boring by students. This finding has thus demonstrated that self-concept, anxiety and truancy have significant effect on children with off-task behaviour. It therefore implies that conscious efforts should be made by school counsellors to initiate intervention programmes that would enhance students‘ positive adjustment to teaching and learning experience in school. Implication of the findings Children expressing off-task behaviour often have problems that go far beyond those experienced in reading, writing, mathematics, memory, or organization. For many, strong feelings of frustration, anger, sadness, or shame can lead to psychological difficulties such as anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem, as well as behavioural problems such as substance abuse or juvenile delinquency. Their academic struggles and failures are often met with disapproval by teachers, peers, and parents. Such disapproval can take the form of negative labelling of a child as "slow," "lazy," or "dumb." Rather than developing a sense of pride in their accomplishments, children expressing off-task behaviour may end up in a quagmire of frustration and shame. Such feelings only serve to erode the development of a positive self-concept. In fact, as a result of constant struggle and failure, a negative self-image may develop even when others offer support and encouragement. Therefore, the result of the study makes it imperative for us to initiate a measure that will enable us review the factors related to an increased risk of learning among children with off-task behaviour as to aid in the development of more effective preventive programmes. CONCLUSION The findings of this study have enabled us to have an insight of the situation experienced by children with off-task behaviour in school. Thus, it is imperative that parents, special educationist, counsellors, psychologists, school administrators and significant others understand the developmental trend of children with off-task behaviour in school as to be able to appreciate their challenges, needs, expectations in order to give them sense of belonging and relate with them unconditionally. RECOMMENDATIONS The family, society and significant others should take time to appreciate and understand the developmental task of children with off-task behaviour so as to device appropriate measure on how best to understand, relate, maintain and sustain pleasant social relationship with them as to facilitate permissible environment where they can express themselves freely.


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Children with learning disabilities should be helped to overcome their challenges through appropriate intervention programmes. Parents should ensure they develop the right attitude and interest in the education of their children with off-task behaviour as to give them the necessary support to overcome their academic challenge. REFERENCES Boyle, C.A., Decoufle, P. & Yeargin-Allsopp, M., (1994): Prevalence and health impact of developmental disabilities in US children. Pediatrics. 9, 399-403. Developmental Disabilities Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. Brock, S.E.(1998, February). Helping the student with ADHD in the classroom Strategies for teachers. Communiqué, 26 (5), 18-20. Carnine, D.W. (1976). Effects of two teacher presentation rates on off-task behavior, answering correctly, and participation. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 9, 199-206. Dekker, M.C, & Koot H.M. (2003): DSM-IV disorders in children with borderline to moderate intellectual disability I: Prevalence and impact. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry; 42: 915-22. DuPaul, G.J., & Ervin, R.A. (1996). Functional assessment of behaviors related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Linking assessment to intervention design. Behavior Therapy, 27, 601-622. Eaude, T. (1999): Learning Difficulties: Dyslexia, Bullying and Other Issues, London: Letts Educational. Elbaum, B., & Vaughn, S. (2001): School-based interventions to enhance the self-concept of students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis. The Elementary School Journal, 101, 303-329. Ford, A. D., Olmi, D. J., Edwards, R. P., & Tingstrom, D. H. (2001). The sequential introduction of compliance training components with elementary-aged children in general education classroom settings. School Psychology Quarterly, 16, 142-157. Gerald, .O. (2012): Children and adolescents with learning disabilities: its impact on school, family and society:http://www.codewit.com/family-advice/parenting-relationships/1707- children-and-adolescents-with-learning-disabilities-its-impact-on-school-family-and- society: Accessed online on 28/05/2012.


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Gettinger, M. (1988). Methods of proactive classroom management. School Psychology Review, 17, 227-242. Gettinger, M., & Seibert, J.K. (2002). Best practices in increasing academic learning time. In A. Thomas (Ed.), Best practices in school psychology IV: Volume I (4th ed., pp. 773-787). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Heward, W.L. (1994). Three 'low-tech' strategies for increasing the frequency of active student response during group instruction. In R. Gardner III, D.M. Sainato, J.O. Cooper, T.E. Heron, W.L. Heward, J. Eshleman, & T.A. Grossi (Eds.), Behavior analysis in education: Focus on measurably superior instruction (pp. 283-320). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. Martens, B.K. & Kelly, S.Q. (1993).A behavioral analysis of effective teaching. School Psychology Quarterly, 8, 10-26. Martens, B.K., & Meller, P.J. (1990).The application of behavioral principles to educational settings. In T.B. Gutkin & C.R. Reynolds (Eds.), The handbook of school psychology (2nd ed.) (pp. 612-634). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Powell, S., & Nelson, B. (1997). Effects of choosing academic assignments on a student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 30, 181-183. U.S. Department of Education (2004). Teaching children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Instructional strategies and practices. Retrieved August 20th, 2005, from http://www.ed.gov/teachers/needs/speced/adhd/adhd-resource-pt2.doc

ABOUT THE EDITORS

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Our Vision To become a centre of excellence recognized worldwide in skill development and

research

Our Mission To be a role model of academic excellence in science and education

The Editor-In-Chief, Dr. (MRS) AGBAJOR, HELENA TSANINOMI had

her education at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, University of

Benin, Edo State and Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria in

Education, Guidance and Counselling. She is a counselling consultant

and a seasoned lecturer who lectures Education, Psychology and

Counselling courses. She has published research articles in reputable

indexed National and International Journals. She served in the capacity

of Editor-In-Chief and Member Editor to National and International

bodies. She is also a member of Delta State Counselling Association,

Nigeria and American Counselling Association.

Associate Editor, Dr. (MRS) ANINO ANIGALA is a staff of the

College of Education, Warri, Nigeria. She holds a PhD in Guidance

and Counselling from the Delta State, University, Abraka, Nigeria.

She is happily married to Prof. E. A. Anigala. She is blessed with

four Children. She is also a member of various professional bodies.

Associate Editor, Dr. (MRS) ASAMAIGO ESE ELIZABETH is a

Lecturer and Head of Department of Early Childhood Care and

Education, School of Education, College of Education, Warri,

Nigeria. She has many publications in both local and international

reputable journals. She bagged her Masters and PhD certificates at

the Premier University (University of Ibadan). Dr. Asamaigo hails

from Ododegho in Ughelli North Local Government. She is

happily married with three children.

COUNSELLING FOR FUNCTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE APPROACH: A 21ST CENTURY APPROACH

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