An assessment of the efficacy of School guidance and Counselling in academic performance of learners with special educational needs in selected Secondary Schools in Mongu District

Abstract

Many learners in secondary schools, especially learners with special educational needs,experience difficulties in excelling academically. This study thus sought to assess the efficacy of school guidance and counselling services in enhancing academic performance of learners with special educational needs in selected secondary schools in Mongu district. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The targeted population was all secondary school learners with special educational needs as well as all the guidance and counseling teachers from five secondary schools in the study area. A sample of 60 learners and 20 guidance and counseling teachers participated in the study. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires. The collected data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and thematic analysis. The findings of the study were that the school guidance and counseling services currently provided to learners with special educational needs in secondary schools were not useful in enhancing their academic performance. This was attributed to inadequate trained guidance and counseling teachers. There was a significant positive relationship between the availability of trained guidance and counseling teachers and the rating of the usefulness of the school guidance and counseling programme by both the teachers and learners.The study thus recommends that the guidance and counseling teachers be professionally trained in career guidance and counselling so as to effectively assist learners with special educational needs to make academic progress. There is also need for the school guidance and counseling departments to be equipped with adequate and relevant career information in order to diversify the learners' level of career awareness. Finally, there is need for the government through the MoESVTEE to evaluate the guidance and counselling curriculum in order to develop a curriculum which efficiently addresses the needs of learners with special educational needs.