Guidance and counseling as a predictor variable in managing students’ discipline in Kenya; an investigation of the role of peer counsellors in public secondary schools in Matungulu sub county Machakos county

Abstract

School discipline is a serious challenge facing schools globally. With banning of corporal punishment in 2001 in Kenya, Guidance and Counseling (G&C) has been promoted as an alternative approach to managing students’ discipline. However, growing evidence suggests that G&C services are faced with challenge and therefore, they are ineffective in addressing students’ discipline. The study investigated guidance and counseling as a predictor variable in managing students’ discipline in Kenya; focusing mainly on the role of peer counselors in public secondary schools Matungulu Subcounty of Machakos County. The study was guided by the following research objectives: Establish the extent to which Availability of Peer Counseling services influences management of discipline; Determine influence of Criteria used for selecting peer counselors on management of discipline and Determine the extent to which Training of peer counselors influences their role in managing discipline in public secondary schools. The study was guided by Client Centered Theory advanced by psychologist Carl Rogers (1940). The study employed descriptive survey design. It targeted all (35) public secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county, all (35) school heads, all (35) heads of counseling units and all (2,864) form three students. Simple random sampling was used to sample 11(10.0%) schools and 286 (10.0%) form three students. All (11) the school heads and all (11) heads of counseling units of the participating schools were purposively sampled. In total, 308 respondents were sampled. Data was collected using questionnaires for school heads, heads of counseling units and students. Additionally, an observation checklist was used. The study found that peer counseling interventions face a number of challenges such as poor and unpopular selection criteria of students to be assigned peer counseling roles. The study further found that student selected to be peer counselors were not trained on counseling skills and that head teachers and G/C teachers did not supervise the peer counseling process to ensure the counselors observed the counseling rules and ethics. Supervision, the study concludes that G&C services in public secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county are ineffective to address students’ discipline. The study recommends that the students’ body should be involved in selection of peer counselors to build trust. Those selected to be peer counselors should be trained and frequent follow up made by school administration.