CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Education has been described as a vital and indispensable key to any form of development (Jibrin, et al., 2012).Education in its broadest sense encompasses all the process individuals go through in life to develop and optionally utilize their potentials through the acquisition of knowledge,skills,abilities and attitudes that are necessary for effective living in society (Umar, et al., 2012).In projection, it is a process that starts from birth and ends with death which means that education is a lifelong process. Education is an instrument for economic, political and scientific development of all nations (Jibrin, et al., 2012).
According to Umar, et al., (2014), secondary school education is the engine room of knowledge acquisition, a stage at which students come in contact with various subjects, which determine the field of study they will like to pursue in higher secondary school education is kind of level after the primary education and before higher education. Its position in educational system also speaks of its importance. The National policy on Education (FGN, 2004) stated that the aim of education is to inculcate in the child, the spirit of inquiry and secondly, education should equip students to live effectively in our modern age of science and technology. Furthermore, attention was drawn to need for counselling programmes in school.
The place of counselling programmes in schools cannot be overemphasized especially with the daily expansion in the enrolment of students in schools, growing needs of youths in Nigeria, the continual unrest in schools and the repeated changes in the educational system (Bolu-Steve, et al., 2017). Counselling services has become an essential programme in schools and this cannot be done in isolation. Contextual to this paper, Guidance has been defined by Umar, et al., (2014) as the total programme of a number highly specialized activities implemented by specialist to help individual make wise and intelligent choice and decisions. Eyo, et al., (2010), averred that guidance is a programme of services to individuals based on their needs and the influence of environmental factors. She went ahead to state that guidance and counselling is a professional field which has a broad range of activities, programmes and services geared toward assisting individuals to understand themselves, their problems, their school environment and their world and also to develop adequate capacity for making wise choices and decisions. Furthermore, guidance programmes for secondary school students are designed to address the physical, emotional, social, vocational and academic difficulties of adolescent students. This is to complement learning in the classroom and also enhance academic performance/achievements of students (Eyo, et al., 2010).