Implementation of Guidance and Counselling Services in Senior Secondary Schools in Port Harcourt Metropolis

This study examined the evaluation of the implementation of guidance and counseling services in senior secondary schools within the Port Harcourt Metropolis in Rivers State. Two research questions and two corresponding hypotheses were developed to guide the study. The design of the study was a descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised 65,000 senior secondary school students (SS1 to SS3) and 350 guidance counselors in Port Harcourt Metropolis. The sample size was 400 for the students, while the counselors were 40, giving a total sample size of 440. The researcher adopted a simple random sampling technique to select the respondents for the study. The instrument for data collection was a well-structured questionnaire titled: Evaluation of the Implementation of Guidance and Counseling Services in Senior Secondary Schools Questionnaire. The four-point rating scale was used and validated by experts in the Department of Educational Psychology, Guidance and Counseling. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while t-test statistics were used to test the hypotheses. The null hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha statistics with a value of 0.83. Based on the analysis, the findings of the study revealed that availability of tools and availability of finances affects the effective implementation of guidance and Counseling services in senior secondary schools in Port Harcourt Metropolis. The study recommended that: Rivers State Ministry of Education should provide specific and regular budgetary allocations to sustain guidance and counselling programmes in all public secondary schools and schools should be equipped with standard counselling rooms, psychological test kits, ICT-based career guidance software, and relevant instructional materials to enhance service quality.