The Influence of Professional Qualifications of Teachers and their Perception of the Rights of Children in Guidance and Counseling Programme among Public Primary Schools in East Pokot Sub-County, Baringo County, Kenya

The school teacher counsellors need to have adequate skills in how to manage an overwhelming number of referrals and student case files, other teachers’ influence on the guidance counselling programme, distinguish between their skills and those of other teachers and how to implement counselling programs seamlessly without causing friction with the rest of the school programme. The purpose of this study was to determine whether teaching experience of the teachers influences their perception of the rights of children in guidance and counseling programme among public primary schools in East Pokot Sub-county, Baringo County, Kenya. The study was guided by the social learning theory and client-centered theory. This study used a descriptive research design. The study population was 739 teachers comprising of 95 public primary schools with a total of 95 head teachers, 95 teacher counsellors and 549 senior teachers. The sample schools were selected using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table which yielded 76 out of 95 schools. Proportionate sampling was used to select 76 head teachers, 76 teacher-counsellors, 76 senior male teachers and 76 senior female teachers to yield a total of 304 respondents. The instrument was pilot tested in 10 primary schools in Maralal Sub-county in Samburu County for validity and reliability. The reliability coefficients for questionnaires were estimated through Cronbach’s alpha. The resultant alpha were r=.80 for head teacher.75 for seniors teachers and r=.79 for teacher counsellor questionnaires respectively. The validity of the instruments was checked by the researcher who also sought the opinion of experts from the School of Education in Laikipia University. The questionnaires were considered reliable after yielding a reliability coefficient alpha of at least 0.70. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer programme version 25.0 for windows was utilized to analyze the data. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics