The Role of Guidance and Counselling in Curbing Student Indiscipline in Secondary Schools in Kambaa Division, Kiambu County, Kenya

Guidance and counselling services were introduced in Kenyan schools in 1963 after independence. These services were meant to substitute corporal punishment which was the only tool used to deter indiscipline among the students. To achieve this goal, there have been several developments, the latest one being the posting of a professionally trained teacher counsellor by the TSC to secondary schools to head counselling departments. However, despite all these efforts, the attainment of this goal seems to be elusive. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to investigate the role of guidance and counselling in curbing student indiscipline in secondary schools in Kambaa Division, Kiambu District. a descriptive survey method of data collection was employed. Public day mixed secondary schools were targeted in the division because they are heavily infested with varied and complex indiscipline cases. However, one boarding mixed school was studied in order to be able to generalize the results. The subjects comprised one teacher counsellor, five teaching staff and twenty students from every school. The sample consisted of one hundred and thirty subjects. Three sets of questionnaires were used as the instruments of data collection. After the study, the relationship between guidance and counselling and discipline was determined. The outcome of this study generated knowledge on how best counselling can be implemented in order to halt or reduce indiscipline cases among the students. The findings of the study revealed that most students do not utilize the counselling services as they faintly understand what it can offer. Many teachers are not supportive towards guidance and counselling department because they are busy with other academic duties. They also don't understand its importance in their profession. counselling services should be popularized among the teachers and the students in order to elicit their voluntary involvement.