Effectiveness of Counselors in Managing Discipline in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya: Case of Mt. Kenya East Selected Counties

Abstract

Various innovative approaches to shaping of students’ discipline have been introduced in schools since the banning of corporal punishment; one such strategy is the involvement of school counselors as an alternative to corporal punishments, unfortunately the effectiveness of such strategies have not been clearly documented. This study sought to analyze the effectiveness of school counselors in promoting learners’ discipline in public secondary schools in three Mt. Kenya East counties. The study was guided by the following research objectives, to analyze the prevalence of students’ indiscipline and evaluate the effectiveness of involvement of counselors in shaping discipline in public secondary schools. The hypothesis was that there was no relationship between the involvement of counselors and level of discipline. The target population comprised of 421 heads of counseling from all the 421 secondary schools from which a sample of 42 counselors were selected using the stratified random sampling. Questionnaires were used in data collection. Analysis of data was conducted using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results of the study indicated that counseling was minimally used to promote student discipline in secondary schools. The findings from the test of hypothesis revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in the involvement of counselors shaping students’ discipline in public secondary schools. In order to establish whether a significant statistical relationship existed between prevalence of indiscipline and use of counseling in controlling misbehavior among learners in secondary schools, Pearson r correlation was computed which yielded r = + .097, n = 42, p < .0005. The null hypothesis was thus accepted and it was concluded on the need to strengthen counseling to enhance discipline. The study recommends enhancement of counseling with a view to integrating counselors in school management and decisionmaking organs such as Boards of Management.