Effectiveness Of Guidance And Counseling Services On Students’ Wellbeing: A Comparison Between Public And Private Secondary Schools In Kilimanjaro Region

ABSTRACT

This study compared the effectiveness of guidance and counseling services on facilitating students’ wellbeing between public and private secondary schools in Tanzania. The objectives of the study were to: assess the status of guidance and counseling in public secondary schools compared to private secondary schools; ascertain the availability and quality of teacher-counselors in public secondary schools compared to private secondary schools; assess the availability of counseling facilities in public secondary schools compared to private secondary schools; and ascertain students’ awareness and utilization of guidance and counseling services in public secondary schools compared to private secondary schools.

A qualitative dominant mixed methods research approach and a cross-sectional survey design were adopted. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were used to select 108 informants of this study. Semi-structured Interviews, focus group discussions and documentary analysis were used for data collection. Data analysis was carried out through thematic-content analysis. In some instances, data were quantified using Microsoft Excel to summarize the findings into tabular forms showing frequencies and percentages.

The study found that guidance and counseling services in both public and private secondary schools were not effective in facilitating students’ wellbeing due to deficiency of qualified teacher-counselors and inadequate facilities. Private schools had more committed teacher-counselors than public schools while counseling services were more responsive than being proactive in both public and private schools. The study recommends to improve the quality of guidance and counseling services through provision of facilities and training to teacher-counselors in both public and private secondary schools.