Influence Of Guidance And Counselling On Academic Perfromance Of Visually Impaired Children In Chogoria/ Murugi Zone Maara District Kenya

ABSTRACT

The putpose of the study was to investigate the Influence of Guidance and Counseling on

Academic Performance of Visually Impaired Children in Chogoria/ Murugi Zone in Maara

District Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to; identify the causes of visual

impairment Children in Chogoria/ Murugi Zone in Maara district Kenya, , Identify the methods

of counseling that are effective on visually impaired Children and Investigate the impact of

guidance and counseling on academic performance of learners with visual impairment Children.

The methods used for data collection were questionnaires to the teachers, interviews with the

parents and focus group discussions with the pupils. The study revealed by 60% that learners

with visual impainnent sought guidance and counseling services. However the respondents

complained that most schools do not have qualified counselors to handle visually impaired

learners. The most common mentioned cause of visual impairment was hereditary reasons which

were mentioned by 90% of the respondents. Group counseling was mentioned by 84%, 76%

mentioned individual counseling, 72% mentioned motivation, 64% mentioned parent and child

counseling and 56% mentioned behavior counseling. The study also revealed by 52% of the

respondents that guidance and counseling has improved the academic perfonnance of visually

impaired. The study recommended that; Counselors who specifically look at cases of visually

impaired learners should be trained and made available in schools to help visually impaired

children. The Ministry of Education to beef up more aggressive awareness campaigns among

various stakeholders concerning the negative attitudes towards the visually impaired. The

Ministry to empower all the teachers in the country with appropriate professional skills on how to cater for the visually impaired learners.