ABSTRACT

This study investigated Counsellors’ communication patterns as correlates of effective implementation of Guidance and Counselling programme in secondary schools in Umuahia Education zone of Abia State. The population of the study comprised 27,308 students, 38 principals, and 264 teachers giving a total population of 27,610. A sample of 1,456 (38 principals, 53 teachers and 1,365 students) was drawn from the population. Four research questions were posed and three hypotheses were postulated to guide the study. Correlational design was adopted for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire developed by the researcher titled “Counsellors’ Communication patterns for principals, teachers and students Questionnaire (CCPPTSQ)”. Four point-scale of very High Extent (VHE), High Extent (HE), Low Extent (LE), Very Low Extent (VLE) were assigned weights of 4, 3, 2, and 1, respectively. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions.  Pearsons’ r (coefficient of determination) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. Results showed that principals, teachers and students accepted that  implementation of Guidance and Counselling programme in secondary schools was to a low extent as shown by the cluster  mean of 2.00, 2.17, 2.09 and SD of .67, .73 and .79, respectively for Principals, Teachers and Students. The relationship between counsellors’ communication patterns to principals and effective implementation of counselling programme in schools predicted r-calculated value of 0.870 which shows high correlationship. Counsellors’ communication patterns to teachers in schools predicted r-calculated value of 0.884 which is also considered high correlationship. Counsellors’ communication patterns to students in schools predicted r-calculated value of 0.868 which is high correlationship between counsellors’ communication patterns to students in schools. Hypothesis 1, 2 and 3 were rejected showing that there is correlationship between counsellors’ communication patterns to principals, teachers and students in schools. It was concluded that counsellors’ communication patterns to principals, teachers, students in schools correlates effective implementation of Guidance and Counselling programme in schools. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that capacity building workshop and seminars be organized for serving counsellors. Limitation of the study included the use of only one education zone and the use of only public schools. The researcher suggested that the study be replicated using private schools in Umuahia education zone.