Guidance and counselling to the rescue

By Doreen Hammond
It took only a glance to recognise my old schoolmate Abonsan. It had been 20 long years and obviously we had both changed. But who in my secondary school in my time could ever forget that face?
He was popular for all the wrong reasons. So from the school administration to the teachers and students, right down to the “kitchen women” to the gate men and vendors on compound, Abonsan was very well known.
We were fascinated by his stylish way of walking as he glided across the compound, half of his body slanted to the ground. His shirt collar perpetually raised and in a pair of trousers, even though the prescribed attire was khaki shorts! He could fight a teacher over a simple request that his shirt should be tucked in. As naïve as we were, we cheered him on.
Abonsan was rarely seen in class. He had no notes. Carrying an exercise book was not fashionable to him, how much more a notebook. He was a nocturnal being, slept in the dormitory during classes hours and came out at night during prep, not to study but to make noise and “collect fans”.
The rumour at the time was that Abonsan’s mother was in the United Kingdom and he would join her as soon as he completed form five. He had no worries. After all he was destined for the Promised Land! Or so we thought.
The picture I was seeing now at Kantamanto was surprising. This was Abonsan at Kantamanto, with two pairs of trousers over his shoulders as he displayed another occasionally to potential customers as they walked by. When we made eye contact again, it took no time for Abonsan to melt into the crowd. It was not as if I had turned up spectacularly better myself or that I was an angel in school but Kantamanto Market? Was that the UK? And who said we needed no education to be in the UK if we wanted to get good employment over there? Or was Abonsan thinking that his mother was going to work to take care of him his entire life?
Obviously Abonsan needed some help in secondary school but who was to give it? Teachers spoke to him but it was mostly a scene of confrontation and sometimes advice and not counselling which he must have needed most.
And there was another classmate of mine, Freeman, who attended all the extra classes on the school compound. His parents ensured that he did because they wanted him to be a surgeon. According to Freeman, his parents were of the view that apart from the prestige associated with the job, he and his family will be miles away from poverty if he became a surgeon. Meanwhile, Freeman’s fear of blood was well known to his mates.
I have not had the opportunity to hear about Freeman and what became of him in the theatre if he was ever able to get there, but all didn’t look good for him even in secondary school. And all pointed at a necessity for guidance and counselling which also involves career guidance.
Guidance and Counselling is the process of helping individuals discover and develop their educational, vocational and psychological potentials.
It is meant to help the individual to achieve an optimal level of personal happiness and social usefulness.
Mrs Josephine G. Pokoo-Aikins, Director of the Guidance and Counselling Unit of the Ghana Education Service, maintains that Guidance and Counselling should start at the basic level because it is the formative years. She sees it as a process and not a one- off thing done only at one stage of a person’s life.
Unfortunately, Guidance and Counselling Units are almost nonexistent in basic schools. In most of them, they only exist in name.
This is a situation that the director finds unacceptable. For her, children at that age pick up certain habits that became very difficult to let go in adult life and that was where guidance and counselling could be of more effective help and not when things have already been ingrained.
Mrs Pokoo-Aikins says it has been very difficult to get Guidance and Counselling Units at the basic school levels because of the lack of accommodation. As she puts it, “even accommodation for classrooms is a problem at the basic level how much more setting aside one for counselling”.
For effective guidance and counselling, there must necessarily be a conducive environment which includes a comfortable place, away from other people’s eyes where children would feel free to express themselves as part of counselling.
Some senior high schools have Guidance and Counselling units but lack professional, trained counsellors. The lack of professionals for the job in some schools also presents a big challenge for the unit.
Mrs Pokoo-Aikins said it had been proven that schools which gave Guidance and Counselling the needed place in their institutions were making headway in ensuring discipline, for instance, and charting the career path of the students.
This was corroborated by the Headmaster of the Okuapemman SHS, Mr Felix Essah-Hienno. He said at that level of education, students were adolescents “and we all know some of the things adolescents can do.”
He said the Guidance and Counselling Unit of the school had a professional counsellor and that had contributed immensely to ensuring discipline at the school, which was purely boarding, with 2,200 students.
He recommends it strongly to other senior high schools.
Fortunately, the Ghana Education Service is looking at a policy formulated by the unit to ensure that the proper thing is done.
Among the issues discussed in the policy is that of professionalism. The policy advocates that coordinators of Guidance and Counselling units in schools should be professionals who have studied the course to the master’s level.
Also, it is proposed that coordinators who are teachers should be given time on the timetable to be able to do effective counselling.
The situation now is that such teachers do equal hours with teachers who only teach.
Mrs Pokoo–Aikins says the Government, and for that matter the GES, was doing its best to put Guidance and Counselling in its proper place for the benefit of students and the society. For instance, three weeks ago she returned from a tour financed by the Government, to all the regions, to meet with coordinators of the various units to review their performance and chart a new course.
Her challenge is that the Government does not have adequate resources to carry on with all that needs to be done in the sector.
She, therefore, appeals to non-governmental organisations for help. Specifically, to sponsor some of the unit’s programmes and provide accommodation in schools for Guidance and Counselling.
For Instance, the unit is proposing the organisation of an essay on drug abuse. The director says this essay will be beneficial because as students write about the subject they find out more and learn about the evil effects of drugs.
She is, therefore, appealing for sponsors for the programme.
But it is not all about education and career. The unit also provides services to churches and even individuals who she says could walk into any of the units in the regions and districts to seek counselling even as working adults.
There were a few other students who behaved like Abonsan in my school. Somehow, they must have realised at a point that they needed to “look sharp” so they combined play with studies at the blind side of others.
They have become teachers, lawyers, engineers and administrators etc--- useful to themselves and society. There may be more Abonsans in our senior high schools and Freemans too. Guidance and Counselling will make a difference in their lives.

Writer’s e-mail: aamakai@hotmail.com