The Role of Guidance and Counseling in Promoting Student Discipline in Secondary Schools in Kenya: A Case Study of Kisumu District

This study examined the role of guidance and counseling in promoting student discipline in secondary schools in Kisumu, District, Kenya. The study population comprised 4,570 students, 65 head teachers, 65 deputy head teachers, and 65 heads of Guidance and Counseling Department from all the 65 secondary schools in the District. Out of this, a sample of 22 head teachers, 22 deputy head teachers, 22 heads of Guidance and Counseling and 916 students from 22 secondary schools was selected through the simple random sampling technique. Two instruments were used to collect data for the study. These were interview schedule and a questionnaire. The data collected through questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics in form of frequencies and percentages. While data collected using interview schedule were audio taped and transcribed into themes, categories and sub-categories as they emerged from the data. They were analyzed using summary Tables for the purpose of data presentation and interpretation. The findings show that guidance and counseling was minimally used to promote student discipline in secondary schools in Kisumu District. Punishments especially corporal punishment was widely used to solve disciplinary cases in all schools. It was however; found that there were no policy guidelines from the Ministry of Education on how the schools could use guidance and counseling to manage the student disciplinary cases. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Ministry of Education should provide policy guidelines on the use of guidance and counseling for the management of discipline in secondary schools. Increased efforts should also be made by the Ministry of Education, Department of Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards to regularly supervise and monitor the schools which were not adhering to the ban on corporal punishment and were violating the child rights. (Contains 11 tables.)