ORGANISING A GUIDANCE

PROGRAM
INTRODUCTION
Students face many problems during the various phases of school life.
These problems may be related to personal, behavioural, educational,
or vocational factors. Enabling students to overcome these problems
and become self-reliant in future is one of the major aims of the
guidance programme. However, one is also aware that the
implementation of guidance programme in schools is hardly
noticeable. This situation persists in spite of various recommendations
made by the government since the last few decades. One of the likely
causes for the non-implementation of guidance programme is largely
due to the lack of adequate knowledge among the concerned staff
regarding the planning and organization of the guidance programme
in schools.
My presentation deals with the various services involved in a
guidance programme and the functions performed by each of these
services. Subsequently a brief is made on the planning and
organization of guidance programme in the schools.

VARIOUS GUIDANCE SERVICES

A school guidance programme constitutes a cluster of activities which
enable the students to overcome their educational, vocational,
personal or social problems that they face during the different phases
of development. It forms an integral part of school education and is
non-instructional in nature. A guidance programme constitutes various
services. A school guidance programme largely consists of six
services. They are orientation, counselling, pupil inventory,
occupational information, placement and follow-up services. Each of
these services is distinct due to their specific functions.
Orientation Service : It is generally noticed that when students
shift from one school to another, they find it difficult to immediately
accept and adjust to the new surroundings. This also occurs in case of
those students who either move from school to college or school to a
work situation. An entry into anon-familiar or new situation may lead
to certain adjustment problems among the students. To overcome this
obstacle, the orientation services are organized, especially to
familiarize the students with the new surroundings and thereby adapt
themselves and make necessary adjustments. Hence, it is always
advisable to begin any educational course or programme with an
orientation activity. Some of the objectives of the orientation service
are:
1) Develop awareness regarding the rules and regulations, functioning
patterns and available infrastructural and physical facilities in the
school or institution or work place.
2) Acquaint the students with the concerned staff and the student
body.
3) Provide opportunities for the staff members and student body to
interact Guidance Programme with the new comers.
4) Develop favourable attitudes among the students both towards the
school and the staff.
One should also note that the orientation services are not only
restricted to the students, but they can also be extended for the parents
and towards the community. Further, this service needs to be
organized for all students so that they fulfil their various needs. In
addition, this can also be a continuous activity, implying that
implementation of these activities can be distributed throughout the
year.
Pupil Inventory Service : Apart from knowing the general
characteristics of students, it is also very essential to identify the
specific abilities predominant among the students, before a counsellor
or career teacher assists them. Without identifying the pupils’
aptitudes and interests, one cannot determine what to expect from
them and what they are capable of doing. The various aspects that
have to be assessed before one guides a student are his aptitude,
achievement, interests, attitudes, socio-economic status, family
background etc.
The pupil inventory service helps in recording and maintaining of
these data. These records can be prepared by the collaborative effort
of the teacher, counsellor and career teacher through various
techniques. You are familiar with the techniques as testing and non-
testing techniques. Observation, anecdotes, rating scales, sociometry
and interview are some of the well-known non-testing techniques. The
testing techniques are the verbal tests, non-verbal tests, performance
tests, projective techniques and the personality tests. These tests must
be administered by the counsellor or any professionally trained
personnel. However, assistance from a teacher is must for maintaining
the records of students using some of these techniques. A teacher
could give details of certain behaviour of students by observing them
in the classroom situations and making their records. These incidents
could be accumulated in the form of anecdotal records.
Occupational Information Service : This is a service which
can be provided by the integrated effort of a teacher, counsellor and a
career teacher. The main objective of the service is to provide the
students information about the educational opportunities in various
levels, related training programmes and occupations available. This
helps the students to be aware of the options open to them with
respect to a particular course or subject in any of the above areas.
Further the student is also exposed to the world of work, nature and
pattern of work and the skills required for performing the work.
Counselling Service : This service is the most fundamental
aspect of the guidance process. The purpose of it is to assist the
students in the process of all round development. It provides an
opportunity to the individual to discuss their plans and problems with
a professional or counsellor in a helping environment. The process
ultimately makes a person capable of self-directing and self-sufficient.
This service can be practiced only by a counsellor. A detailed
description of the role of counsellor and counselling techniques are
described in Unit 4&8. However, some assistance can also be
provided by the teacher in a school. This is because a teacher is the
one who spends maximum time working with the students in the
classroom. When the teacher comes across any student who displays
deviant behaviours, he/she can always refer the case to a school
counsellor. Further, observations made and recorded by the teacher
about certain students can help the counsellor in the counselling
process. The counselling service includes individual counselling and
group counselling.
Placement Service : The placement service makes an effort to
help those students secure employment, who are either in school or
have left the school. The school provides certain facilities through
which the employment needs of the students are met either through
special placement personnel or by integration services of the other
guidance personnel. It is an activity which requires the co-operation
of the principal, counsellor, teacher, career master, state employment
agencies, private agencies and also the community. This service is
more significant for the students at the secondary and higher
secondary level. The placement service here is concerned for those:
i)Who withdraw from the formal education before they
complete school (dropouts).
ii) Who prefer part time work while going to school or may
be during the vacation or after school hours or during
weekends.
iii) Who terminate formal education after completing senior
secondary education.
Follow-up Service : A guidance worker who does not assess the
progress made by his/her student is like the physician who does not
verify whether his/her patient has recovered or not. Here, it becomes
very essential in a guidance programme to learn the nature and extent
of progress of the student even after he leaves the school. This service
does not only pertain to the study of occupational aspect but also to
other related aspects such as emotional and social adjustments. For
example, if a student has been counselled for social-emotional
problem, after he/she leaves the school, the guidance worker must do
a follow-up to check how far he/she is able to cope up with the new
environment and whether he/she is still facing any such problem.

ORGANISATION OF SCHOOL GUIDANCE

PROGRAMME
The organization of guidance programme at the schools requires
cooperative effort of various personnel present both within and
outside the school. The programme must be planned with the
assistance of various personnel like the school principal, the staff,
counsellor, career master and the parents. Before planning a guidance
programme, it is essential to understand the purpose and aims of
guidance.

Pre-requisites of a Guidance Programme

Some of the preliminary tasks needed to be undertaken to organize a
guidance programme are:
a) Formation of a guidance committee, which comprises of at least
seven to eight members. The committee would be constituted of
various personnel such as at least two parents, two teachers, a
counsellor and a career master. The principal could be the chairperson
of the committee.
b) Decisions and arrangements must be made regarding the allotment
of budget for conducting the various services. The expenses could be
determined also keeping in view the payment of honorarium for guest
lectures, conveyance to specialists or professionals such as
educationists, doctors, etc.
 c) Suitable arrangements need to be made to acquire minimum
infrastructural and physical facilities such as a guidance cell or room,
tables, chairs various psychological tests and other required literature.
d) Support from the parents and community could be obtained by
orienting them to the significance of a guidance programme.
e) The school staff and students also need to be briefed about the
purpose and importance of the guidance programme and encouraged
to participate.

Planning of a Guidance Programme

The following steps are necessary to be undertaken to plan the
guidance programme:
1. First make a survey of the available guidance services existing in
the school or institution.
2. Identify the student needs (or) areas where assistance is required.
3. Obtain the opinion of the staff members and ascertain the extent of
assistance possible from them.
4. Statement of explicit objective for the guidance programme on the
basis of the student needs.
5. Specification of the various functions of each guidance service.
6. Assignment and defining of duties to each personnel, who are the
members of the guidance committee.
For the smooth functioning of guidance service, a well-planned
guidance programme is necessary. It facilitates co-ordination of
activities among the personnel in an integrated pattern.
In brief, the guidance committee first identifies the programme
objectives based on the survey of the student needs and
characteristics. This is followed by preparation of a yearly plan of the
school guidance programme. Further, keeping in view the objective,
the committee prepares a tentative plan or chart, indicating the
functions of various personnel. Next, another subsidiary chart is
prepared, specifying the duties or tasks to be performed by each
personnel.
Role of the Principal: The principal, chairperson of the committee
provides the required facilities for the smooth and successful
functioning of the guidance programme at the schools. Some of them
have provision of a separate room or office for the counsellor, space
for conference room, clerical staff and other physical facilities such as
table, chairs etc. Apart from that appropriate action needs to be taken
by the principal to make suitable arrangements for the procurement of
psychological test materials, literature, documents and arranging
sufficient budget. Further, monitoring of the guidance activities are
also been done by the principal.
Role of the Teacher: The teacher provides assistance by maintaining
the cumulative records of students and also in organizing the various
guidance activities. Above all, one should also be aware that during
the initial stages of the programme implementation, the following
problems are likely to come up:
1) Inadequacy of staff or trained personnel to provide assistance for
conducting the service.
2) conflict of roles and responsibilities among the various
personnel and
3) the involvement of personnel in non-guidance activities.
However, gradually you can overcome the above problems.
Guidance Activities At Secondary Level : This stage which includes
students of class IX and X, requires guidance activities to be focussed
on the needs of three group of students. They include those who
intend to:
a) Continue in higher education (graduation).
b) Take up vocational or professional courses (polytechnics;
professional education like medicine, etc.)
c) Enter a job.
Keeping in view the above target groups and their characteristics, the
following are the objectives of the guidance activities organized at
this stage. The Objectives are :
i) Help the students to understand and accept the physiological
changes in one self.
ii) Help them to make effective adjustments in the family, school
and society.
iii) Identify, develop and strengthen their abilities and interests.
iv) Provide information about various educational and vocational
opportunities and the essential requirements.
v) Enlighten parents and teachers about the importance of this
stage especially adolescent and create appropriate situations
for effective learning and development.
vi) Enable them to make realistic educational and vocational
choices.
After class X, the students have to choose their subject stream,
hence the most important function of guidance services at this
stage is to enable students make appropriate choices.
At Higher Secondary Level : This stage covers two classes i.e. XI
and XII and the age of the students usually ranging from 16 to 18
years.
The objectives of guidance programme at this stage are:
i) Help students to make appropriate choice of course(s) in
accordance with their abilities and interest.
ii) Help them to plan their career based on the choice of course.
iii) Make them aware of various job opportunities related to
various courses.
iv) Guide them in the area of personal-social adjustment.
v) Help them develop self-confidence.
vi) Help them make decisions.

LET US SUM UP
In this article, we have discussed the various services in a
school guidance programme. These are orientation, pupil
inventory, counselling, occupational information, placement
and follow-up services. Each of these services has distinct
functions and objectives. To organize a school guidance
programme, some of the preliminary steps to be undertaken
are formation of guidance committee, arrangement of
required facilities, budget and orienting the students, parents
and community. On the basis of the objectives of each
service, various guidance activities can be conducted for the
secondary and higher or senior secondary school students.
The activities are also organized keeping in view the need
and characteristics of these students. Evaluation of the
guidance programme also forms an essential component in a
school guidance programme.