Concept of UBE and Its Scope

Basic education results from a global search for an answer to the challenges of preparing people for meaningful living in a learning society (Obanya, 2000). UBE is a close articulation of the formal and non-formal education. That is, it’s a community based and functional education programme comprising of a wide variety of education programmes aimed at promoting reading, writing and numerical skills aimed at individual and natural development and empowerment (Echebe, 2010).

        The concept of UBE originated from some of the provisions in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The essential deductions of this declaration, according to Akinkugbe (1994) are:

1.  Everyone has right to education;

2.  Elementary education should be compulsory while technical and professional education shall be made generally available;

3.  Higher education should be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit; and

4.  Parents have a right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

The idea of UBE is contained in some presentations at World Conference on Education For All. Wokocha and Onwebunwa (2000) cited WCEFA (1990) thus:

This goal of basic education is to help ensure a safer, healthier, more prosperous and environmentally sound world. To accomplish this, every child, youth and adult needs to participate in educational opportunities design to meet their basic learning needs. They need the basic skills, values and attitudes required to being able to survive, live and work in dignity in today’s world. Every person needs the knowledge to improve the quality of their own life and to continue learning.

UBE therefore is aimed at producing an individual with a sound mind and body capable of affecting his society in a meaningful and beneficial way. Education which shall be made compulsory (Echebe, 2010). According to him, every child must be in school till age of 15. It is expected that every Nigerian child must get to the level that enables him to consolidate the gains of literacy, numeracy, life skills, develop acceptable social and citizenship behaviour and internalize the habit of learning the actual goal of the UBE programme is to eradicate illiteracy as a basis for meaningful social, economic and political development as well as scientific and technological developmental advancement.

The UBE scheme is meant to be compulsory. This is because of the following provisions in the UBE Act (2004):

1.  Every parent shall ensure that his/her child or ward attends and completes:

a.   Primary school education and

b.  Junior secondary school education

2.  The stakeholders in a local government area shall ensure that every parent or person who has the care and custody of a child performs the duty imposed on him/her under the Universal Basic Education Act (2004);

3.  Every parent shall ensure that his/her child receives full time education suitable to his/her age, ability and aptitude by regular attendance at school; and

4.  A parent who does not enroll or who withdraws his/her child/ward from school contravenes Section 2(2) of the UBE Act, and therefore commits an offence and is liable to:

a.   On first conviction, to be reprimanded;

b.  On second conviction, to a fine of N2,000 or imprisonment for a term of one month or to both; and

c.   On subsequent conviction, to a fine of N5,000 or imprisonment for a term of two months or both.

Therefore, in scope, the UBE Act (2004) emphasized that the Federal Government’s intervention shall only be in form of an assistance to the state and the local governments for the purpose of uniform and qualitative basic education throughout Nigeria. The Act covers:

1.  Early Childhood Care and Education;

2.  Six years of primary education;

3.  Three years of junior secondary education;

4.  Out-of-school, non-formal programmes for updating the knowledge and skills of persons who left school before acquiring the basic needed for life-long learning;

5.  Special programmes for nomadic populations; and

6.  Non-formal skills and apprenticeship training for adolescents and youth who have not had the benefits of formal education (Obanya, 2001).

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Need for Guidance and Counselling

Guidance and counselling is usually needed when a person is confronted with a problem he/she feels he/she cannot solve by himself or, with the help of his parents, relatives and friends. According to Uwaifo and Uddin (2009), the purpose of counselling is to facilitate wise choice and certain decision on which a person’s later development depends.

        Since 1960, the Nigerian educational system has needed the services of the guidance and counsellor in the following areas:

1.  Educational/Scholastic Perspective: A number of eminent scholars have aired their views of the importance and the need for guidance in our educational system. Education is undoubtedly a process by which children and young person also are trained and instructed in order to discover their talents and potentials. It is a process of change and national development through which a society meets her ends. Ifelunmi (1997) pointed out that if our society is not to be plagued by a broad of disgruntled, frustrated and unrealistic individual, students should be exposed to available opportunities and social expectations in the country through career guidance and counselling.

Olayinka (2003) in the same vain stated that counselling in school will enable the country to identify her talented youths and nurture them to the optimal level of social educational and economic development. In his view, guiding young people to pursue this right type of education in which there is no over-population of certain manpower needs and underproduction of the other aspects of the manpower needs is a sure process of building a prosperous and advanced country.

2.  Economic and Technological Perspective:  The recognition that Nigeria’s manpower is still in short supply in some major sector of our country like commerce, industries, agriculture, engineering, technical to mention a few means a more determined attempt has to be made especially by the school counsellors to help individual students find jobs which will make full use of their skills and talents. At the same time, a positive attempt has to be made to survey and inform students above varied jobs opportunities rather than hoping that they will find out for themselves. This will definitely broaden the occupational horizons and aspirations of the products of the new educational system, thus preparing them for a world of work

Students who leave at primary six stage will need information on an apprenticeship or some other scheme for out-of-school vocational training and prospect for employment.

3.  Social Perspective: Ofordile (2002) has observed that the stability and influence of the home, church and mosque and also weakening more and more and their responsibilities particularly in the social and emotional realms have been entrusted to the school. He further argued that the Nigerian society is drifting to a situation whereby the school is being called upon to provide broad range of mental health and therapeutic services to the children, their parents, families and their teachers too. Thus guidance and counselling, a socially based relationship becomes the buffer, the citadel of hope for correcting, reinstating, re-orientation and for re-directing the society to the part of sanity.

4.  Ideological Perspective: The ideological factors as embodied in the National Policy on Education are potent in influencing education as well as other aspects of guidance in Nigeria schools today. The National Policy on Education fundamentally stimulated building of:

i.            A free and democratic society

ii.          A just and egalitarian society

iii.        A united, strong and self-reliant nation

iv.         A great and dynamic economy and

v.           A land of bright and full opportunity for all citizens.

The rate of transition from primary as stated in the third National Development Plan (1975 - 1980) and articulated in the policy was 70% which would include admission to craft schools and vocational centres as well as into junior secondary school.

        From the foregoing, Nigerian philosophy of education can be said to be based on the integration of the individuals into a sound and efficient citizen of the nation at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

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AN EVALUATION OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING PRACTICE IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS CHAPTER ONE

Chapter One

Introduction

Background of the Study

Education is said to be an accumulated experience that has a determinant effect on human character and mind. As a process, through which societal values, norms, principles, ethos, and skills can adequately be conveyed. Individuals need education in order to acquire this accumulated knowledge (Idowu, 1996). The educational system in Nigeria is not far from  the  technical  aspect  of  education  in  that  it  is  all  involving  as  a  process  of transmitting the societal norms and values toward the development of the nation.  An overview of the colonial educational system provided, revealed gross inadequacy and unsatisfactory to the educational ingenuity, yearnings and aspirations of the nation (Nwaokolo, 2006). Thus many scholars opined that this formal educations was parochial, elitist, regurgitate and irresponsive to the need and aspirations of the Nigerian society. In view of these, an effort to put  quality  into the  Nigerian  Education resulted  in instituting  a  well define educational  system  that  will be  instrumental  in affecting  national  development. It is believed that education goals in terms of its relevance to the need of the individual as well as in terms of the kind of society desired in relation to the environment and realities of the modern world and rapid social changes should be clearly set out (National   Policy on Education, 2004). 

The bid to meet the nation’s educational goals and aspiration brought about the 6-3-3-4 system of education. It was designed to restructure and inject functionality into the nations’ school system. The 6-3-3-4 system of education was seen as a creditable programme able to bring about effective changes in the direction of technological development in a nation (Olayinka, 1993).

Guidance and counselling was therefore incorporated into the school system and it happens to be one of the developments in the field of Education in Nigeria. It became popular with the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 educational system. The essence of incorporating guidance and counseling into the school system was to eliminate overwhelming ignorance of many young people on their choices of career prospects and personality maladjustment among school children. Based on these and more, career officers and counselors were appointed to take the responsibilities in sensitizing students on the needs for effective career choice (Idowu, 1996). 

Today, guidance and counselling has gained prominence in the Nigerian educational system and many people are getting interested in the guidance of youth in making wise educational, vocational and personal/social decisions and this is consequent upon the expansion of counselling activities in Nigeria and the need to form a larger association to embrace both counsellors and career masters. To facilitate efficient management of guidance and counselling services in Nigeria secondary schools, guidance and counselling personnel are being trained in the tertiary institutions and sent to schools to deliver these services. Also, basic courses in guidance and counselling feature in all teachers-education programmes.

With the highlighted changes in the Nation’s educational system, the need for guidance and counselling services in Nigerian secondary schools became more glaring. Consequently, Guidance and Counselling Services became an integral and essential component of the educational process for all students as they progress through the educational system. Against this background therefore, the focus of the study is to evaluate the guidance and counselling practice in primary schools in Delta State.

Statement of the Problem

It is assumed that with the increasing complexities in the society, industrial and technological development all going hand-in-hand, the succeeding generation will find it difficult to adjust themselves both to the society, work, family and schools. Failures in proper adjustment to all the facets mentioned could affect the education of young people and expose them to environmental as well as personal problems in development. Guidance and Counselling, as a delivery service, should not be misconstrued as the traditional type that is based on the principles of “to guide, to direct on a course, to enlighten, or to assist”. This traditional type of counselling was principally carried out in African setting by heads of families, Priests, and church leaders (Olayinka and Omoegun, 2001). Because of the complex nature of Nigerian society, the counselling profession has assumed a wider role. Present day Guidance and counselling is based on the process of helping individuals understand themselves which will lead to the better understanding of the other aspect of their lives (Egbochuku, 2008).

For students to be properly informed, they need the assistance of trained guidance and counselling personnel. Hence, the government made it a policy that guidance and counselling should feature in teacher-education programmes because teachers are closer to the students. Furthermore, the department of Guidance and Counselling has been established in most Nigeria Universities to train counsellors at the B.Sc., Master and PhD levels, to equip them with the appropriate counselling techniques to carry out guidance and counselling services in schools. The problem of the study pose as a question is: how effective is the guidance and counselling practice in primary schools in Delta State.

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Possible Solutions to Examination Malpractice

Possible Solutions to Examination Malpractice

 The students should always be enlightened through the service of guidance counselors on the consequences of examination malpractice (Oche and Achuk, 2001). According to them, there is the need for propaganda campaign on the evil effects of examination malpractices; short drama programmes could serve as a back-up to campaigns on televisions and radios. Parents should be made to understand the ability and aptitude should be the main determinant of the children’s choice of career and that persuading and enforcing children to study courses they cannot cope with leads to frustration and maladjustment.

        The home is the foundation of society. Parents should acknowledge this fact and ensure that their families make meaningful contributions towards the building of a virile education for our nation (Akpotu, 1998). In his view, like the Japanese mothers, the Nigerian parents should be seriously and genuinely committed to the education of their children. The concern of the Nigerian towards the education of their children should take the shape of the Japanese system.

        Furthermore, the students need to realize the eminent danger and problems they stand to encounter by involving in examination malpractice. They should also realize that the ideal reward for learning should be intrinsic and as future leaders of the nation, they are expected to improve upon the performance of the adults and correct the wrongful practices of the adults (Akpotu, 1998).

        Finally, there should be special committee and task force to fight against examination malpractice. Building of more classroom blocks to avoid overcrowding of pupils in classrooms especially during examination.

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