THE PERCEIVED GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS’ ROLES IN MAINTENANCE OF FAMILY STABILITY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

The study investigated the Guidance Counsellors’ roles in maintenance of family stability of secondary school teachers in Lokoja Education Zone of Kogi State. The study adopted a descriptive survey design in which five research questions were posed and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 probability level. The population of the study was 238 teachers, made up of 111 male teachers and 127 female teachers. The entire population of 238 was used as sample. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled, ‘Roles of Counsellors in maintaining Stability in the Family’ (RCMSF) was developed by the researcher. The instrument was face validated by three experts from Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The items were trial-tested on a sample of 20 teachers. The data obtained were computed using Cronbach Alpha statistics which gave an overall Alpha co-efficient value of 0.83. The research questions were analysed using Mean and Standard Deviation while t-test was used to analyse the null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study indicated that teachers perceived Guidance Counsellors perform roles in maintenance of family stability of secondary school teachers in the areas of finance, communication and sexual relationship of teachers; that the extent of family stability of male and female secondary school teachers was to a high extent, the extent Guidance Counsellors influence maintenance of family financial and communication stability of teachers was to a high extent while in sexual relationship of teachers, some agreed that it was to a high extent while others said it was to a low extent. Based on these findings, some counseling implications were highlighted and recommendations made. Among which are that counsellors need to intensify efforts in counselling teachers through educating them on financial management and organizing seminars on regular basis aimed at educating teachers on their responsibilities for family stability…….

The basic social unit of every group is the family. The family is a universal institution bounded together by social and biological ties. Family is the logical outcome of marriage consisting of a man, his wife, wives, child or, children. It is characterized by common residence, economic cooperation, cum-maintenance, reproduction, and a unit for primary socialization. It is also characterized by a sense of family identification and loyalty, social placement and control, mutual assistance among members of the family unit (Aldons, 2005). According to Anih (2008), it is a community which is regarded as the earliest and most social institution in the context of which the character of the children are moulded. The author also opined that the family has its being in the context of a wider grouping of kindred, wide neigbourhood and in a wider and more complicated society.

The most important primary group of society which gradually introduces the child to the complicated secondary groups of society is the family (Unachukwu & Igbogbor, 1990). The family is a system organized around the support, regulations, nurturance, and socialization of its members. It is a small system made up of individuals who are related to each other sharing strong reciprocal affections and loyalties.It also comprises of house-hold that persists over years (Anih, 2008). Members enter the family through birth, adoption, marriage or by ways of foster placement and nobody chooses which family to be born into (Umeano, 1999).