In order to understand guidance and counselling, the words can be separated into two and

described, guidance can be defined in so many ways for instance C.Soanes & A. Stevenson (2004)
define it as advice or information aimed at resolving a problem or difficulty, from this we can see
that guidance usually happens when there is a problem that needs to be sorted out, it is an act of
showing the way to some people, it is directing, leading and pointing it is saying yes to someone
who needs help or to someone who needs a companion on a temporal basis, according to another
perspective given by gillie (2007) guidance is a general label or an umbrella term which looks at
all ways in which an institution recognizes and reacts to the needs of every specified learner in an
attempt to help the learner to develop to his fullest potential, in this case it could be giving
directions to the learners who are confused, unloved and lonely, it can be said to be a means of
pointing to some possibilities of thinking or leading a person psychologically, emotionally and
even spiritually to some extents, it is part and parcel of the cancelling profession. Counselling on
the other hand is giving guidance on personal, social and psychological problems, it is a subset of
the general term called guidance services, it is a mutual helping relationship designed to help an
individual to analyze his or herself by linking to his or her capabilities, achievements, interests and
mode of adjustments to what new decision he or she has made or has to make, (Makonde, 1994).
Counselling helps individual pupils or learners to change their attitude and behavior. After
effective counselling, a positive change is expected from the learners or any person being
counseled by a counsellor, marrying the two together gives us guidance and counselling which is
the process of helping individuals to discover and develop their educational and psychological
potentialities as well as those relating to their occupation or employment Encyclopedia Britannica,
Inc. (1998). Therefore, after defining and describing the concept of guidance and counselling, in
this essay we are going to look at the development of the concept in Zambia by using practical
examples.

Guidance could be said to have started many years ago during the AIE(African indigenous
education) times but it existed even before that and there are so many arguments some saying it
started in Greece but however it also even existed in Zambia through so many things as it was
there in ceremonies such as initiation ceremonies, Phiri (2006) states that counselling was given
to young people for the purpose of giving advice to young people and sharing wisdom with people
who have experience in life among which were things like marriages where ladies to be married
are being counselled on how to keep their husbands for example for any marriage to take place in
Zambia there is required to be a marriage counsellor popularly know as “Alangizi” but aside from
this, it also existed in many different forms and in different parts of the country and there were
certain specific people offering these services for example the uncles, aunties, grandparents, the
chiefs and kings and as we can see from this those in charge of this were influential and respectable
people, however of late it has been institutionalized and schools have for example to a large extent
taken over the function of providing this service to boy and girls.

In Zambia, guidance and counselling was institutionalized in 1967 when careers guidance was
introduced and it started through the ministry of education, the ministry did this with a vision to
pupils to their occupations and careers based on the capabilities of each learner and the ones to
take responsibility of this project were the then called career teacher who nowadays are referred
to as school counsellors or guidance teacher varying according to different schools, by this time
the program was dormant as it did not have ample man power to run successfully MOE (2001). 23
years later in the 70s the program was introduced where the careers guidance unit was established
and it increased in terms of its functions, the functions were many but to mention a few was to
reduce dropout rates for example those pupils that dropped out due to lack of funds, death of
parents as a result of failure and many other reasons, counselling pupils with social and emotional
problems, these were pupils that for example had problems coming from their homes or even those
in the school setup for some as a result of bullying, offering psychological help to abused pupils,
an example of this are those female learners that could had been raped and needed this type of
help,under the function of psychological help was also pupils with drug abuse and another function
was to make the pupils sensitive about the combinations of the subjects and the choice of career
and also to minimize anxiety of examinations amongst the pupils and also to counsel learners with
HIV/AIDS.
The need for guidance and counselling became cardinal in order to promote the well-being of the
learner the purpose for these services was in order to give strength to the learner for them to be
able to improve their confidence in their abilities and respect as well as admire themselves, it was
also to help them realize their potential in adult lives, the main reason of counselling was to
empower learners to participate to the fullest extent in the economic and social development of the
nation, (Sandhu 2000).
It is important to note that even though these services have been available since 1990, their
effectiveness has not been evaluated comprehensively for example drug, physical and emotional
abuse, violence, peer pressure are still in existence in the country, learners have always been
provided with guidance and counselling but still have indulged in riotous behavior as well as
behaviors like illicit sexual behavior.

Guidance and counselling in Zambian schools is not even in the syllabus at primary level that is
from grade one to seven but rather it is just treated as a cross cutting issue meaning it is treated as
something that just relates to and must be considered within other categories or subjects in some
instances in order to be suitably or properly addressed. Ministry of Education (2001) noted that
guidance and counselling was not a subject and wasn’t even on the time table but was rather just
a comprehensive program and it is because of this that teachers especially those teaching at primary
schools find it challenging to provide guidance and counselling to the pupils, john (2000) states
that the reason why African countries including Zambia fail to put guidance and counselling
effectively is because the models of counselling being imposed are from western countries and
hence are not compatible to African countries as the experiences here are might be different from
there.

Mubanga (2014) says that the first workshop for careers teachers was held 5 years after guidance
and counselling was first introduced by the ministry and it took place particularly in Lusaka and
three and four years later after this the third and fourth were held consecutively and were also in
Lusaka but the most important of all was the fourth which took place at (ZIT) Zambia Institute of
Technology in 1979. The ministry of Education in 1970 told all secondary schools to nominate
teachers who would later be seconded in the office of careers master for example in schools of
nowadays teachers have to look for one who by his traits looks like is suitable for the office just
like the way a monitor is chosen in class, they first have to be nominated and later seconded and
the ones who gets the most gets into the office and this was the case in 1970.

18 years from now is when the first syllabus for school guidance and counselling was made and
was followed and this was seen as a right step taken by the government because guidance and
counselling supplements and facilitates works done by various teachers in different subjects. At
regional level, the need for guidance and counselling in schools has been discussed at important
forums like SADC and the ministers of education meeting and in Zambia this meeting was held in
2008 in Lusaka and both these meetings were held for the purpose of strengthening the guidance
and counselling programs in all SADC learning institutions, (Mubanga, 2014).

Mwaba (2011) points out that the recent studies on guidance and counselling have shown that
school guidance services are offered in many High Schools in Zambia but even secondary and
primary’s schools also offer for example international school of Lusaka which has both the primary
school counsellor and a secondary school counsellor, in primary, the counsellor works with the
staff in order to support them when he/she is needed and to address their concerns, in secondary
the counsellor works with teachers, the specialist staff and the administrators in order to effectively
serve the secondary community. Mwaba continues to explain that there is a marked absence of
attention to problems faced by pupils, and guidance services available to pupils with visual
impairments in Secondary Schools. Nonetheless, it is cardinal to point out that the importance of
school guidance and counselling was repeatedly emphasized during meetings held at Mulungushi
International Conference Centre in September, 2009, in Lusaka, which reviewed the school
curriculum and the policy document Educating Our Future, respectively, (Mubanga, 2014). The
Zambian government has also pledged to support guidance services in schools. The policy
document, MESVTEE (1996) clearly states that it will strengthen its own child guidance and
counselling services, which will in turn provide in-service training for teachers in how to deal with
these and related problems.
There are different types of guidance and counselling in Zambia for example educational guidance
and counselling, this service should be provided at crisis points when learners have difficulties of
subject selection, concentration in class and are performing poorly academically. In boarding high
school’s guidance services have an essential role to play in ensuring that individuals' educational
decisions are firmly based, and in assisting learners to develop effective self-management of their
learning and career paths, (Nkhata, 2010).

There is also vocational guidance and counselling which helps learners to select suitable vocations
after they have considered their strengths, limitations, preparation, educational and professional
qualifications. It is meant to prepare learners for a particular career by selection of relevant courses
and programs. Through vocational guidance services therefore learners are supposed to be
provided with detailed information on cut off points, subject combinations, duration of training,
and the application procedures and training commencement dates for courses at institutions of
higher learning, (Hamainza, 2015). On cutoff points for example the learners can be told how
many points they need in order to be viable for the course of their dreams and as well there are
some subjects that are needed in almost every course for example mathematics and the learners
need to have all this information and they get it through this type of counselling service.

There is also avocational guidance and counselling which guides learners in the selection of
hobbies, curricular games, athletics and cultural programs, apart from this there is also health
guidance and counselling which aims ensuring that preventive and restorative measures such as
the supervision of sanitation in the school dormitories, protection through immunization against
diseases, early diagnosis and treatment of illnesses and health education through formal or
informal sensitization are adhered to, (Hamainza 2015 & Nkhata, 2010). Good health is a
prerequisite for the learner to participate in the curricular and co-curricular activities. This is
particularly so in boarding secondary schools (Barki and Mukhopadhyay, 1986). However,
Learners need guidance to appreciate and appropriate good health practices and habits.

From the discussion above, we can see that guidance and counselling is of vital importance in any
learning institution in Zambia as it helps in a lot of aspects like reducing drug abuse but it only
happens when properly run, we can also see that there are many types of guidance and counselling
as even out of school the service is offered for example in health institutions and it is of vital
importance for the teacher to have a knowledge of this concept as they will be dealing with learners
that will be coming from very different places with different backgrounds and with some
knowledge about this they might have some knowledge of how to handle the situation and they
might also find themselves in the office one day at the school they’ll be teaching so it’s Important
to have some knowledge about it, from this, we can also tell that the government needs to be made
aware of the importance of guidance and counselling in schools so as for it to run smoothly such
that even when investment in in is needed the government knows.
REFERENCES
Barki B.G. and Mukhopadhyay B. (1986). Guidance and counselling: a manual. New Delhi -
110 0200: Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd.

C.Soanes & A. Stevenson (2004) Concise English Oxford Dictionary (Eleventh Edition)

Encyclopedia Brittanica, inc (1998). Guidance Counselling Retrieved from:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/guidance-counseling
Makinde, O. (1994). Fundamentals of Guidance and Counselling. London: MacMillan
Education Limited.
Ministry of Education (2001). School Guidance Services. Lusaka; Yami Enterprise
Mubanga, D.S (2014). Investigating the role of school guidance and counselling in education for
sustainable development. A dissertation submitted to the University of
Zambia.
Nkhata L. (2010) Guidance services in boarding high schools in Southern Province, Zambia,
Unpublished M.A. Dissertation. University of Zambia, Lusaka

N.M. Muliwa (2016) ASSESSMENT OF THE PROVISION OF GUIDANCE AND

COUNSELLING SERVICES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. A SURVEY OF CHILANGA
DISTRICT ZAMBIA. Retrieved from:
http://dspace.unza.zm:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/5015/Main%20Document.PDF?s
equence=1&isAll

Phiri, J. T. &Ndhlovu, D. (2006). Introduction to guidance and counselling. Lusaka: Zambia

Open University
Phiri, J.T and Ndhlovu, D. (2006). Introduction to guidance and counselling. Lusaka: Zambia
Open University.

Rutondoki,

Sandhu, D. S. (2000). Alienated Students: Counselling Strategies to Curb School Violence.

Eugene, OR: Castalia Press.