Abstract:
The study was a descriptive survey conducted to investigate the role of the Senior High School (SHS) counsellors as perceived by Senior High School students in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. A simple random sampling technique was employed to select eight (8) senior high schools from the eighteen (18) senior high schools in the Kumasi Metropolis. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select female and male students for the study. In all, 400 students, made up of 256 males and 144 females were selected from a total of 27113 students for the study. A questionnaire was used to solicit responses from the students. The findings revealed that, generally students had positive perception on the roles of the SHS counsellor. However, they perceived the counsellor’s role of assessment and appraisal as fairly important. This finding probably suggests that, teachers are not carrying out such functions in their schools which might stem from the fact that they do not possess the requisite expertise in this area. The study showed further that although majority of the respondents were aware of the existence of the counsellor in their schools, they hardly consulted him or her. It was suggested that the school counsellors should promote a positive perception of their roles and most importantly work positively with students. Again, it was recommended that heads of institutions and the Ghana Education Service (G.E.S) should make sure that counsellors they appoint in the schools have adequate training to handle the guidance and counselling programmes.
