ARGCCA observes Guidance and Counseling Week
The Ashanti Regional branch of the Guidance and Counseling Unit of the Ghana Educational Service (ARGCCA) has observed a Guidance and Counseling Week under the theme “Guidance and Counseling : An essential tool for building a complete individual.”
The National Director of ARGCCA, Ms Josephine Pokoo Aikins, said education was globally accepted and one of the benefits of good education was that it enabled individuals to contribute to the development and improvement of themselves, their communities, and the nation as whole, and that education cannot be achieved without effective guidance and counseling programmes in schools.
She noted that guidance and counseling had a great role to play in the modern education system, saying many countries use guidance and counseling in their schools to help pupils and students to overcome all challenges which make learning difficult, or prevent them from settling down in schools.
According to her, each individual was unique and needs particular attention. “Guidance focuses on the need of students, and helps them to satisfy their needs,” she stressed, saying students in the Senior High School (SHS) were required to make important educational decisions, which have a direct effect on their future.
“The subject they read determines the work they will do on the job market. It is, therefore, prudent that guidance and counseling become effective and efficient in our schools, to make the individual academically and morally sound in our society,” she stated.
Ms Pokoo Aikins noted that modernisation and its effects were great challenges to the youth, adding that the availability of drugs and alcohol, as well as their widespread abuse, called for guidance for many people.
While commending the leadership and membership of the association and the Regional Director of Education, for their roles in ensuring effective guidance and counseling units, the ARGCCA National Director appealed to the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, Regional Directorates of Education, heads of institutions at the Basic and SHS levels, to provide adequate funding and logistics to carry out their activities effectively.
According to her, Guidance and Counseling personnel need to be considered in all spheres of the educational system, to achieve the ultimate aim of helping individuals understand themselves and the world around them, to be able to make intelligent and committed choices.
She said any attempt to sideline guidance and counseling would render the education system dysfunctional.
The Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Mr. Joseph Kwabena Onyinah, said their task, as educationalists, was to develop the physical, mental, moral and spiritual faculties of children and young adults towards their preparation for the appropriate vocations.
He said the Guidance and Counseling Week celebrations would create the awareness of the essence and relevance of guidance and counseling services, and also solicit the needed support from educational managers.
He expressed dismay at why some parents and students prefer legal options to address their problems rather than guidance and counseling.
He said the method of “spare the rod and spoil the child” does not seem to be effective and relevant, because of children’s access to unlimited information, thereby pushing aside natural law and moral absolutes, which are the basis of human rights for unlimited individual rights.
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