ANALYSIS OF FACTORS INTERACTING WITH THE PROVISION OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING SERVICES IN DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY (GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Background to the Study
As a generic term, guidance and counselling (though not initially conceptualized as such) is as old as the human race. Philosophers, priests, prophets, parents and elders in the society were mostly involved in the traditional guidance process.
According to Igborgbor (1991), these categories of quasi-counsellors offered advice to those who came to them and made general and specific pronouncements on the good life and the world of work. Though quite useful, traditional guidance have some limitation. For instance, it is carried out by untrained counsellors who limited their activities to advice giving. It lacks objectivity in assessment and treatment procedures. These limitations coupled with the complexities of modern societies necessitated the emergence of modern guidance and counselling.
As a discipline and as a professional service, guidance and counselling is less than a hundred years old. It is pertinent to mention that modern guidance and counselling did not develop at the same time in various parts of the world. As various countries perceive the needs for guidance and counselling. Appropriate strategies were adopted to enhance its development.
According to okobiah and okorodudu (1997) the development of modern guidance in Nigeria dates back to some six decades. Adugbo (1990) reported that as far back as 1947, representatives from the federal ministry of labour were sent to Benin Delta area of the former western region to give talks to graduating secondary school students on career and subject choice.
However, many authorities agree that organised modern guidance started in 1959 at St. Theresa’s college, Oke-Ado in Ibadan. A group of reverend sisters felt the need to provide help for their graduating students in choosing courses for further studies, seeking admission into higher institutions of learning, looking for employment and adjusting to hard societal realities. So they invited twenty (20) educated people (experts) from various occupations to give talks to sixty (60) of their graduating students towards the end of he academic session. According to Makinde (1988), fifty-four (54) out of the sixty students who benefited from the talk were placed in various jobs afterwards.
