An Assessment of the Professional Capacity Needs of Counsellors to Cope with Poverty-Prone at Risk Secondary School Students in Osun State, Nigeria.
The study assessed the professional capacity needs of counselor and difference in the capacity needs to cope with at risk students in terms of their sex, age and years of professional experience with a view to assisting the counsellors to improve service delivery in secondary schools. The study adopted survey design. The population for the study comprised all school counsellors in Osun State. A sample of 60 school counsellors was randomly selected for the study. A Professional Counsellors Needs Assessment Instrument (PCNA) was designed and validated to identify the needs of secondary school counsellors and determine gaps in their operations. The instrument consisted of two sections. Section A and B. Section A consisted of demographic characteristics of the respondents. Section B contained items on the professional capacity needs of counsellors. The pilot study of the instrument was carried out and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the data which yielded reliability coefficient of 0.75 which is significant at 0.05 level of significance. Permission was given to the researcher by the school authority to administer on the professional counsellors. The results showed that 25 (41.7%) of the counsellors had moderate capacity needs to cope with at-risk students. It also revealed that male and female counsellors are not significantly different in their capacity to cope with student at-risk (t=1.197; >.05). The results further showed that the age of the counsellors do not significantly show difference in their capacity needs to cope with at-risk students (F=1.779; >.05). Finally, the results revealed there was no significant difference in the capacity needs of the professional counsellors in terms of their years of experience on the job (F=0.179; >.05). The study therefore concluded that professional counsellors in secondary schools require more professional skills, strategies and capacity needs to cope with at-risk students. Keywords: Professional counsellors, At-risk students, and Capacity needs