Challenges and Solutions: The Experiences of Newly-Qualified Counsellors

The emergence of the increases in the rate of different social vices among the adolescents in high schools calls for re-evaluation and updating of the existing operating counselling services in secondary schools' educational system.The study examined the challenges of the newly qualified school counsellors and the solution proffered. Six research questions were raised to guide the study. It adopted a mixed-method research approach. The results of the findings revealed that the lack of recognition of the role of counsellors in the school system was rated the highest among the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors, nonreferral of students who need to be sent to a counsellor by teachers was rated second. From the findings of the study the awareness campaign on the importance of counselling through various media, the finding “more time should be allotted to practicum for counsellors in training” was the highest-rated as the solution to the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors. The results obtained from the study also revealed that male counsellors might be experiencing different challenges from their female counterparts. The results of the study also show a significant difference in the challenges experienced by newlyqualified counsellors based on school type. The findings revealed that there is a significant difference in the solution provided by newly-qualified counsellors based on gender.The results also show that the solution provided by a counsellor from private schools does not differ from that of their public schools’ counterpart. Based on the findings of the study recommendations were made: government should provide public enlightenment programmes to parents, school administrators, teachers, and students through jingles, posters, billboards on the need to embrace counselling in the school system and make use of the facility. National University commission should revise the counsellor training programme and increase the period allocated for practicum for the counsellor in training in order to equip them for the tasks ahead.


Introduction
The emergence of the increases in the rate of different social vices among the adolescents in high schools calls for re-evaluation and updating of the existing operating counselling services in secondary schools' educational system. In the recent times, the issue of drug abuse, cultism, gangsterism, violent behaviours, bullying and truancy, classroom indiscipline, examination malpractices, aggression, sexual promiscuity is more pronounced among secondary school students. This trend is having multiple ripple negative effects on the academic development of the students and the society at large. These current behavioural problems a programme of highly specialized activities implemented by all staff members to help individual to make wise, intelligent and informed choices and decisions. Idowu (2016) also cited Olayinka (1990) who viewed guidance services as the veritable tools that help both the school and the student to achieve the set objectives and aims of education, it also helps students to take full advantages of all facilities the school provides in order to develop their full potentials. Counselling services are provided to take care of the feelings, attitude and emotional stress of an individual that can affect his total development and growth (Tambawal, 2007). Sayai (2019) sees counselling as an interactive relationship between clients and the therapist in a safe, supportive and nonjudgmental environment. Any information shared during the interaction should be kept confidential with some limitations for safety reasons.
To provide guidance services, the guidance counsellor has a great role to perform in the total development of individuals, especially in the school system. Guidance counsellors are expected to provide help to both the parent and the student to understand the educational goals and achieve them (Egbo, 2013). Oviogbolu (2015) sees counselling as various activities aimed at helping individual to resolve his /her challenges. Therefore, it is very clear that guidance is important in a school setting and all members of staff at school are expected to contribute to assisting the students to meet their needs, while the major role of the guidance counsellor is to help the individual student to develop his/her potential maximally.
According to Eyo, Joshua and Esuong (2010), guidance and counselling services for secondary school students are organised to address the socio-physiological, psychological, vocational and academic challenges of an adolescent in secondary school. Despite the important position the guidance services occupy in the educational system, challenges are facing the practice of counselling in schools. Oraegbunam (2008) enumerated some challenges facing counselling in schools ranging from counsellor-client ratio, and non-recognition of counsellor role by the school head to non-inclusion of counselling in the timetable.
Another major challenge facing counselling in school is the incompetence of counsellors in resolving pupil's problems (Okere, 2005). While Nwokolo (2006) observed that the combined role of the school counsellor and the lack of his/her autonomy to execute counselling programmes posed challenges to counsellors. This is because most school counsellors are overloaded with teaching subjects and have less time to carry out their professional duty as counsellors. Erhard and Harel (2005) observed that school counselling services differ based on the following factors: preferences of the school counsellor, school type/ quality, and school authority expectations and value system. In some African countries that are developing countries, Nigeria inclusive, classroom teachers are used as Para-counsellor at schools, they were required to perform the role of a counsellor and as the same time, they were usually loaded with teaching subjects. Akinade (2009) sees the challenges facing counsellor as a lack of proper training on how to administer and interpret psychological test properly. Nyamwange, Nyakan and Ondima (2012) established that secondary school authorities and students generally had a lukewarm attitude towards guidance and counselling services at schools. Nyaga (2013) observed that a parent's lukewarm attitude towards guidance is one of the major factors inhibiting the provided guidance and counselling services in schools. Oye et al. (2012) opined that parents tend to fear of the environment where students will be guided to supply all information that is related to their problems. Okere (2005) observed that most counselling programmes at schools are not properly funded. Nyamwange et al. (2012) also revealed that support given to teachers' counsellors by their school heads is minimal. Ngumi (2003) observed that the administration of guidance and counselling services in secondary schools is confronted with attitudinal, systemic and cultural problems which are inhibiting provision of effective counselling. In the same vein, Nyamwange et al. (2012) observed that most schools lack facilities needed for implementation of guidance services at school and many schools' authorities find it difficult to support guidance programmes in their schools. This always inhibits the provision of quality guidance services.
Apart from general challenges facing counselling services implementation at school, beginner counsellors have some peculiar challenges. According to Nystul (2003), the beginning counsellors are confronted with the inability to get to the root of the client challenges in a session, not paying attention to physiological issues, struggle to eliminate clients' unhappiness, overambition to get things done properly, anxious to raise his/her level of achievements, exploration tendency, improper management of time during the counselling process, use of wrong phrases, high tendency for helping people, having an irrational belief that he/she must be loved, getting too emotionally attached to the client, making the counselling counsellor-centered, having problems in identifying what is normal or abnormal, not too clear about the concept of self-disclosure, and being uncertain about confidentiality. In the same vein, Corey et al. (2005) identified beginning counsellor challenges: anxiety when meeting the clients the first time, uncertainty about his/her ability as a counsellor to help the client in resolving his/her challenges, hiding his/her true identity, being too careful to avoid mistakes, inability to accept limitations, not knowing how to make the best use of silence in the counselling process, anxious to meet the clients' need, inability to deal with clients who lack commitment, not getting results on time, showing too much concern for the clients, lacking the skill to use the sense of humour in the therapeutic process, overburdening themselves on the outcome of the counselling process, advising the client, not being clear about the role to be played as counsellor and inability to find one's counselling style.
From another study, Pereira and Rekha (2017), found that newly-employed counsellors confronted with professionrelated problems such as incompetency in counselling skills, theories of personality, using various counselling techniques, ethical issues of the profession, anxiety on how to help a client, lack of supervision, poor salary scale and inability to translate theoretical knowledge into practice in the real-life situation. Agrawal (2015) also observed that therapists faced several job-related challenges like poor salaries, availability of job opportunity, licensure problems, and limited awareness about psychological issues.

Methodology
This study adopted a mixed-method research approach. Qualitative (interpretivism) and quantitative (Positivism) approaches were used in this study. The research questions comprised both the "what" (Positivist) and "why" (interpretivism) questions. The population of this study comprised all counsellors in Osun State, Nigeria.
The study sample comprised 100 counsellors purposively selected from secondary schools in Osun State. The sample was stratified based on gender and school type (public/private).The participants completed the questionnaire entitled "Counselling Challenges and Solutions." The questionnaire consisted of three sections. Section 'A' sought demographic information of the respondents, while section 'B' was geared towards eliciting information from the respondents on the challenges facing school counsellors. Section C was geared towards eliciting information from the respondents on the suggested solutions to counselling challenges. Experts in the related field of study assessed the instrument for the study and content validity of the instrument. The split half reliability method was used to measure the internal consistency of the instrument. The reliability coefficient was calculated and the value of 0.84 was obtained. This lends credence to the suitability of the instrument for the study.
A combination of an administered questionnaire and focus group discussions (FGDs) was used for data collection exercise.
The questionnaire consisted of a combination of close and open-ended questions. Focus group discussions produce descriptive data about peoples' own written or spoken and observable behaviour. The data were both quantitative and qualitative. The two main procedures were, therefore, applied in the analysis of the data in line with the mixed research approach adopted for the study. Quantitative data were gathered from the close-ended questions. The qualitative data were subjected to content analysis.
This involved sorting, categorizing and tallying the data which were mainly additional information to or justification of response given to the close-ended questions, in line with the mixed-model design. For some of the questions, the presentation was then done in narrative form.  Table 1 shows that 53% of the respondents were male while 47% were female which shows that both sexes are well represented.  Table 2 shows that 50% participants were selected from private schools while other 50% were selected from public schools. Table 3 presents the obtained answers to question 1: What are the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors?  Table 3 above shows that the lack of recognition of the role of counsellors in the school system was the highest-rated challenge experienced by newly-qualified counsellors (3.42), non-referral of students who need to be sent to a counsellor by teachers was rated second (3.24). The respondents rated convincing the parents of the client about the treatment, lack of funding for running counselling programmes and unavailability of equipment in counsellors office as part of the challenges experienced by newlyqualified counsellors (3.20), while counsellors not being computer-literate was rated the lowest challenge facing the newlyqualified counsellors (1.98).

Data Analysis
Interviews and focus group discussion on the given issue also revealed diverse opinions concerning the various challenges facing counsellors at school.     Table 4 revealed that awareness campaign on the importance of counselling through media, jingles; and the need to allot more time to practicum for counsellors in training are most highest rated solution to challenges experienced by newly qualified counsellors (3.13), the revision of counselling curriculum and infusion of current issues that affect all age levels are rated as the second solution (3.11), while training and retraining counsellors in computer literacy are rated as the third solution by the respondents (3.10). Establishing community-counsellors relationship for proper integration is rated as the lowest solution to challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors (2.55).
Questions 3 and 4 (Are there any significant differences in the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors based on gender and school type) are analyzed in Tables 5 and 6 through t-test.    is not different from that of their counterpart in public schools. Hence, the null hypothesis is accepted.
Answers to questions 5 and 6 (Are there any significant differences in the solutions provided by newly-qualified counsellors based on gender and school type) are analyzed in Tables 7 and 8 through t-test. As shown in Table 7 above, an independent t-test was conducted to compare the difference in the solution provided by newlyqualified counsellors based on gender. There was a significant difference between the scores for males (M=3.351, SD= 1.921) and females [M=3.421, SD=1.252); t (4.091) = 0.022, p<0.05]. The magnitude of the differences in the means was statistically significant with P<0.05. With the above result, we accept hypothesis seven and conclude that there is a significant difference in the solution provided by newly qualified counsellors based on gender.  Table 8 shows the result of significant difference in the solution provided by newly-qualified counsellors based on school type.
The mean and standard deviation of counsellors from private schools (M = 3.011, SD = 1.292) and counsellors from public school (M =3.930, SD = 1.061) with (t=2.813, df = 99, p>0.05) shows that there is no significant difference in the solution provided by newly-qualified counsellors based on school type. It shows that solution provided by counsellor from private schools does not differ from their public schools. Hence, the null hypothesis is accepted.

Discussion
The findings of the study revealed that the lack of recognition of the role of counsellors in the school system is the highest-rated challenge experienced by newly-qualified counsellors (3.42), non-referral of student who needs to be sent to the counsellor by teachers is rated as the second challenge ( The findings of the study also revealed that one of the major problems of a newly-qualified counsellor is in the area of interpretation of psychological tests because some manuals are no longer available. The findings of the study supported the observation of Akinade (2009) that counsellors face such challenges as the lack of proper training on how to administer and the inability to interpret psychological test results properly.
The findings presented in Table 4 revealed that awareness campaign on the importance of counselling through media, jingle and more time should be allotted to practicum for counsellors in training is the highest-rated solution to the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors (3.13), revision of counselling curriculum and infusion of current issues that affect all age levels are rated as the second solution to the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors (3.11), while training and retraining counsellors in computer literacy was rated as the third solution by the respondents (3.10). The findings of the current study is in line with the findings of Arowolo (2013) who found non-exposure of counselors to in-service training as one of the top problems affecting counselors' functionality . Table 5 shows that there is a significant gender-based difference in the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors, since the significant level value of 0.030 is less than 0.05 alpha level. The finding may be an indication that male counsellors in Nigeria cope with challenges better than female ones. The findings of the current study supported the findings of Artkoski and Saarnio (2013) that female therapists were more positive than male ones in their attitude towards therapist's client preferences. The results of this finding also corroborate the findings of Kamunyu et al. (2019) that male and female students preferred seeking counselling from same-gendered counsellor, especially on the personal-related issues. Most of the researchers' findings showed the indication that gender can affect the functionality of male both as a therapist or a client.
The findings in Table 6 show significant differences in the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors based on school type. This implied that the challenges experienced by newly-qualified counsellors from a private school are not different from that of their counterpart in public schools. The findings of the current study supported the finding of Erhard and Harel (2005) that school counselling services differ based on the following factors: preference of the school counsellor, school type/quality, and school authority expectations and value system.
As shown in Table 7, there is a significant difference in the solution provided by newly-qualified counsellors based on gender. This may be a result of differences in the thought pattern of men and women when it comes to finding solution to problems. Clement et al. (2015) revealed that men find it difficult to disclose their challenges. The results of the findings also supported the observation of Kingerlee et al. (2014) that women seek for psychological interventions more often than men. Table 8 shows the result of the significant difference in the solution provided by newly-qualified counsellors based on school type. This shows that there is no significant difference in the solution provided by newly-qualified counsellors based on school type. It is shown in the current research that the solution provided by a counsellor from private schools does not differ from their public schools' counterpart. The finding may be due to the fact that all newly-qualified counsellors are being confronted by similar challenges irrespective of their school type. The results of the findings supported the observation of Proti (2016) that the feelings of incompetence are characteristics in the development of newly qualified counselors' professional identity. The findings of the current study are also in line with the findings of D'Souza, Egan, & Rees, (2011) that the tendency for therapists to gain more experience, to improve their skills with perfectionism can be stressful for them.

Conclusion and Recommendations
The role of counselling services in the positive development of an individual, coupled with its role in helping students in making informed career choice and decisions, helping the students to benefit maximally in the learning process and to develop fully their potentials cannot be underestimated. It has been observed that the lack of recognition of the role of counsellors in the school system is the major challenge experienced by newly-qualified counsellors. It is, therefore, recommended that public enlightenment be provided to all stakeholders in education on the importance of counselling for students.
The following recommendations were made: • Government should provide public enlightenment programmes to parents, school administrators, teachers, students through jingles, posters, billboards on the need to embrace counselling in the school system and make use of the facility.
• The Ministry of Education should enforce the establishment of guidance and counselling unit at schools.
• School counsellors should be periodically attending conferences, seminars, workshops in order to update their knowledge on current issues concerning counselling services and new challenges among adolescents at school.
• The National University Commission should revise the counsellor training programme and increase the period allotted to practicum for counsellors in training to be well equipped for the tasks ahead.
• The Ministry of Education should revise the counselling curriculum and infuse current issues that affect all age levels.
• Professional bodies of counselling should make intensive efforts to ensure that counselling services provide full recognition by school administrators.
• Government should improve the welfare in the school environment by providing adequate infrastructural facilities and counselling laboratories that will enhance effective counselling services at schools.