There are generally 3 types of guidance and counseling in schools— educational, vocational, and personal-social. In this post, we will be zooming into educational guidance and counseling — its scope, objectives, and techniques.

Nature of Educational Guidance

Educational guidance refers to the support and assistance provided by educators or guidance counselors to students in their academic and personal development.

The main goal of educational guidance in schools is to help students achieve their full potential by identifying their strengths and weaknesses and providing them with the necessary resources and tools to succeed academically.

This type of guidance includes helping students with course selection, career planning, and college applications. It may also involve providing support and counseling to students who are experiencing personal or social issues that may be affecting their academic performance.

In addition, educational guidance in schools may involve helping students develop important life skills such as time management, study skills, and decision-making skills.

Overall, educational guidance in schools aims to support students in their academic and personal growth and help them achieve their goals.

Failures in examinations and tests, poor standards or assignments, and unsatisfactory involvement in academic work by students are some of the problems often handled by counselors offering educational guidance.

Definitions of Educational Guidance by Different Authors

According to Brewer, educational guidance is “a conscious effort to assist in the intellectual growth of an individual.”

According to Arthur A. Jones, educational guidance can be defined “as the assistance given to pupils in their choices and adjustment with relation to schools, curriculum, courses, and school life.”

Ruth Strang defines educational guidance as a process “intended to aid the individual in choosing an appropriate program and in making progress in it.”

According to Myers, educational guidance is “a process concerned with bringing about— between an individual pupil with his distinctive characteristics on the one hand, and different groups of opportunities and requirements on the other— a favorable setting for the pupil’s development or education.”

Dunsmoor and Miller define educational guidance as being “primarily concerned with the student’s success in his educational career. It relates to the student’s adjustment to school and the preparation and carrying out of suitable educational plans in keeping with his educational needs, abilities, and career interests.”

Objectives of Educational Guidance

The following are some of the objectives of educational guidance:

To monitor the academic progress of the students.
To acquaint the students with the prescribed curriculum.
To identify the academically gifted, backward, creative, and other categories of special learners.
To assist students in getting information about further education.
To diagnose the learning difficulties of students and help them overcome the same.
To help the student in the adjustment to the school environment, the peer group, and the school curriculum
To assess the individuals through psychological tests and non-testing techniques
To assess the needs of the individual for educational guidance
To prepare a plan for rendering guidance services according to the needs of students
To assist the child to secure information regarding the possibility of further schooling
To help the child to know the purpose and function of different types of schools
To provide detailed information regarding eligibility criteria for various courses and training programs

Other Objectives of Educational Guidance include:

To assist the pupils to understand their strengths and weaknesses
To help the students in developing good study habits.
To help the children in the selection of subjects following their needs, aptitude, and interest
To help the pupils in selecting the co-curricular activities
To assist the children in using their leisure time most profitably.
To help the child to participate in out-of-class educational activities in which he can develop leadership and other social values
To help the child in the building of a good social relationship
To help the child in knowing the availability of scholarships, stipends, loans, etc.
To monitor the academic achievement of students and help teachers in dealing with high and low achievers
To assist the students with special needs
To help parents to deal with their children, especially with special needs

Scope of Educational Guidance

Different activities come together for successful educational guidance. Just like the 7 core guidance services make up the scope of guidance and counseling as a whole, the scope of educational guidance includes:

Appraisal & Assessment

To be able to guide a student toward academic excellence, the guidance personnel must understand the strengths, potential, and weaknesses of the student. This is possible through appraisal and assessment of the student.

Learn more:Appraisal Techniques in Counseling (Functions and Principles)

Placement

The scope of educational guidance also covers effective placement of the students in class that best suits their potential based on the findings from appraisal. Students are distributed to the sciences, humanities, or arts as a form of educational guidance.

Subject Selection

Similar to placement, the school guidance personnel also guides the student in choosing which subjects are best for them based on their career choice. This particular service overlaps with vocational guidance.

Educational counseling

As students continue to progress in their academic work, challenges will surely rise. Some of these include examination anxiety, poor time management, poor study habits, family disturbances, and so on. The school counselor must also offer counseling services to students to help them overcome these issues.

The Roles of The Counselor in Educational Guidance

The roles of the school counselor in educational guidance include:

The appraisal of the students with reference to their capacities.
The exploration of his vocational potentialities and interests.
The obtaining of information about all kinds of educational resources in the school and the community.
The selection of a training center that provides educational opportunities in keeping with the student’s capacities and interests.
The detection leading to the correction of conditions that are interfering with the student’s capacities and interests.

Educational Guidance at Different Stages of Education

Elementary Stage

At this stage, the child is a beginner. No specialized service is required. The only consideration as far as educational guidance is concerned is that all efforts be made to help develop a positive and healthy outlook toward life.

Also, Educational guidance at the elementary stage is to prepare children for the secondary stage.

Secondary Stage

At this stage, the child is in dire need of proper educational guidance. It is all the more required at this stage because the child can think and is aware of the surroundings. The four scopes of educational guidance mentioned above must be intensified at this stage since it is the transition between elementary and tertiary education.

Tertiary Stage

At the tertiary level of education, there isn’t so much specialized educational guidance to be done. Because all students have class advisors that guide them in making informed choices regarding their courses and managing occurrences like indigence or failure.

Conclusion

The absence of adequate educational guidance in a school will produce a group of students who went through school without maximizing all the opportunities that were available to them.

School administrators and counselors must continue to walk with students at each stage of their academic journey, seeing that they make the best decisions based on their peculiarities.