Professional Guidance and Counselling for Open and Distance Learning Students in Nigeria.

Abstract

Counselling services are common features in conventional school settings and are designed to help students resolve personal and academic issues, explore career options and attend to their social needs. It is of great concern that these services appear to be absent in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes, although the peculiar nature of the programme revealed the urgent need for them. ODL students should be able to access guidance and counselling services just as their counterparts in the conventional school setting. The main focus of this article was to point out the relevance of professional guidance and counselling services in Distance Learning programmes in Nigeria. An in-depth description of these services and the benefits Distance Learning students can derive from accessing them were presented. In addition, the authors adapted a conceptual model to accentuate the expected output of professional counselling services. The purpose of this model was to present a clear explanation of the fact that adequate provision of professional counselling services would lead to the improved school, workplace and family environment. It is expected that this would also lead to good behaviour and improved academic performance, invariably creating a safe school, out of school and workplace environment for ODL students. Recommendations include the creation of awareness programmes through online seminars and workshops to educate ODL students on various ways to access guidance and counselling services.