Problems Facing the Functioning of Guidance and Counselling Centres in Public Universities of Ghana

Abstract

Guidance and counselling centres are the core of the educational system and provide professional advice to teaching staff and students to solve their problems. The study aimed to find out problems facing guidance and counselling centres in public universities of Ghana. A descriptive survey method was adopted. The population consisted of all fifteen public universities of Ghana, all counsellors at guidance and counselling centres in the 15 public universities of Ghana. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample. The 15 public universities were grouped into three zones: South zone, Central zone, and North zone. The lottery method was used to select the universities in each zone. 30% of the public universities, i.e.  Three out of eight public universities in the South zone, one out of the four public universities in the Central zone, and one out of the three public universities in the North zone, were selected. All 42 counsellors of the five sampled public universities formed part of the sample. An open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data from counsellors. The data collected were analysed qualitatively using content analysis. The study revealed that guidance and counselling centres in public university of Ghana are facing problems such as inadequate number of counsellors, inadequate funding for the campus and community outreach programmes, inadequate number of offices for counsellors and inactive internet networks for online counselling. Recommendations were given to the government of Ghana and university administrations to solve the problems.