AN APPRAISAL OF JOB SATISFACTION AMONG PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLORS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LOKOJA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

INTRODUCTION

1. 1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

An educational system that is sound is usually considered to be the bedrock of a developing country. Quality teachers are indispensable for the attainment of such educational system. This high esteem role of teachers has made teaching profession to be extremely challenging and demanding. Counselling is a field notable for its diversity and dynamism. It is influenced by diverse political, economic and social forces within the society. As a result, tremendous expansion has been witnessed in the field of counselling’s vision, mission and values with reference to the promotion of good health, family dynamics, career assessment, school changes, organic process tasks, moral standards and analysis coaching. One amongst the key tasks of faculty counsellor is to coach and assist students in their overall development. During this twenty first century, the task of serving to students to attain success in class and become additional productive members of the society becomes difficult. Secondary school counsellors occupy a vital position inside the school system to help students deal with these crucial problems and therefore the traditional organic process tasks adolescent face in life. There's little doubt that the degree of job satisfaction of an employee has a vital impact on his/her hunt for alternatives or otherwise. The counsellors expect to induce their salaries and alternative advantages as at once due, a minimum of to satisfy their physiological desires. This might influence their choices to be committed to figure or not, and contribute towards the attainment of structure goals. Hence, non-recognition of counsellors for glorious work done, lack of opportunities for advancement through promotion, irregular salaries and absence of in-service coaching among others, tend to own vital influence on the degree of job satisfaction and commitment of counsellors to schools/their shoppers. The role of counsellors within the establishment cannot be overemphasized. They supply help to students through the first interventions of direction massive cluster steerage, consultations and co-ordination (American college Counsellor Association (ASCA), 2016). Though every could be a very important part of the excellent steerage programme, analysis has shown that more practical programmes concentrate on providing direct services to students within the sort of individual or cluster direction (Borders & Drury, 1992).The demand {for secondary school } counsellors would still air the rise within the face of skyrocketing school enrolments in Nigeria, particularly with the introduction of the Universal Basic Education. It's in realization of this that the federal of Nigeria devoted abundant time to the design and implementation of steerage and direction programme in secondary faculties. The federal of Nigeria in her National Policy on Education (2004) indicates that visible of the apparent mental object of the many tykes regarding career prospects and temperament personality disorder among secondary school, career officers and counsellors shall be appointed to post primary establishments. Since qualified personnel during this class are scarce, government shall still build provision for the coaching of interested lecturers in steerage and direction. The thrust of this policy is that government believes that steerage and direction is an academic service which will enhance the private growth and psychological development of scholars within the establishment. For counsellors to be able to offer this significant instructional service to the scholars, they need to have an interest and willing to contribute meaningfully to the students’ personal growth and psychological development. Therefore, the study of job satisfaction among counsellors is extremely crucial to the advance of productivity among college counsellors in an exceedingly developing country like Nigeria. Job satisfaction describes however content a personal is along with his or her job. It's an enjoyable emotion ensuing from the appraisal of one’s job. There are variety of things which will influence a person’s level of job satisfaction, a number of these factors embrace the amount of pay and advantages the perceived fairness of the promotion in a company, recognition, favourable operating conditions and therefore the job itself. The requirement to cater for the operating conditions of faculty counsellors and guarantee their job satisfaction within the establishment becomes imperative if they're to hold out their responsibilities to the admiration of all. If they're unable to attain their goal as counsellors, they expertise feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness which will build them at risk of stress and job discontentedness. Indeed, college counsellors are seen as agents of modification and bar. So, as they attempt for innovative ways that to assist curb college violence, they will become annoyed as extra responsibilities are placed upon them. Once counsellors are expected to perform roles and functions while not feeling they need necessary skills, serve too several students, or be concerned in alternative appurtenant duties that cut back from their primary duties, job discontentedness could result (DeMato, 2001). Job discontentedness is caused by deficit within the extraneous ‘hygiene’ dimensions of employment, like earnings, job security and dealing conditions. Job discontentedness promotes stress, fatigue and frustration in a company that lead to low productivity. Thus, frustration and discontentedness could result once counsellors are blocked from implementing new college direction programmes or completing what they were trained to do. There is no gainsaying the fact that for the counsellor to translate personal and professional qualities to rendering the aforementioned services effectively, a conducive environment needs to be provided by stakeholders in the school community. The counsellor needs the support of the principal, teachers, students, parents as well as the officials of ministry of education and the post primary education board to be able to operate confidently and freely. A counsellor could be hard-working but because of environmental constraints he may not be able to utilise the resources in the repertoire. This results in the counsellor being labelled as incompetent. This invariably creates an unpleasant state of tension, otherwise known as cognitive dissonance. In the context of the counsellors job (the school), cognitive dissonance is perceptible when the psychological and social variables within the organisational climate are antagonistic to the course of success of the counsellor on the job.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study was undertaken to investigate job satisfaction among professional secondary school counselors. One of the salient unanswered questions about secondary school counselors is their level of overall job satisfaction. Although the potentially damaging effects of low job satisfaction have been documented for other occupations, this has not been researched for secondary school counsellors. It is quite conceivable that such sources of job satisfaction as responsibility and compensation may result in increased job satisfaction for secondary school counsellors. Demographic factors such as number of buildings served, case load and years of teaching experience may affect job satisfaction. Most of the research relating to the job satisfaction of elementary counsellors has been concerned with a specific aspect of their job, such as burnout, and not overall job satisfaction (Kirk, 2010).The role of school counsellors in the educational process has been a matter of public interest. It is in recognition of this vital service in the educational enterprise that the government has embarked on the training and retraining of school counsellors through seminars, conferences, workshop and in-service courses. School counsellors serve dual purposes by engaging in other ancillary functions, including teaching of different subjects in addition to their primary functions of counselling students. At times, there are cases of counsellors being assigned as full-time teachers to the classroom thereby relegating to the background their professional responsibilities. The implication is that the demands of the office of a school counsellor within the educational structure create strain and stress, which have given rise to the question as to whether secondary school counsellors experience job satisfaction. A number of problems face Nigeria’s educational system, which tend to have negative effects on the degree of counsellors job satisfaction. These include: current pressure from working with more challenging students and needs, increased administrative and managerial tasks, time constraint, shortage of funds, increased counsellor-student ratios, and inadequate facilities.

1.3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The major aim of the study is to evaluate job satisfaction among professional guidance and counsellors in secondary schools. Other specific objectives are as follows;

1. To examine the overall level of job satisfaction of secondary school counsellors in Nigeria.
2. To assess the level of satisfaction with the professional role of counsellors in secondary schools in Nigeria.
3. To examine the effect of job satisfaction on professional guidance and counsellors in secondary schools.
4.  To examine some demographic variables that could affect job satisfaction among school counsellors. 
5. To examine the relationship between job satisfaction among professional guidance and counsellors and academic performance of students.  
6. To recommend ways of satisfying guidance and counsellors in secondary schools.

1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is the overall level of job satisfaction of secondary school counsellors in Nigeria?
2. What is the level of satisfaction with the professional role of counsellors in secondary schools in Nigeria?
3. What is the effect of job satisfaction on professional guidance and counsellors in secondary schools?
4.  What are the demographic variables that could affect job satisfaction among school counsellors? 
5. What is the relationship between job satisfaction among professional guidance and counsellors and academic performance of students?  
6. What are the recommended ways of satisfying guidance and counsellors in secondary schools?

1.5. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

H01: There is no effect of job satisfaction on professional guidance and counsellors in secondary schools.

H02: There is no significant relationship between job satisfaction among professional guidance and counsellors and academic performance of students.

1.6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings of this study will be significant to educational planners, State secondary School Services, guidance counsellors, future researchers and the general public. The findings of this study will reveal to educational planners the relationship between job satisfaction and job commitment of secondary school counsellors. It will also expose those factors that bring about job satisfaction which equally affect counsellor’s job commitment. This knowledge will help the planners to eliminate sources of job dissatisfaction among counsellors with a view of improving their satisfaction. The result of this study will furnish the secondary School Services with a range of information concerning those problems which affect counsellor’s happiness and productivity. Such knowledge will instigate the commission to re-examine counsellor’s programmes with a view of improving their satisfaction and commitment to duty. Guidance counsellors will find the result of this work beneficial since it will present them with the knowledge of the relationship between job satisfaction and job commitment. This will serve as a base for improving counsellors overall performance.

1.7. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is restricted to an appraisal of job satisfaction among professional guidance and counsellors in secondary schools in Lokoja Local Government Area.

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction is defined as a composite of the attitudes, evaluations, or emotional responses an individual has about the many facets of a particular job.

Professional: Person formally certified by a professional body of belonging to a specific profession by virtue of having completed a required course of studies and/or practice. And whose competence can usually be measured against an established set of standards.

Guidance and Counsellors: The process of helping individuals discover and develop their educational, vocational, and psychological potentialities and thereby to achieve an optimal level of personal happiness and social usefulness.

Secondary school: A school intermediate between elementary school and college and usually offering general, technical, vocational, or college-preparatory courses.