DETERMINENTS OF QUALITY GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING SERVICES, SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT, DISCIPLINE OBSERVANCE AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN ADAMA AND ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

It is evident that student social maladjustment, misbehavior and disciplinary breaches interfere with academic achievement. The main objective of this study was, therefore, to explore the current status of guidance and counseling services, correlation among guidance and counseling service, students’ social adjustment, discipline observance and academic achievement. The study is also aimed to examine the predictive validity of guidance and counseling service, social adjustment, discipline observance in students’ academic achievement in ASTU and AASTU. To achieve its objective, the study employed the System Theory, which is also used to integrate Person Centered Theory, Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and Social Exchange Theory. By setting relevant criteria, the study attempted to identify the most appropriate model of guidance and counseling services for the study population. The main sources of information were six guidance personnel and 324 graduating students of the two universities. Students were selected randomly after stratification according to their school. The guidance personnel were purposefully included in the study. To gather information from the respondents, questionnaires with open ended questions and Likert scale type were developed based on the theories and circumstances affecting the provision of guidance and counseling in Ethiopia. Interviews were also used to substantiate the data obtained through the questionnaires. In the analysis of data, qualitative description of information from the open-ended questions and interviews and quantitative interpretation of data obtained from closed-ended questions and converted to statistics such as frequency, percentage, correlation and multiple regressions were employed. The study reveals that there is lack of awareness among the student population on the availability of guidance and counseling service in their campus and its benefits; there is lack of confidence in guidance and counseling services to positively influence academic performance, to deal with troubles and challenges in disciplinary problems, and to improve interpersonal relations and to solve all sorts of psychological problems. There are strong associations among existence and proper functioning of guidance program, social adjustment, discipline observance and academic achievement. It was also found that existence of guidance program; social adjustment and discipline observance predict students’ academic achievement. Finally, some criteria in the selection of a model relevant to the Ethiopian context were set. A model was developed and reviewed for two rounds by experts before it is taken for granted. Suggestions for further investigation were also made