BASIC GUIDANCE SERVICES

Introduction
Guidance can be best defined as the services available to an individual to help him facilitate his success
in school or work; to help him better understand his strengths and limitations; to identify his interests;
to aid him in planning for and attaining realistic goals. Guidance is defined as the act of guiding, giving
leadership, supervision, direction or professional guidance for future actions. Guidance helps a person
discover and develop his psychological, vocational and educational potential in order to be happier and
more useful in society.
Guidance services are services given to individuals to assist them in securing knowledge and skills
needed in making plans and devices, and in interpreting life. It is an organized set of specialized
services established as integral part of school environment designed to promote the development of
the students and assist them toward a realization of sound and wholesome adjustment and maximum
accomplishments commensurate with their potentials. It includes tools and facilities in discharging its
services to individuals. It also includes systematic and organized procedure and facilities toward
assisting individual.
A. SCOPE OF GUIDANCE
1. Services rendered to an individual
2. Services to staff members
3. Services pertaining to evaluation of service.
B. CHARCTERISTICS OF GUIDANCE SERVICES
1. It is an integral part of school system
2. It is organized; it has structure, system and personnel
3. It is more of a preventive than curative.
4. It promotes educational objectives
5. It adheres to the principle that the individual/students is the center of all efforts
6. It promotes student development.
C. FUNCTIONS OF THE GUIDANCE SERVICES
1. To improve self-understanding.
2. To increase student understanding of self in relation to others.
3. To emphasize relationships between academic pursuits and personal development.
4. To promote better understanding of the teacher to achieve such as an important role in relating to
life, the students should have understanding.
5. To contribute to feeling of security.
6. To supplement teachers effort in assisting children with problems. Steps which teachers can take:
a. Maintain an attitude of sympathy.

b. Make an effort to understand these children and convey a feeling of genuine understanding.
c. Provide counseling in appropriate cases.
d. Make referrals to the counselor.
e. Maintain contact with home, as appropriate.
f. Provide for the needs of an individual student within instructional setting.
g. Provide personal attention incident to classroom and other activities.
7. To provide for the accomplishment and attainment of long range goals.
8. To accumulate and interpret important information.
1. INFORMATION SERVICES
The function of the Information Service is to make available to pupils or students certain kind of
information not ordinarily provide through the instructional program or during the regular period of
instruction. The service is classified into 3. These are:
1. Occupational Information
2. Educational Information
3. Social Information
It includes the orientation among freshmen and incoming students, workshops, seminars, and
community extension services to disseminate.
It provides students and parents on schools policies, guidelines, administration, faculty and personnel,
scholarships, careers, etc.
Objectives of the Information Service
1. To develop a broad and realistic view of lifes opportunities and problems at all levels of training.
2. To create an awareness of the need and an active desire for accurate and valid occupational,
educational and personal social information.
3. To provide wide understanding of the wide scope of educational, occupational and social activities in
terms of broad categories of related activities.
4. To assist in the mastery of the techniques of obtaining and interpreting information for progressive
self- defectiveness.
5. To promote attitudes and habits that will assist in the making of choices and adjustments productive
of personal satisfaction.
6. To provide assistance in narrowing choices progressively to specific activities which are appropriate
to aptitudes, abilities, and interests and to the proximity of definite decisions.
Tools used in the attainment of its objectives
a. Meetings/Orientation program
b. Use of bulletin board/brochures.
c. Research Data
d. School Campaign
2. TESTING SERVICE

Administers and interprets test surveys to aid in understanding students for them to gain information
about their individual strengths and weaknesses, their abilities and aptitudes, as well as their
personality.
In many educational institution as well as employment offices, tests are probably the most widely used
specialized techniques in guidance. Test will be useful as a guidance tool if combined with appropriate
planning for individual development. Test provides information in meaningful terms through
quantitative description.

This service covers the administration, scoring, interpreting and evaluating results of selected test such
as:

Admission Tests
Intelligence Tests
Individual Intelligence Tests
Group Intelligence Tests
Aptitude Tests
Interest Tests
Personality Tests
Projective Tests
Special Tests

3. COUNSELING SERVICE
It implies planned provision for serving unique need of pupils through the person to person
relationship of counselor and counselee.
This is considered as the heart and soul of the guidance program. This service aims to assist students
in gaining deeper self-understanding and awareness of ones problems and the effective use of the
decision process by formulating alternatives and projecting consequences of each that allow students
to review critically what has taken place and makes provision for future meetings if they are needed.
Different approaches, skills and theories are implemented by counselors because people and situations
are different. Sometimes one or the other is best, and sometimes the combination of techniques
produces the most benefit. These counseling services are the following:

Individual Counseling
Group Counseling
Family Counseling
Counseling Special Cases

Functions of Counseling Service

1. Study the real life environment.

2. Define the problem situation.
3. Establish the parameter of the program.
4. Design a counseling model.
5. Pilot test model.
6. Introduce the system.
7. Operate the system.
8. Evaluate the system.
9. Eliminate the system.
Basic Facts of Counseling
1. The process involves a two-way relationship and responsibility.
2. Counseling service should be extended to all students in the schools and the former pupils who have
graduated or who have left schools.
3. Some staff members should be trained to work with different groups of students on various phases
of the guidance program including the counseling service.
4. The need of the counselee gives rise to the development of the counseling situation which aimed at
the satisfaction of those needs.
5. The counseling passes through 3 stages:
a. Exploratory stage
b. Interpretative stage
c. Adjustment stage
4. FOLLOW-UP SERVICE
An integral part of guidance services is the follow-up. It is concerned with what happens to students
while in school or after they have left schools.
It involves monitoring and assistance to improve students behavior and academic performance.
Students who availed counseling services are followed up individually in order to check their progress
and to identify areas that still need improvement.
Follow-ups extend to school leavers. i.e. graduates and transferees
Purpose of Follow-up Service
1. To ascertain the progress and status of students within the various classrooms, courses and
curricular areas.
2. To gain data which may identify weakness in the various phases of the school progress.
3. To learn how former graduates are processing.
4. To evaluate the effectiveness of the schools placement activity.
5. To learn why pupils leave before graduation.
6. To discover grade levels at which most dropouts occur.

7. To obtain opinions concerning needed modification of the curriculum in the light of the experiences
of former pupils.
Tools Used in the Follow-up Service
1. Conducting surveys.
2. Use of telephone.
3. The use of follow up letters.
5. RESEARCH SERVICE
A service which consists of conduct of researches on students admission test scores, psychological test
results, values, and attitudes.
Research capabilities of the guidance center are conducted in conjunction with relevant educational
studies like students delinquency problems, teenage pregnancy, faculty-student relationship and
others.
Researches help bridge the gap that currently exists between theories and practice in counseling.
Result of the findings in research will serve as guideposts for guidance and educational planning.

6. EVALUATION SERVICE
This is the assessment of basic guidance services at the end of the school year.
Evaluation is a critical component of a developmental guidance and counseling program and ensures
accountability. The purpose of evaluation is to determine the value of the program, its activities, and
staff in order to make decisions or to take actions regarding the future. The evaluation will measure
the delivery of services (the process evaluation) and outcomes (product evaluation). This ongoing
process provides information to ensure continuous improvement of the guidance program and gives
direction to necessary changes.
Evaluation is a process that includes eight steps:
1. Stating the evaluation questions,
2. Determining the audiences/uses for the evaluation,
3. Gathering data to answer the questions,
4. Applying the predetermined standards,
5. Drawing conclusions,
6. Considering the context,
7. Making recommendations, and
8. Acting on the recommendations.

Counselors and the counseling program play a vital role in assisting teachers and other staff in the
integration of school guidance objectives with other instructional goals and objectives. In turn, the
evaluation should be a collaborative effort among all those involved in the program. Evaluation
activities enable counselors and others to:

determine the impact of the guidance program on students, faculty, parents, and school
climate;

know if they are accomplishing their goals;

identify what remains to be accomplished;

identify effective components of the program;

eliminate or improve less effective components of the program;

adapt and refine the guidance program and implementation process;

identify unintended consequences of the program (both positive and negative);

identify other areas that need to be addressed;

establish goals for the counselors professional development;

determine staffing needs and workload adjustments;

determine additional resources required to adequately carry forward the program; and

provide accountability information to educators and the community.

7. PLACEMENT SERVICE
Placement is a service within the guidance program which is designed to assist students in the
selection of suitable courses or curricula, extra-class activities and part-time or full-time employment
or appropriate career choices and skills.
The placement service as a part of the total guidance program is concerned with helping the students
choose wisely and then begin working toward the goal. It assists students for applying for college
admissions and scholarships.
Types of Placement Service
1. Educational placement helps students in the choice of subjects
2. Occupational placement helps students in finding their appropriate place in the occupational field