Factors Influencing Male participattion in Early Childhood Education

Personal factors

Research has shown that there are various individual factors that may influence career choice. However there has been no specific research targeting a career choice in early childhood education. To begin with, individual perceptions of the ideal job one  intends to engage in sometimes in the future has been found to influence on the  decision on which course to pursue. Every individual has an idea of what a perfect job is and that determines the career they are to pursue. Student’s perception towards their environment, personality, and opportunity highly determine the career choices they make.

Rosenstock & Steinberg, cited in O’Brien, (1996) explain that individual’s job maturity affects one’s choice for a career. Job maturity is determined by how well a student possesses information about the job he intends to pursue in future. Depending on the maturity, every student carries the unique history of his/her past that determines how they view the world and how willing they are to seek information regarding that particular job.

It is therefore important to note that this maturity is in part as a result of the student’s environment, personality and opportunity.

Career decision has its basis on early years of an individual’s life. In support of this, Super, Savicks, & Super (1996), purport that an individual’s initial career decision-making is a cultural and developmental task that adolescents are expected to have accomplished by the end of their high school years. Trice and McClellan (1994) in their research found out that approximately 23% of adults aged 40-55 had made their career decisions during their childhood. Helwig (2001) concurs with the above by asserting that elementary aged children hold career goals that they intend to pursue. He advances that some of these goals are typically unattainable for the large part of the population.

Such career related beliefs imply that they may be inadvertently and needlessly restricting an individual’s future career options. One of the reasons behind this is the fact that they have inadequate information regarding careers they intend to pursue, and therefore a need for guidance. This is where ones family comes in to help children in making such decisions and ensuring that they don’t restrict themselves career wise. This helps them to avoid inappropriate career choices. (Gottfredson, 1981)

Splayer (1977) contends that individual’s self-understanding plays a vital role in determining career choice. According to him, it is always very important for students to have a good understanding of themselves and their personality if they are to make intelligent career plans. These include having knowledge on what they are and what they would like to become in the future. The personality factors to be considered include mental abilities, special abilities, and interests. According to Splaver, mental abilities such as verbal comprehension, word fluency, spatial ability, numerical ability, reasoning ability and memory determines what career one intends to pursue.

Worth noting is the fact that mental ability plays a great role in academic performance that restricts one to certain courses. Splaver advances that students need to be conscious about their personality as well as intellectual abilities while planning on the courses to pursue.  Harris and Jones (1997), agree to this explaining that in developing a career plan, individuals need to carry out an evaluation of own personality including abilities through self-assessment and communication with others.

Self-knowledge has been pivotal in career development (Anderson, 1995). There have been many examples to describe the process of self-knowledge. One example would be a student’s critical look at life’s experiences to enhance their self-knowledge. Another example would be students using problem-based learning to gain insight into self-knowledge (Lankard and Brown, 1996). According to the National Commission Site, (1989), every individual shares some factors also known as constructs. These constructs are personality traits that become valuable when choosing a career. The formation of these constructs are influenced by factors most notably the environment, such as our formal education. How well an individual forms constructs on careers determines his/her ability to set up a career path which begins with enrolling for a course.

Future expectations in terms of the benefits associated with a particular career determine what students’ choices. The salary expected from a career may either discourage students from pursuing it or encourage them. Ghorbani’s (2008) survey found that participants held impractical expectations towards their projected salaries during their first year of teaching. The survey for instance singled out men as placing a strong emphasis on the importance of money in determining their job satisfaction. Consequently, Ghorbani argues that administrator’s salaries tend to tempt men from the classroom to managerial positions, or possibly leaving education altogether. Ghorbani further proposes that the presence of financially struggling teachers will scare away individuals from a teaching career mostly men.

This implies that some of these challenges faced by men in ECDE tend to discourage–them from pursuing the course. However with ECE professionals hardly getting salary commensurate to their qualification, there remains to be established whether salary expectations remains a factor influencing men to enrol for a career in ECE.

Craig d'Arcy (2008) in his study presents a different scenario. He contends that there are special factors that attract individuals to enrol for specific courses. In the study, Craig d'Arcy found that a lot of men who choose early childhood education as a career had prior experiences in the field which they intended to bring on board. For instance one of the male participants explained that he was motivated into the field after having children of his own as well as having an intention of portraying that men too have much to offer in rearing children. He therefore concludes that prior experience with children, being parent as well as wanting to help children learn and develop appropriately, influenced males to enter and be sustained in early childhood as a career (DeCorse and Vogtle, 1997). This brings in the role of cultural socialization in child rearing. The African culture has socialized women to be child nurturers, while men on the other hand become bread winners. This leaves men at risk of being outpaced from the field of early childhood education early in life. However, the situation in Kenya seems to be different where discrimination, low pay and the low status are accorded to those working in ECE. It however remains to be established whether these practitioners would envy the experience they garner from the field.

Another personal factor likely to influence an individual’s career choice is one’s family. Leong (1993) found that Asian Americans do not always choose a career based on their own interests or intentions but on the family’s decision and expectation. He observed that the younger generations feel obliged to carry on the family tradition and accomplish the wishes of the older generation. This forces students into careers that advance their family’s interests as opposed to their own.

In a study on role models’ influence on the career decisiveness of college students, Perrone, (2001) concludes that role model supportiveness as well as quality of relationship highly contributes to a career a student decides to pursue. This shows how important one’s friends have on their choice on career.

Whether these personal factors are directly linked to student’s choice to pursue a course in ECE remains to be established, while what would motivate a family to guide one of their own towards a course where men are facing such challenges is still not clear.

Economic factors

Research has established that the economic status of an individual or his/her family has great influence on a student’s choice to enrol for a course. Economic status refers to economic situation of individuals and the society in general. According to Fergusson & Woodward, (2000) a very strong relationship exists between economic status and occupational choice. Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, &Pastorelli (2001), advance that every individual in the process of making a career decision is influenced by the social context we live in as well as the economic status of the entire society. They further explain that social and economic circumstances of a broader community highly affect youth's perceptions towards a certain career. Worth noting is the fact that the impact of poverty is felt from the early age. According to Purcell-Gates, McIntyre, & Freppon, (1995) children from low-Social Economic Status families often begin kindergarten with significantly less linguistic knowledge. This also tends to impact negatively on a student’s general performance, which if no intervention is made in good time, may deny a student an opportunity to pursue certain careers.

Poverty has a direct influence on the choice of a career. For instance, students from poor backgrounds have had to opt for cheaper courses just because they cannot afford certain courses. Such students are blocked from pursuing certain courses, not because of their intellectual inability but because they can’t pay for the course.

An individual’s residence is another factor that influences career choice, Oyamo and Amoth (2008). They advance that students from rural homes tend to seek help from their parents more than their counterparts from the urban areas. This is exacerbated by the fact that parents more than teachers, play a major role when it comes to students making decisions about careers.

The economic status of the wider society also determines the availability of opportunities in the society from which students make career decisions. It is worth noting that students will most likely direct their thinking along a career perceived to place them at a better position of getting a job in the society. The argument here is that when there are employment opportunities in the ECE sector within the society, many will form favourable perception and this would attract more students to ECE. Poverty has partly contributed to the availability of opportunities within the society. Where the poverty levels are high, employment opportunities are low and vice versa. The income level of the community may determine what career a student chooses. Some students will have to plan and prepare for a career according to their family’s income level. This is because some courses are more expensive compared to others. (Pastorelli, 2001)

Need for career guidance is highly influenced by the social economic status. On this, Thout (1969) explains that social and economic status determines whether one needs career guidance or not. He advances that those in desperate economic status mostly labelled as living below the poverty line need to be assisted through special training programmes. The purpose would be to help them overcome educational and social challenges in order to attain minimum job standards. The implication is that such student’s decision will be based on the guidance through these training programmes. It is also argued that students from low socioeconomic background have parents who are semi illiterate or completely illiterate. These parents are not in a position to guide their children adequately on which course to pursue. Such children are also limited in terms of opportunities to meet the cost associated with such guidance. They also have limited knowledge on availability and need for career guidance.

According to Donald (2007), availability of career support facilities is another factor that is affected by the economic status which subsequently affects career choice. For instance, availability and ability to access career support groups is dependent on one’s economic status. Research has clearly shown that once properly utilized, these support groups turn up to be good opportunity that can help students in making good choices concerning the course to pursue.

Finally, is the government of Kenya’s admission and placement policy. Wabwoba, F and Fullgence M. Mwakondo, (2011) points out that every year, the Joint Admission Board (JAB) currently the Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Services, is tasked with determining which students should join various Kenyan public universities under the government sponsorship scheme. According to Wabwoba, F et al (2011) this is an extensive exercise given the large number of qualified students all competing to benefit from the  funding by the government as well as the limited available slots. They further state that the selection is made more complicated by the fact that it is done against a predefined cluster of subjects in relation to the student’s preference.

 Minimum requirements exist for each course, and only students with the prescribed grades in specific subjects are eligible to pursue that course. Due to this, students are often admitted to courses they consider irrelevant to their career prospects. This further affects job satisfaction as well as career establishment. This is because, these students ends up pursuing courses that aren’t in line with their interest.

However, men are still training for a career in ECE. It still remains to be established whether, the above discussed economic factors are the same factors that influence the student’s choice to enrol for training in ECE.

Male Participation in Early Childhood Education (By Ignatius Moses)

Establishing oneself in a specific career begins with one enrolling for training in an institution of higher learning. Career development is a life-long process that should be given a careful thought and adequately planned for. If well thought of, it should provide meaningful, productive and satisfying quality career choices. Career decision making is a complex process affected by various factors that come into interplay in one’s own life (Brown and Brooks, 2002).

ECE is one of the courses one may choose to pursue. However as a career, it has been highly engendered. According to Mukuna, E and Mutsotso, N. (2011), gender imbalance in the pre-school teaching profession has been a common practice globally. An Australian College of Educators’ National Survey of the Teachers’ Workforce for example, found that two thirds of all the school teachers to comprise females with men preferring managerial positions. Consistently, Australian College of Educators, (2001) found that male ECE teachers expressed greater desire to apply for managerial positions rather than classroom teaching.

In Kenya, the situation hasn’t been different. Several researchers have identified high gender disparity as far as early childhood service delivery is concerned. Waithaka (2002) in her study among schools in Thika District established that out of a total of 166 pre-school teachers, only one was male. Gakii (2004) in a study conducted at Miriga Mieru division of Meru County found that out of 475 pre-school teachers in the division only two were male. In Nairobi, Kivuva (1996) reveals that of all preschool teachers, 94.6% were female, while 5.4% were male. This information shows the extent to which early childhood education has been engendered not just in Kenya but in the entire world as well.

Several factors and stereotypes hinder men’s participation in ECE. Many feminist scholars insist that there are no natural differences between men and women, and that sex discrimination is the primary reason for differences between men and women in ECE labour market outcomes (Bryson, 1992; Phillips, 2004).

On their part, MacNaughton and Newton, (2001) argue that the effects of increasing male participation in children’s services workforce could be problematic, especially if the presence of men perpetuated traditional gender roles and stereotypes.

The argument of many is that additional men in the field would do more harm than good by denying female workers opportunities to advance in managerial and other senior positions. Others according to Cameron (2001) contend that since males are more likely to be sexual predators of young children than females, they could be restricted in their duties because of the heightened regulations on them. Carrington (2002) was highly concerned by the fact that despite playing the same role of a teacher, men are under more pressure to act differently when handling children.

Males too have had a fair share towards this disparity. On this, Ghorbani (2008) found that men had unrealistic salary expectations during their first year of teaching. As a result of this unrealistic expectation, they place a lot of importance on the amount of money to be earned when making a choice regarding a job to undertake as well as job satisfaction.

High salaries, according to Ghorbani, tempt men to administrative and managerial positions in certain schools. To a worse extent, men may even quit teaching jobs all together in search of better paying jobs. Macharia, (2011) found out that gender disparities in career choice results from cultural beliefs, upbringing factors and support an individual receives from the society that usually have gender as the main factor. The perception the society has pertaining to gender and career plays a major role in individual’s career choice. For instance, in most cultures ECE in particular is regarded as a female career. Karanja (2009) shares the same sentiments. In her study, Karanja found out that the high gender disparity in preschools among teachers is brought about by the fact that parents prefer taking their children to schools with female teachers. The argument behind this is that the society considers female teachers to be well positioned to take care of young ones since it is their natural role. This locks men out of employment in this sector. Neugebauer, (1999), Cunningham and Dorsey (2004), agree on this, and add that many people in and out of the early childhood sector believe that women are naturally predisposed to caring for young children whereas men are not. This is due to the fact that, in most cultures, the responsibility of bringing up children is bestowed on women both at home and in other environs (Koech, 2010). With such perception from the society, few men will be willing to risk pursuing a career in ECE.

Parents too have played their part as far as engendering ECE is concerned. Their unsympathetic attitudes towards males not only impact on recruitment but also on their retention. On recruitment, parents will emphasise on the institution employing female teachers as opposed to their counterparts. In addition their pressure towards school administration requiring them employ females would see many males lose their job or quit voluntarily quit. This has seen some males, even though willing to be part of workforce, denied an opportunity to work.

Even with these challenges, the need for male role models cannot be disputed as agreed by Nelson and Ruddock, (2004), who contend that lack of these models has a detrimental impact on the education of the boy child.

Despite the challenges noted above, there is an emergent trend in Kenya of men training as professionals in Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) though they are underrepresented in ECE workforce.

ROLE OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING IN PROPAGATING DISCIPLINE IN SCHOOLS

Cosmus M. Gatuyu (M.Ed.) 2015®

Discipline and indiscipline

Discipline refers to training especially of the mind and character aimed at producing self-control, orderly behaviour and skilfulness. The guidance that attends to discipline must be continuously given (Wangu and Ndungu, 2002).  At the root of good student performance is discipline. Indiscipline on the other hand is negative attitude and unwillingness to make efforts required to achieve the objectives chosen (Barasa, 1990). As a result of indiscipline, the student becomes a deviant.

Historical perspective

The pattern of response to unrests in Kenyan schools by the Ministry of Education has been mainly of crisis management. As a result, many schemes have been hastily conceived with little regard for aims and objectives of education.  According to Tattum (1989), research and educational thinking about indiscipline and related issues have progressed since mid-1970s with contributions adopting more proactive, preventive approach to disruptive behaviour.

Starting with Elton committee in 1988, the government embarked on an inquiry into discipline in schools (Republic of Kenya 1988). This was in view to public concern about violence and indiscipline in schools. Elton’s inquiry into discipline in schools was concerned with an aspect of school life which is important for practical, social, educational and moral reasons. This gives discipline an instrumental role, it is something which must be achieved before the real business of education can take place.

Considering the complexities of classroom and school communities, it is no surprise that the problem of maintaining discipline in schools continue to be the number one concern of students, teachers, parents and school administrators (Elam and Rose, 1995)

Importance of discipline in schools

A school is an institution and therefore an organized group guided by rules and regulations for proper and effective functioning. According to Sofaya and Shaida (1979), in every society there is need for regulating the relations of the members of the organized group. Each member possesses and enjoys certain freedom.

This freedom of a member is restricted by the equal freedom of other people among whom a member lives. It consist in the exercise of a members rights which implies an obligation on the part of the others to respect it. Similarly, a student’s right to engage himself or herself in any school activity implies that he/she should not be disturbed by others. Proper discipline in a school will definitely ensure this.

These rights and obligations are regulated by law and order in a society and also in a school. Such laws of schools may be in form of traditions or customs which must be respected by everyone in the school. Discipline is needed to maintain these traditions and to secure obedience to them. Securing such orderly conditions will facilitate the process of teaching and learning. According to Nacino, Oke and Brown (1982), discipline in various sorts is an inherent part of succeeding in anything. In history, great men and women were all disciplined struggling against apparently insuperable odds until they overcame them.

In a school set up;-

1.      Discipline gives a student sense of security by telling them what they may do or may not do. Discipline is an ego-bolstering motivation which encourages accomplishing what is required of them at school.

2.      Discipline helps students to develop a conscience that guides them in making their own decisions and controlling their own behavior.

3.      Discipline helps students to avoid frequent feeling of guilt and shame for misbehavior

4.      Discipline helps students to achieve standards approval. This builds self-esteem.

5.      Discipline helps students to develop their God given potentials and therefore achieve maximum development in various areas; physical, psychological, spiritual, social, moral and intellectual development.

6.      Discipline helps a school achieve its objectives.

According to Kisirikoi,; Wachira and Malusu (2008), school discipline is important because it helps both teachers and learners to be more organized in their work hence carry it out more smoothly and effectively, helps students respond positively to various challenges like lack of adequate resources, protects individuals from negative influence and besides helps all concerned to gain self-fulfilment and satisfaction through school activities especially when their goals are achieved.

Foundations of Good Discipline in Schools

A school is a system and as such consists of various players playing various roles for achievement of common goals. The conduct of the school head and the teachers, the state of school buildings, furniture, equipment and playground ought to instil in the students a positive regard for the school and its laws. According to Sofaya and Shaida (1979), the following factors are foundations of good discipline in a school:

a)    The head teacher

The success or failure of any school system depends upon the personality of the head teacher. The head teacher ought to possess some philosophy of discipline. As successful disciplinarian, the head teacher should involve learners by giving them an adequate share in the management of school affairs.

b)    Teachers and teaching methods

The teacher is the fountain – head of all good discipline and character formation. With good teachers, half of the school’s challenge of indiscipline gets solved and checked.               When appropriate teaching methods are employed, chances of learners getting distracted and engaging in indiscipline activities or tendencies will be minimized. A good teaching method should be directed towards producing well-adjusted and self-disciplined individuals as well as building up high morale. The utilization of modern progressive methods of teaching, in which pupil activities are brought into play and harnessed for educative purposes, largely eliminates the possibility of any type of indiscipline.

c)     A good school environment

Every school ought to prepare its calendar of events at the beginning of a new school session. This should serve to give a clear idea of the aims, the courses of study and administrative rules and regulations as well as the plans for co-curricular activities of the institution. Together with this, the school premises together with the external environment should be well maintained as this contributes greatly to shape the education that students receive as well as maintenance of genuine discipline and adjustment.

d)    Co-curricular activities

Co-curricular activities such as sports, scouting, social services and community services develop in students a sense of self control and confidence. These are key to good discipline.

e)     Self-Government in school

In every secondary school students should be reasonably involved in the administration of discipline as well as in health, sports, drama and other school activities. Such environment make obedience to rules and regulations far more real, meaningful and freely willed, than when same was passed on as imposition from authorities. This involvement in authority and responsibility coupled with sympathetic and friendly teachers will provide first hand training on upholding of good desirable discipline.

f)      Effective Teamwork

Students are always influenced by how they see their teachers and react accordingly. A sense of unity, co-operation and fellow feeling prevailing among the school staff is sure to reflect upon the students. The students watch and imitate the teachers’ behaviour. Thus to promote desirable discipline among students it must first be established and maintained among members of the school staff. The head teacher ought to endeavour to co-ordinate the efforts of different individuals and groups in the best interest of the school. This is a sure way of securing effective teamwork in the school.

g)    Building up Traditions

School discipline is closely connected with school traditions. The higher and nobler the traditions built up by a school, the greater the efforts on the part of the students and teachers to work to maintain such traditions.

Root Causes of Indiscipline and Student Unrest in Schools

A student is influenced by two major environments; the environment out there (out of school) and one within (in the school). In this line therefore, today indiscipline in schools is seen to emerge from both internal and external causes.

i)       Internal causes of indiscipline

These causes are to be found within the school. They touch mainly on the administration, the teachers as well as the students themselves either as individuals or as a group.

ii)    Administration related causes

The welfare of the students, the general look of a school, proper co-ordination of activities and various players in a school largely depend on the administration. With strict rules most of which are imposed on students, comes discomforts and eventually unrest. If some rules imposed by the administration are vague, oppressive and at times applied selectively, students may tend to nurse revenge and this will eventually lead to disturbances in the school.

Lack of proper communication is another sticky issue, for example the head teacher decides to withdraw a certain facility or privilege without consulting the students. Poor financial management leading to misappropriation of school funds by the administration eventually leads to students unrests due to lack of basic facilities and services.

The other factor is that, if there is poor relationship between the administration and the teachers, such teachers may incite the students against the administration.

iii)  Teacher related causes

According to Clark and Starr (1981), and Nacino, Oke and Brown (1982), student misbehaviour in the school may be caused by teachers themselves. This comes up due to the following;

i)        When teachers fail to properly plan their lessons with clear objectives. This fails to motivate learners who eventually get bored and loose interest in learning.

ii)      Misbehavior may come up when learning becomes monotonous and boring due to lack of creativity on part of the teacher.

iii)    Unethical conduct of teachers for example teachers using derogative language on students lowering their self-esteem. 

iv)    Teachers ought to treat students with firmness but respectfully. Rude arrogant, unsympathetic and sarcastic teachers are most likely to trigger misbehavior among students.

iv)  Student related causes

Within the school set up there is peer influence. These are adolescents in secondary schools and adolescents are known to be greatly influenced by the behaviour of other students. Imitation of bad behaviour may lead to indiscipline.

When too much power is vested on the prefect body, other students are likely to rebel and cause havoc in the school. Inwardly the nature, character self-esteem and attitude of individual students may serve as a catalyst to misbehaviour. According to Safaya and Shaida (1979), physical and mental deformities, intellectual inferiority and superiority, stormy age of adolescence and bad habits are among several factors that contribute to student misbehaviour in schools.

External Causes of Indiscipline

The environment out of school, where students come from and occasionally experience during holidays also impact on their discipline. This is consequently exhibited at school and if negative then bad behaviour will be seen being exhibited by students. Here comes in various social factors that may cause indiscipline and include the following:

i)        Bad home environment touching on the child’s parents, relatives and neighborhood companions. Poor parental guidance comes here.

ii)      Political factors; with political activities in the country exhibiting lack of spirit of nationalism, lack of balanced self-assertion and intolerance, students seem to imitate the same and cause indiscipline in schools.

iii)    According to Nacino, Oke and Brown (1982), indiscipline in schools can be related with the education system leading to misbehavior due to curriculum. This comes up when subject content are outdated, irrelevant or of little interest to students

Other external factors causing indiscipline among students include:

i)        Out of school peer groups

ii)      Child labour inducing environment.

iii)    Insecurity within and outside the school.

iv)    Rejection of head teacher by the community.

v)      Unauthorized visitors in schools.

Effects of Indiscipline and School Unrests on Education

As put by Reid (1986), ensuring that learners accept authority of teachers and maintaining order and discipline in schools is of vital importance to teaching profession. Without such order there would be chaos. Teaching would become twice as stressful occupation for school heads, deputies and classroom teachers.

Rogers (1996), asserts that managing discipline in schools is critical to reducing teachers stress. Disruptive behaviour, poor working conditions, and time pressure contribute to teachers diminishing self-esteem, lack of confidence and feelings of insecurity and this impact negatively on their ability to teach.

In schools where violence is common the teachers are also not secure since students sometimes turn their anger towards them. This insecurity means that teachers are not motivated to do their work. Failure to instil discipline among students make schools feed the society with corrupted and indiscipline graduates (Ngozi Oduah, 2002). Much of learning time is wasted when cases of unrests occur. This makes quite hard for the teachers to cover the academic work expected to be done by the students. This in general has led to poor performance in schools.

Suggested Solutions to School Unrests and Violence

Discipline and management are central to effective schools. All teachers are responsible as professionals for managing discipline in schools. Self-esteem and self-confidence are central to management of indiscipline. Blandford (1998) says that the outward manifestations of the ability of individuals to either discipline themselves or have discipline thrust upon them, is displayed in their attitude and behaviour towards others and their environment. The boundaries of acceptable behaviour should low schools to be harmonious and humane communities in order to create an environment conducive for serious learning. Where such issues are accepted, learners will have self-control to manage their behaviour and attitudes with strong presence of authority figures.

According to Okumbe (1998), there is preventive and corrective discipline.

1.      Preventive discipline entails the educational manager taking an administrative action to encourage employees and students to follow the standards, rules and regulations which prevents infractions. The principle is to instill self-discipline among organizational participants. In order to encourage preventive discipline educational managers should provide an enabling organizational climate in which expected standards are stated positively.

2.      Corrective discipline is the administrative action which follows an infraction of a rule. Corrective discipline is aimed at discouraging further infringement of a rule.

Normally the administrative action meted out is a disciplinary action.

Educational managers should strive to minimize corrective discipline by strengthening preventive discipline. According to Kisirikoi, Wachira and Malusu (2008), among the many issues that may require counselling in schools is the issue of behavioural problems. They note that in their effort to make adjustments some learners have behavioural problems manifested in truancy, delinquency or general indiscipline. Sometimes this is a problem with individual students while at other times it is peer behaviour. Counselling involves identification of the cause of the problem and trying to rectify it. Counselling should help pupils understand of especially preventive discipline.