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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The teaching and research functions of higher educational institutions play a very important role in national development, especially in the development of high-level manpower. However, in most cases, the societal expectations in terms of goals are hardly met and part of the explanation is linked to the absence of adequate and conducive environment for effective learning. To achieve this objective, adequate provision of certain services to students should be fostered for effective teaching and learning process. Among these are the student-personnel services. Student personnel services  in this context, refers to all the non-academic services  rendered to the students at the schools setting outside the formal classroom instruction, for the purpose of healthy, physical, emotional, social and moral development as part of their preparation for a responsible and productive adult life. These services are complementary to the academic programme in making a holistic and balanced education of the students. While the task of intellectual and skill development can be accomplished through curriculum planning and implementation, the task of developing responsible attitudes and morals can only be achieved through the provision and administration of student personnel services.

Although student personnel services has received very little attention in professional literature and social administration, Duffy in Ejionume (2010), Swartz, Russel Hunt and Reilly in Ogbuji (2009), observe that it is an administrative task areas that is critical to the effective operation of any school system. This assertion is also affirmed by Ndu, Ocho and Okeke (1997) when they stress that in addition to curriculum implementation, school administrators have a duty to provide adequate student personnel services in their respective schools as both services are complementary to each other. Consequently, a major concern of any educational institution, colleges of education inclusive, should be the commitment to implement specified student personnel services. These services enhance the achievement of institutional objectives. The absence of these creates situations that constitute obstacles to the achievement of goals and objectives of educational institutions, the level not-withstanding. Some goals of education as spelt out by Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) in the National Policy on Education demand services that are beyond classroom instruction for their actualization. An example of such goal is the inculcation of national values (P.8). The values include respect for the worth and dignity of the individual, faith in man’s ability to make national decisions, moral and spiritual principle in interpersonal and human relations and promotion of the physical, emotional and psychological development of all children.

It is in realization of the symbiotic role of the curricular and co-curricular services in the realization of educational objectives in tertiary institutions, that the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2002) in the National Minimum Standard prescribes mandatory student personnel services that school administration should make available to students that which goes along with the curricular offerings. Service that come under student personnel services are many and varied. They include admission exercises, orientation, accommodation, medical services, library services, student academic records, guidance and counselling, financial aid, municipal services, security services, co-curricular activities. Also,  included are adequate classroom blocks, information materials, sports facilities, maintenance of roads and teaching facilities.

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