An Assessment of the Challenges Facing Implementation of Guidance and Counselling Programme in Public Secondary Schools: A Case of Lugari Subcounty, Kakamega County, Kenya

Students studying in public secondary schools in Kakamega County, Lugari Sub-County have a range of challenges,which include, deteriorating academic performance, drug and substance abuse, low self-esteem, socially unacceptable behaviour such as destruction of school property, among others. These problems exist despite the fact that guidance and counsellingprogrammes were established in Kenyan public Secondary Schools in 1970s.This study carried out an assessment on the challenges facing implementation of guidance and counsellingprogramme in public Secondary Schools in Lugari Sub-County. The study employed descriptive survey research design. The target population was 21 principals, 42 Guidance and Counselling teachers, as well as,336 teachers in public Secondary Schools in Lugari Sub-County, making a total of 399 subjects. The sample size was composed of 30% of the total target population which was120 subjects. The 120 subjects were comprised of 6 principals, 12 guidance and counselling teachers and 102 public secondary school teachers from the study area. A pilot test was carried out on the instruments in two Secondary Schools using test/retest method, with a two weeks interval between the tests to enable assessment of both validity and reliability of the data collection instruments. Simple random sampling was used to select 30% of the principals. However, purposeful sampling was used to select the 30% of the guidance and counsellingteachers. Simple random sampling, purposeful, as well as, stratified random sampling were used to select teachers from the schools where the principals weredrawn. Stratified sampling was necessary because teachers were selected with respect to their populations in the six respective schools. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results were presented, using frequency distributions, percentages and narratives for qualitative results. The study observed that G&C teachers were overwhelmed with responsibilities as most of them held dual responsibilities, such as, being class teachers and gamesteachers, besides handling their respective lessons in their teaching subjects. This limited their contribution to G&C. The study also established that G&C teachers had personal issues, such as, bereavement, family status and past experiences in life that negatively affected them when handling their counsellingroles. School principals should ensure optimum time is providedfor G&C teachers so that the teachers can devote more time for the G&C activities. G&C teachers should share information on issues affecting them because in such interactions they can encourage each other in the process of G&C.


Introduction
Guidance and counselling helps students handle their psychological challenges that can badly impact their studies.Through G&C, students learn how to peacefully coexist in unity with others in the school community. The gap between students and the school administration is bridged and talks related to alcohol, drugs, personal feelings or any kind of abuse openly discussed. This is because high school G&C has a considerable role to play in the entire development and growth of students in high schools, such as, discipline among the students, having a positive attitude towards life and managing stress, among learners. The students in high school level are at adolescent stage which is signaled by changes in both their psychological and physical being, such as, need for independence from grown-ups, ease in accepting peer pressure, attachment of value to romance and sexual relationships, with some becoming defiant. Mutie and Ndambuki (1999) stipulate that these changes present challenges in their education, social and personal self. Hence, school counsellors are essential members within the education team.
Training of school counsellors within the US system is directed by an accredited council of councilors and a Programme of education related to it that has standards. (ASCA,2012). In Kenya, the curriculum is grounded on counsellors who focus on the community or models of private practice that have little regard for existential learning or distinctive needs of a school setup. Programmes targeting school counsellors is constituted by analyzing curricula of other countries, then modifying them to suit the requirements of schools in Kenya. Theory and existential training should be included in the school counsellor"s curriculum. While training G&C teachers need suitable internship and apprenticeship which will need organized supervision from the supervisor in the field and the instructor within the university. According to Romano & Wahl (2005), this can only be attained when the university collaborates with the schools. In addition, issues of ethics can be considered through reevaluating present tutoring of school counsellors. There is need therefore, for crafting of ethical standards distinct to counselling in schools. Teaching of these standards should be done to trainee counsellors to impart them with the concepts of deciphering ethical challenges that they will be confronted with while in school. Gysbers & Henderson (2012) state that an extensive guidance and counselling programme will need to be operationalized in Kenya that addresses school counsellors for their functions and roles to be defined successfully.
On top of that it is essential for the G&C teachers to gain broad knowledge by attending workshops and lectures, internship and apprenticeship while in practice in order to update their practical responsibilities and duties.
Even though guidance and counselling in Africa is still a new concept within systems of education, it has been welcomed by majority of the nations (UNESCO, 2001). Significant successes have been reported in establishing administrative structures so as to provide services focusing on guidance and counselling within institutions of learning to enhance the development of students on a vocational, educational and personal level.
The education system in Africa did not emphasize on guidance and counselling until when respective countries got independence since, it was presumed that guidance and counselling was something to be offered by parents at home, within the community or even within religious settings by the religious leaders and other religious persons (Mutie & Ndambuki, 1999).
In Tanzania, learning institutions officially implemented guidance and counselling in 1970 with the aim of assisting learners cope with social, vocational, educational, psychological and emotional challenges that were part of their everyday lives (Wango & Mungai, 2007). In order to make it effective, strong and enhance it, services offered by guidance and counselling programmes were expanded through resources provision as recommended by a report produced by a committee whose mandate was to look at the objectives of education policies in the country. Eyo et al. (2010) opined that programmes in secondary schools relating to guidance and counselling must be structured towards focusing on academic challenges of students in adolescent stage, future vocations, social matters, emotional development and physical growth.
In Kenya, the Ministry of Education (MoE) introduced G&C as a unit in the division of inspectorate in 1970s. According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the responsibility of the unit was to provide G&C services to colleges that were training teachers and in-service training to secondary and primary school teachers. In order to deliver high standards of education and training, MoEST (2005) set out to develop a policy addressing G&C within the sector of education, provide G&C services and monitor, as well as, evaluate the G&C programme. The objective of this was to institutionalize and reinforce guidance and counselling within institutions of learning. This ingenuity was nonetheless not supported as it should; consequently, it was not fulfilled, as well, and as efficiently as intended.
A renewed call to develop G&C within schools in Kenya was further made with a lot of vigour in the 1980"s and 1990"s in a follow up to the nation experiencing the worst school arson incidents to ever occur. Despite the knowledge that guidance and counselling contributes to the control of indiscipline in schools; and the expected commitment of the Ministry of Education to establish a secondary school G&C, many schools in the country continue to experience disciplinary problems. Lugari Boys High School, one of the schools in Lugari Sub County illustrates this trend in Table 1. The information shown in Table 1 casts doubt on the effectiveness of implementation of guidance and counselling programmes in public secondary schools in Kenya and in Lugari Sub-County, in particular, hence, a call for a study to establish the challenges facing effective implementation of G&C in secondary schools, with specific focus on Lugari Sub County. The questions that need answers are: Do these schools have functional guidance and counselling departments? If they do, why are there many disciplinary problems?

Statement of the Problem
The Government of Kenya has been coming up with ways of strengthening G&C programme in its secondary school after realizing its importance.Despite the government effort, public secondary schools in Lugari Sub-county continue to

Objectives of the Study
The study aimed at achieving the following objectives. a) To establish whether teacher counsellors" workload influences the implementation of guidance and counselling programme in public secondary schools in Lugari Sub-County, Kakamega County. b) To investigate whether teacher counsellors" personality influences the implementation of guidance and counselling programme in public secondary schools in Lugari Sub-County, Kakamega County.

Significance of the Study
The findings of the study may contribute to the advancement of knowledge about guidance and counselling in Kenya. It is therefore, anticipated that the outcomes of the study may benefit the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development in reviewing the G&C curriculum. School administrators, comprising of the principal and deputies will understand why the programme is not working effectively and hence, support the G&C teachers in achieving G&C roles. The Ministry of Education will learn about teacher"s workload and counsellors" personality and hence, address it in G&C courses provided for teachers. This study will assist policy makers under the Ministry of Education, on effective implementation of G&C among secondary schools in Kenya.

Review of Related Literature
Guidance and counselling involves giving directions to a learner to carry out a required task that is meant to mould his or her character. It also includes assisting a student or any other person to resolve his or her academic, psychological and social challenges facing him or her. In order to address the challenges facing the G&C programme two main possible causes were addressed. These were G&C teachers" workload and G&C teachers" personality.
The Ominde report (Ominde, 1964) at the onset of Kenya"s independence, suggested that students be provided with guidance. This was accomplished through publishing a career manual and appointment of career masters. These career masters were ordinary educators who were selected to offer services of career guidance to learners, in addition to their class responsibilities. The five-year development plan of the government of Kenya which was published in 1976 suggested that the education ministry allow the selected teachers with guidance roles to be assigned extended periods to counsel students. Nevertheless, the suggestions were never implemented in most of the institutions. The designated guidance and counselling teachers ended up assuming double rolesof classroom teaching and any spare time was used for guidance and counselling.
The selected teachers to offer G&C spent extra period teaching their formal subjects instead of counselling and the G&C teachers found themselves performing more than one duty. Some had a course load of more than 20 lessons per week. Others were class teachers, while others were heading other departments. To make matters worse some principals carried the dual responsibilities of being the school leadship, as well as, G&C. (Kimathi, 2003). This was a major challenge to effective counselling due to breach of confidentiality. Students feared that the conflicting roles of a teacher, a counsellor and a principal would bring out a problem of trust. Balancing time for counselling services and for teaching the classes allocated was a major challenge. This balance was necessary if burnout and stress among teacher counsellors was to be avoided in the quality of teaching during the class hours. According to a study by Nyamwange et al. (2012), teacher counsellors taught 18 lessons or more per week, which was a normal load while 9.6% taught fewer than 18 lessons in a week. This meant that there was little time for teacher counsellors to commit to offering guidance and counseling services, hence, lowering the quality of the provided service.
A study conducted by Kimathi (2003) on teachers" role perception, observed that educators who are counsellors felt that due to the roles as classroom teachers, fellow teachers did not respect them. They viewed them as quasi administrators who did not put the same emphasis on counselling function as counsellors themselves. They expressed the feeling that teacher counsellors acted more as advisors than as counsellors and were busier with discipline and clerical duties than assisting the students with personal and education concerns. Additionally, Counsellors in schools dedicate a big share of their time tackling the demands of a small portion of the learners, majorly, the ones that have been sent to them by the school head teacher or the other teachers for indiscipline cases. Accordingly, majority of the learners associated counselling with indiscipline, therefore, building a negative perception towards the offered service (Wambu & Wickman, 2011).
Personality is more or less stable and enduring organization of a person"s character, temperament, intellect and physique which determine his unique adjustment to the environment  (Child, 2007). The desire and urge of being a G&C provider, the desire of helping the affected, comes out of heart regardless of training that is provided for that task. Personality issues come in a number ofways: the heart of counselling, readiness of providing counselling, empathy, sympathy, and struggle to provide solutions, general appearance and mood of counselling, friendliness and mediation skills. Dryden et al. (1995) stipulated that personality issues are those related to self in connection with the learners and self in relation to clients. In his studies, Rogers (1961) stated that through guidance an individual receives greater awareness not only of who he is but of whom he can become. He further observes that counselling services facilitate self-understanding.Though teachers received guidance and counselling courses in the training, it is imperative, as Rogers (1961) observed, that teacher counsellors receive greater personal awareness and understanding through therapy, which is not directly provided to them. It is thus implied that teachers, just like clients, could be having personal issues which could interfere with their counselling.
Counselling requires the G&C teacher to get out of class context and totally act as a counsellor; the fear of studentteacher relationship should shade and embrace student counsellor relationship which rarely exists in the school scenario. The importance of ethical practices in counselling cannot be overlooked when it comes to teacher counsellor"s personality. The lack of a common code of ethics for Kenyan school counsellors presents a big obstacle. The available standards of ethics are in regards to the whole counselling profession. For decades, Kenya has been applying the American Counselling Association (ACA) code of ethics which are foreign for lack of its own code. According to Okech and Kimemia (2012), the Kenya Counselling and Psychological Association in 2012 developed the code of ethics currently being used in Kenya. These general ethics are expected to be adhered to by school counsellors. Their application, however,was limited because they were not customized to the setting of schools in Kenya. For instance, Njoka (2007) points out that sustaining confidence for school counsellors is challenging in the school setting. At times, teachers and school heads are adamant to be privy to the discussions that took place between the student and the school counsellor.School counsellors will find themselves in a difficult position in a case where they cannot stand their ground supported by this ethical code when pressured to disclose their discussions with clients. Another challenge is keeping client records. Not having a specified room allocated within the school for counselling can be a challenge in relation to storage and safety of confidential files. In addition, absence of standards of ethics to guide how records are created is challenging as to how long they are to be stored and who should access them. According to Nyutu (2007), it is critical for Kenya to develop standards of ethics in relation to school counsellors.

Theoretical Framework
This study was anchored on Social exchange theory and eclectic theory. Social exchange theory is a distinguished conceptual frame of reference that has been predominantly applied in social psychology and sociology. The theory is traced to Emerson (1976) who tries to illuminate on social dynamics and stability as proceedings that include negotiating exchanges between parties. According to the theory, all relationships by human beings are established through an impressionistic cost and benefit evaluation and considerations of alternatives. Case in point is a person who believes that the cost of a relationship would exceed the assessed benefits would decide to pull out of the relationship. The guidance and counselling programme in the school is constituted of the teacher counsellor, students and the principal. The theory was relevant to this study as it assessed the challenges facing implementation of guidance and counselling programme in public secondary schools. The relationship in this case is the support the principal provides to the G&C programme in terms of the personnel, infrastructure, finances and time provided to the teacher counsellor. The teacher counsellors also appreciatethe support by giving their all to the G&C programme. The students on the other hand will appreciate the time and considerations being put in place to stir them to the best directions. The students would only seek counselling services if they think something useful will come out of it. Without a perception of value addition, the students will keep away. The teacher counsellors would also devote their time to providing counselling services if they expected a positive outcome from the process. They would otherwise stay away if they are demotivated and demoralized.
Eclectic theory can be traced to Goldfried (1982) who subscribed to the thought that no one method is clinically sufficient to be applied to all problems, patients and situations. The theory advocates for an integration or an eclectic method which uses various approaches as a treatment approach. The broad theoretical intention that provides feedback is consolidative of eclectic therapy applied among psychologists and counsellors. In a bid to ensure the effectiveness of a G&C Programme, the teacher counsellor is not restricted to adhere to one approach of counselling students. The eclectic theory advises on use of several approaches since there is no one approach for all situations but advocates for a series of amalgamated approaches. By using eclectic therapy, the teacher counsellors separate themselves from applying one rigid style. Instead, the G&C teacher applies a flexible approach that enables him/her to adapt to an individual client"s needs.
Consequent to the literature reviewed and the theoretical framework, the independent variables and respective indicators were identified as; a) Teacher counsellors" teaching load; number of lessons per week, schedule of the teachers" lessons, involvement in disciplinary matters, teamwork in G&C and specialization in G&C roles. b) Teacher counsellor"spersonality whose indicators were; counsellor-student relationship, teacher counsellor characteristics, counsellors" confidentiality, counsellors" attitude, as well as, professionalism in G&C training and practice.
The dependent variable for the study was the effectiveness of the G&C programme implementation as reflected by decrease in antisocial behaviour improved teacher-student

Research Methodology
The study was carried out in Kakamega County whichhas 12 sub counties which include Lugari Sub County. Lugari Sub-County was chosen because of its high number of indiscipline cases among students in public secondary schools within the sub county in comparison with the rest of the sub counties within the county, hence, putting to question the effectiveness of the implementation of G&C programmes within public secondary schools in the subcounty.
The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The researcher selected this design since it used interviews and questionnaires were used for acquiring pertinent information on participant"s lifestyle, behaviour, feelings, and attitude. The design also enabled the researcher to acquire and analyse information from a wide range of respondents in Lugari Sub County, that is; the principals and teacher counsellors.
The study targeted a population of 21 Principals, 42 teacher counsellors and 336 teachers, making a target population of 399 participants (Table 2).Principals were to be involved in the study so as to help obtain data on the variable on principal"s assigning workload toG&C teachers. Teacher counsellors and other teachers were best positioned to provide information on G&C teachers" workload and his/her personality.
The researcher adopted the Mugenda and Mugenda (2003) recommendation of a sample size of 10-30% of the target population. Results from such a sample size are acceptable and reflective of the outcome of the target population. Using 30% ofthe recommendation, the sample size consisted of 6 principals, 12 teacher counsellors and 102 teachers, making a sample size of 120 respondents (Table 2). Random sampling was used to select the 6 principals. The 12 teacher counsellors were purposefully selected from the six schools where the principals were selected. The 102 teachers were purposively selected from the six schools. Proportionate random sampling was used to ensure equal and proportionate representation of the teachers. Interview guides and questionnaires were used as tools for data collection. Questionnaires were used to solicit data from the teacher counsellors and other teachers, since they were relatively many in number. In addition, questionnaires are appropriate for gathering detailed data within a short period of time. Interviews were used on school principals as they were relatively few in number. Interviewing was, therefore, used to obtain first-hand information from the top leadership of schools.
The researcher conducted piloting within two randomly selected public secondary schools in a sub-county next to Lugari Sub-County that had similar characteristics as the study area. Six teachers, two G&C teachers and two principals were selected for the study. The purpose for piloting was to help the researcher to check the clarity of the items, get the responses and establish how well the questions would be answered. It also helped in provoking comments from the respondents that would help in the improvement of the instrument"s comprehension. The questions that were left blank or inappropriately answered in a way the researcher was not expecting, were modified, accordingly. Generally, piloting assisted the researcher to discover weaknesses in the research instruments so that they could be modified beforehand. This ensured that the data collection instruments were valid.
The outcome of the piloting assisted in ascertaining the lucidity of the items and the duration taken to administer the instruments. Experts were also consulted for further validation, in addition to ensuring that the items were comprehensive enough for the respondents. The researcher ensured that all the items were extracted from the research objectives.
To test reliability, test re-test reliability approach was adopted to approximate the level at which the outcome could be acquired when repeated using similar concepts. The scores from the two administrations were correlated with each other using Pearson"s product moment formula, in order to establish the extent of reliability. Reliability coefficient of 0.76 was obtained. This reliability coefficient was considered acceptable since the minimum coefficient in social sciences is 0.70. The questionnaire items were, therefore, considered fit enough for the main data collection. The interview schedule items were assessed by equating responses from various respondents. All the preceding procedures ensured that the data collection instruments were valid and reliable.
Prior to embarking on field work, the researchers requested for an introduction letter from Kenya Methodist University which was the University of Affiliation. The letter"s main purpose was to facilitate being granted a permit to conduct research in Kenya by the Kenya National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovations (NACOSTI). After this, the researchers visited the schools concerned, prior to the day of administering data collection instruments, for familiarization with the school administration, as well as, guidance and counselling heads. During this visit, appointments were made as to when the administration of the instruments could be conducted. Questionnaires were hand delivered to teacher counsellors and teachers by the researcher and the subjects were given 30 minutes for completion of the questionnaire. Interviewing was conducted within a period of three days in which a maximum of 20 minutes were given per interviewee.
Interview time was extended in case it was necessary, so as, to obtain critical information. The collected data was scrutinized to detect whether there were any errors or any omissions. The coded data was tabulated, and then evaluated descriptively and thematically. Quantitative analysis involved coding of data. The data was also categorized Ethical considerationswere observed in this survey through guaranteeing confidentiality of information and of respondents, treating respondents with due regard and nobility, as well as, maintaining high standards and procedures throughout the process. The respondent"s accord was sought at the beginning of the study for them to take part, as well as, agreeing to use of the acquired data, its evaluation and eventual reporting and dissemination. The confidentiality and privacy of the participants was treated in high regard and at no point were they required to provide their names or any form of information that uniquely identified them within the questionnaire. Data analysis was not conducted on an individual participant basis but collectively as a pool of responses.

Introduction
The purpose of this study was to identify challenges facing implementation of guidance and counselling programme in public secondary schools of Kenya, a case of Lugari Sub-County, Kakamega County, Kenya. In order to achieve this purpose, the following objectives were addressed. 1) To establish whether teacher counsellor"s work load influences implementation of guidance and counselling programmes in public secondary schools in Lugari Sub-County, Kakamega County. 2) To investigate whether a teacher counsellor"s personality influences the implementation of guidance and counselling in public secondary schools in Lugari Sub-County, Kakamega County.
Out of 120 subjects, a total of 106 subjects responded during data collection process. The responses by various categories of respondents and the overall response rate are outlined in Table3. The rate at which the questionnaires were returned was regarded to be adequate and acceptable formaking acceptable inferences. According to Mugenda and Mugenda (2003), a 75% response rate or more is both credible and acceptable. The response rate in this study was therefore, considered excellent and data suitable for further analysis and generalization.

Guidance and Counselling Teacher Workload as a Challenge to the Implementation of the Guidance and Counselling Programme
This section provides information about teachers" workload as a challenge to theeffective implementation of guidance and counselling programme in secondary schools in Lugari Sub County. According to Gachathi (1976) it had been observed that G&C teachers were expected to provide counselling to secondary schools but this had proved ineffective. This was because the designated teachers spent more time in teaching their formal subjects rather than counselling. Consequently, counselling teachers found themselves teaching more than 20 lessons asthey were class teachers, while some of them were heading other departments. Others were even principals, besides being students" counsellors (Kimathi, 2003). This was a major challenge to effective counselling. In a study done in Nyamira, Kenya by Nyamwange et al, (2012) it was observed that in a week, a workload of 18 or more lessons was being handled by teacher counsellors, yet some otherteachers handled less than 18 lessons per week.This essentially meant that teacher counsellors had little time to commit themselves to offering services related to guidance and counselling. This deteriorated the standards of the services provided by G&C teachers.
To investigate the effect of the teachercounsellors" workload, five criteria were used to which the teacher counsellors and other teachers were given freedom to respond to. Theseincluded: adequate time provided for G&C, number of lessons per week, involvement in G&C in school discipline matters, teamwork in provision of the service and handling the normal weekly duties by the teacher counsellors. Table 3 outlines the responses from the respondents who included the teacher counsellors and other teachers.
The responses indicate that there was lack of enough time provided for guidance and counselling activities as teachers had limited time to handle such cases as 88% of the respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed, 84% ofthe respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed that majority of the guidance and counselling teachers had less than 20 lessons per week. Teachers were overwhelmed with lessons, yet they had to handle guidance and counselling cases which madeG&C practice difficult. Seventy six percent of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that teacher counsellors were involved in disciplinary cases. This showed that G&C teachers were also responsible for handling disciplinarycases. Guidance and Counselling was not really done in team work in most schools, as48% of respondents either strongly disagreed or disagreed, while 40% either agreed or strongly agreed.  This statement was in agreement with the school principal where this guidance and counselling teacher executed her roles. The principal noted that; "My guidance and counselling teacher has a series of duties to undertake some responsibilities that are not related to guidance and counselling even though within her scope of work, her teaching responsibility has affected execution of guidance and counselling tasks" Gachathi report (1976) and Cochran & Peter (1974) noted that dual roles, limited effectiveness of offering guidance and counselling services. Another school principal who was interviewed noted that teachers were overwhelmed by their duties. He cited a teacher who was obligated to work as a games teacher, senior teacher, CRE teacher and he happened to be the guidance and counselling teacher, confirming that the teacher could not sparevery little time for G&C.This implies that guidance and counselling teachers should have enough time to handle their work and hence, get minimal work from other school demands. The foregoing results indicate that as far as the teacher counsellors were concerned, their effectiveness in offering the services was, to quite a great extentharboured,therefore, a challenge by the excessive "other" workloads. The team work effect was not well understood.

Challenges in the Implementation of Guidance and Counselling due to Teacher Counsellor's Personality
Personality is the total pattern of characteristic ways of thinking, feelings and behaviour that constitute the individual"s distinctive method of relating to his or her environment. This implies that our personality may determine the ways we respond to the environment. Other people form a part of that environment. According to Eysenckas cited by Child (2007), personality is "the more or less stable and enduring organization of a person"s character, temperament, intellect and physique which determines his unique adjustment to the environment" (pg.235). Included in this definition is the word "character" which is an evaluative term referring to such traits as honesty, self-control, persistence (needed in patience while dealing with other people) and sense of justice. Such traits relate to qualities which we can be defined as socially acceptable or objectionable and incorporate the development of attributes and values (Child, 2007). A teacher counsellor"s attitudes and values about himself/herself and about those to be guided or counselled, as well as, his/her work, to quite a great extent, will determine his/her success in assisting students through guidance and counselling. All the foregoing emphasize the need for knowledge of human personality, particularly because a teacher is daily involved in making judgements about the effective qualities of himself/herself, students and colleagues. According to Child,(2007) "Much of our time is spent in trying to weigh up the personalities of those around us and adjusting to them where possible. We observe the way people move, talk, or react on different occasions, we watch their faces for clues to their attitudes and we listen to their prejudices" and we find ourselves changing to suit their circumstances, so that a man, among his friends, is usually not the same, when faced with different social situations."(pg. 234).
Every time a teacher counsellor is faced with different students or teachers, he/she requires these elements of personality so that he/she can be successful in assisting the client. So, does the teacher counsellor"s personality pose a challenge in his/her attempts to implement the guidance and counselling programme with a particular reference to Lugari Sub County, Kakamega County? In order to get an answer to this question, teacher counsellors and other teachers were requested to respond to the five indicators of personality in the G&C practice. Their responses are outlined in Table 4.   Table 4 shows responses on the influence of teacher counsellors" personality on implementation of guidance and counselling programme. As to whetherthere existed poor teacher counsellors -student relationship,72%of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that teachers were feared by students, yet counselling is supposed to be a friendly exercise, 60% of the respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that they were good teacher counsellors or had personal characteristics that made counselling easier. From the study,60%of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that they had good attitude towards guidance and counselling towards students in their respective schools.Furthermore,60%of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that there was lack of confidentiality in the teacher counsellor when handling student"s cases as they could narrate such annoying cases when giving examples during class lessons,whereas 60%of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that there was good professionalism in guidance and counselling.
The principal of a given school during interview narrated that the guidance and counselling teacher in her school was more overwhelmed with issues more than students to be counselled. "My guidance and counselling teacher, despite his knowledge in G&C, is always upset, with family wrangles and always not sober, I find myself executing G&C roles". A guidance and counselling teacher in a different school narrated his loss of spouse as an issue he could not erasefrom his mind and was totally emotional in cases where students required guidance on bereavement, "for such cases I just pass them to my colleagues to handle". According to Dryde et al., (1995) personal issues can influence a teacher counsellor"seffectiveness. The results indicate that although teacher counsellors were doing their best in offering the guidance and counselling services, failure to maintain confidentiality and their poor relationship with the students, still remained critical to effectiveness in offering the said services under consideration.
Consequently, teacher"s personality continued to be a big challenge in the effective implementation of the G&C programme in public secondary schools in Lugari Sub County of Kakamega County.

Summary of the Findings
The study noted that guidance and counselling teachers were overwhelmed with responsibilities as most of them held multiple responsibilities such as being class teachers, games teachers and handling their respective lessons in their teaching subjects. In one case, a teacher was expected to work as a games teacher, a senior teacher, C.R.E. teacher and the same teacher happened to be the G&C teacher. This was just one of the common cases that limited their scope of work in the guidance and counselling sector that contributed to unruly behaviours in schools.
The study established that guidance and counselling teachers had personal issues which interfered with their counselling responsibilities. Such issues included personal character, confidence level, attitude, bereavement, family status and past experiences in life that touched them so much when handling counsellingroles. Inessence, in a number of cases teacher counsellor"s personality posed a challenge in his/her attempts to implement the G&C programme. During training, prospective teacher counsellors are supposed to have been coached on how to handle such issues. However, as noted earlier, generally, the teachers lacked that education and practicum to deal with their personal issues.

Conclusions
Guidance and counselling requires maximum concentration. It is obvious that because of the pressures of school academic work and inadequate staffing, G&C has, in many cases, to take second consideration after classroom teaching. Consequently, the extra workload allocated to G&C teachers continues to be a challenge to the teachers, leaving inadequate time for attending to the G&C programme implementation.
Personality deals with personal issues that interfere with the counselling process. It has been observed that teacher counsellors are unable to make proper decisions due to their internal and external factors that affect their proper guidance and counsellingactivities. This is very likely to be a consequence to lack of, or inadequate training of the G&C teachers. It is during such trainings that the teachers can gain knowledge in personality, psychotherapy, self-evaluation and behavioural intervention techniques that can assist them, not only in dealing with other peoples" issues, but also their own personality issues too.Therefore, inadequate training and experience in G&C continues to be a challenge to the teachers because they lack adequate skills to handle other personality issues that may interfere with the effectiveness in G&C.

Recommendations
School principals should appropriate more time to guidance and counsellingteachers. This will enable them devote more time to G&C. The teachers should be motivated to like their work in G&C because it has a lot of contribution towards a favorable school climate.
Teachers should be encouraged to share information on issues affecting them since they can device solutions from Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY friends in the process of the discussions.Theseissues could affect their counsellingactivities if not managed. The Ministry of Education should organize courses/seminars that can contribute to the teachers" understanding on how they can handle their own personality issues besides those of their clients.