Each individual member of the educational system has certain counseling and guidance responsibilities which he is expected to perform. But counseling and guidance activities are too complex and too varied. This variation and complexity demand a service separate from teaching as specialization in every walk of life, including education. The responsibility for teaching lies with the teacher and the primary responsibility for guidance lies with counsellor. Teaching is the communication of other people’s experiences, data, and conclusions while guidance according to Shertzer and Stone (1976) is the examination of the individual student’s experiences.
There are three types of formal organizational structure.
1. Line and Staff:
Guidance services organized according to this concept at any given level of authority, or departments are classified into line or staff. Line structure involves the decision of an organization according to authority from top to bottom or from bottom to top. In this process, staff organization is made according to the functions. Traditionally only line personnel give orders while staff personnel deals with service, quality control, coordination, fiscal control. etc.
2. Scaler:
If guidance organization is scaler or hierarchical. the structure rests on the degree of authority and responsibility. All members of the service are placed in a hierarchy according to the degree of responsibility and authority Ultimate authority is on the top of the organization followed by other authorities.
3. Spatial:
This form of an organization deals more with “geography”. Here control is centralized in the main office. Usually the central office retains general supervision with itself while special functions are into branch offices. There may be cases where none of these three types of organizational structure exist, there may be blend of two or more types e.g. line-and-staff and scalar structure.
Glanz as quoted by Shetzer and Stone (1976) cited the following four approaches to guidance program organization in schools:
1. Centralized specialism:
In this approach professionally prepared counselors, administrators, social workers, and other highly qualified personnel occupy specific. defined coordinated positions to solve pupil problems.
2. Decentralized generalism:
This guidance approach services depends within upon their all roles personals. Specialists. Teachers are not and usually administrators employed as perform every teacher is a counsellor.
3. Curricular counselling and guidance:
In this approach guidance services are integrated into the curricular activities andgroup approach is employed
4. Human relations and group work:
The main focus of this approach is on broad aspects of mental health. This includes adjustment, natural thinking, and effective interpersonal skills.
Mathewson organizes guidance programmes in seven bi-polar dimensions:
1. Educative-directive:
At one end, guidance is viewed as learning process where individuals make their own choices, while on the other end, guidance is seen as diagnosis of individual problems by an expert who gives recommendations for individuals.
2. Cummulative-problem point:
Here guidance is seen as continuous commulative process for all students or assistance rendered to a specific student at problem point.
3. Self-evaluation-mentor evaluation:
It is based on the belief that (1) personal precepts and constructs can be formed into an integrative self-identity with little or no outside help (2) Individual needs extensive motivation and interpretations from others to have self-definition.
4. Personal Valve-social value:
At one end, guidance organization is concerned with individual needs on the other hand, it deals with institutional needs.
5. Subjective-objective focus:
In subjective aspect, guidance programme considers psychological stages of individual. and focuses on self-defining and self-conceptualizing process. While on objective side, focus is on evaluating data, which is obtained through objective tests.
6. Multiphasic-uniphasic:
The multiphasic guidance programme is comprehensive in its nature but in uniphasic attention is paid to one phase only which may be educational. vocational, or personal.
7. Coordinative-specialized:
The multiphasic guidance programme is comprehensive in its nature but in uniphasic attention is paid to one phase only which may be educational, vocational, or personal. At one extreme guidance is so organized that it can coordinate between various aspects, services and specialists but on the other extreme organization is based on Services of specialists where teachers and others only supplement them.
The type of organization of guidance programme differs from school to school and from community to community. Basic considerations in this respect are
• Timing
• Scope
• Focus.
But no type of guidance organization suits each and every type of the school. But, in Pakistan we have not yet established any formal organization for guidance services. The topics studied would have provided the conceptual frame for future use.
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