Impact of Counselling Strategies on Educational Challenges among Single Parents' Children in Kogi Local Government Area, Kogi State.

The study examined the impact of counselling strategies on educational challenges among single parents’ children in Kogi State. Five research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. Population of the study consists of all teachers in public secondary schools in Kogi Local Government Area during the 2023 / 2024 academic session. Random sampling method was used to select 15 public secondary schools and purposive sampling technique was employed in choosing 14 teachers from each school thereby constituting a total sample of 210 ( male 65 and female 115) teachers. Questionnaire titled “Educational challenges of Single Parents’ children Inventory” (ECSPCI) was used for data collection. Data gathered were analyzed with frequency distribution. Descriptive statistics was used to answer the research questions, one way ANOVA and the Independent sample test (IST) was used to test hypotheses at 0.05 significant levels. Findings of the study uncovered multiple causes of single parenting and there were several challenges facing them. Several behavioural traits changes were suggested to be adopted by single parents to ameliorate their challenges. The study revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female on the counselling strategies that address the educational challenges of single parents’ children. Educational qualifications of respondents actually influence the counselling strategies that address the educational challenges of single parents’ children. Conclusion was drawn and it was recommended that government, school proprietors and principals should provide annual professional development programs for school counsellors to be trained on modalities to handle challenges related to single parents’ children. Keywords: Educational, Challenges, parents, children, counselling, strategies