Availability, Professional Capacity, and Barriers to the Effective Delivery of Guidance and Counselling Services in Selected Secondary Schools in Sierra Leone

This study examined the availability, professional capacity, and barriers to the effective delivery of guidance and counselling services in secondary schools in Pujehun District, Sierra Leone. A mixed-methods cross-sectional design was employed. The study targeted 1,208 individuals from four senior secondary schools and selected 128 respondents, comprising 4 principals, 4 counsellors, 8 teachers, and 112 pupils, using the 10% sampling recommendation of Mugenda and Mugenda. Principals and counsellors were purposively selected, while teachers and pupils were selected through simple random sampling. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview guides. Content validity was established through expert review, and the questionnaire demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.84). Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression, while qualitative data provided contextual explanations. Findings revealed limited availability and delivery of counselling services. Only 32.7% reported the availability of dedicated guidance offices, 27.3% reported access to career resources, and 34.3% reported regular career guidance sessions. Although student participation (57.0%) and academic/vocational focus (54.7%) were relatively stronger, none of the availability and delivery variables significantly predicted pupils' career development (p >.05). Professional capacity was also uneven, with communication and interpersonal skills strongest (58.6%), but formal career-counselling training (22.6%), professional development (24.2%), labour-market knowledge (29.0%), and career assessment skills (29.7%) relatively weak. The strongest professional-capacity association was monitoring and follow-up (β = 0.165, p =.073), although it was not statistically significant. Major barriers included inadequate materials/resources (74.2%), high pupil-counsellor ratios (71.8%), lack of trained counsellors (69.4%), socioeconomic constraints (68.0%), and limited technology and assessment tools (67.2%). The study concludes that counselling services exist but remain under-resourced and inconsistently delivered. It recommends recruiting trained counsellors, strengthening professional development, improving facilities and career resources, reducing pupil-counsellor ratios, integrating counselling into the curriculum, and strengthening monitoring and referral systems.