THE ROLE OF COUNSELLING IN PROMOTING POSITIVE ATTITUDINAL CHANGE THROUGH TEACHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria is in Africa not only for her richness and abundance of resources, nor is it for her population/economic advancement, nor her ability to live together for so long despite the diversity, but for the attitude and images created by Nigerians living abroad and those within. Despite the abundant human and material resources available to the country, many are still wallowing in abject poverty and deprivation. Attitude is a way of thinking or feeling about something. Many Nigerians have lost their dignity and integrity; corruption and other social vices have eluded the country; value for money, power and materialism are the order of the day. The attitude of Nigerians has gone so badly that issues of corruption, money laundering, kidnapping, religious intolerance, and value change have arisen. Have become the new normal and form part of the attitudes that require adjustment among Nigerians. However, the policies put in place by the government at different times have yielded no significant success because they were not well channelled. Hence, the a need for counselling intervention through teacher education. This study focused on and discussed concepts such as counselling, goals and scope of guidance and counselling, building the right attitude through education, teacher education in contemporary society, the purpose of teacher education in Nigeria and the place of guidance and counselling in teacher education. It was concluded that teacher education should be strengthened to produce better teachers who are morally up to the task, and to have a better product out of teacher training institutions. The role of counsellors in schools and guidance and counselling services cannot be overemphasised. It was, however, suggested among others that education should be made functional at all levels.