TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE NEEDS OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING SERVICES IN RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Guidance and counseling services play an important role in helping students in academics and behavior as well as in planning their future. Realizing this, the Ministry of Education has issued a circular letter DG / 5209/35 / (40), which requires each school to appoint a teacher of guidance and counseling. This study was carried out to identify teachers' perception towards the needs of guidance and counseling in rural primary schools, especially in Bakong, Miri, Sarawak. This study is a descriptive study involving 35 teachers in rural primary schools in Bakong district. The instrument used was a questionnaire adapted from Haidhir Md Yusof Mohd study (2015) that includes four parts, A, B, C and D. Part A consists of eight items including demographic data, while likert scale was used in Part B, C and D. Part B includes the perception of guidance and counseling data, part C the needs and teachers of guidance and counseling in rural area, and section D identified the issues and roles that require the needs of guidance and counseling services. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis including frequency, percentage and mean. The findings could provide inputs not only to guidance and counseling area but also to the school, higher authorities and Ministry of education in upgrading the guidance and counseling services as well as ensuring the optimum use of the services in improving the quality of education.