The Silent Screaming for Professional School Counselors in Dodoma City Public Secondary Schools in Tanzania

Pilly M. Mweta & Milka V. Otieno
Department of Education
St. John’s University of Tanzania
Email: mwetapilly61@gmail.com/ omilka@sjut.ac.tz

Abstract: Despite the government’s efforts to introduce a conducive learning environment by providing enough teaching and learning resources, the psychological needs of learners are crucial. In creating a healthy environment for learners to achieve their academic goals professional counselors in secondary schools must be brought to the foreground. A qualitative approach with a narrative study design was employed. The selected population were sexually abused learners, school counselors, academic teachers, a ward education officer, Statistical and logistical officers, police officers, and social workers. The professional participants were purposely selected and sexually abused learners were voluntarily selected. Semi -structured interviews, observation, and documentation were used as an instrument for data collection and data were analyzed thematically. From the findings, it has been known that professional participants understood the importance of having a professional counselor. While learners themselves do not know the existence of school counselors, as a result, they fail to get assistance and endure a painful experience that affects their academic performance. It is recommended that the school should capacitate learners’ awareness of the availability of counseling services around the school. The government should increase the number of professional counselors in secondary schools by considering the number of learners in those schools and provide a sound environment by supplying educational resources and infrastructure for counseling to take place.