Prevalence of Undesirable Behaviours among Pupils in Ilorin Metropolis: Implications for Counselling

Abstract

Undesirable behaviours exhibited by pupils in the schools have created serious concerns to teachers, counsellors, parents and the society at large. This study therefore examined the prevalence of undesirable behaviours among pupils in Ilorin Metropolis: Implications for counselling and also categorized the common undesirable behaviours among pupils. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Simple random sampling was used to select ten public and ten private primary schools and 250 pupils from the schools selected. The researchers developed instrument titled “Prevalence of Undesirable Behaviours Rating Scale” (PUBRS) was used for data collection. The face and content validity of PUBRS were ascertained. Internal consistency method of reliability was used and reliability coefficient of 0.86 was obtained through Pearson Product-Moment Correlation. The data collected were analyzed using percentage, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-test. The findings revealed that aggressive behaviours have the highest sub-scale mean (3.16). It also showed that there was significant difference in the prevalence of undesirable behaviours among pupils on the basis of gender t= -2.596; df= 248; p < 0.05). Recommendation were made that Government should established functional counselling unit in Primary schools and adequate counselling services be made available to pupils to promote esirable behaviours among themdesist from deviate behaviours in the school.