THE IMPORTANCE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOL-BASED COUNSELLING PROGRAMMES AS AN INTERVENTION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF BASIC EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

The quality of basic education in South Africa has been reported to be in crisis. There have been various reports of violence in schools, physical and other forms of abuse, teenage pregnancy, sexual harassment, high learner dropouts, and poor academic performances. These psycho-social ills impact negatively on how learners perform on scholastic tasks, resulting in poor academic performance. This paper outlines how school-based counselling intervention programmes are mandatory for the improvement of the quality of basic education in South Africa. This paper used a desktop research methodology. It firstly discussed the role and responsibilities of school counsellors. Secondly, it reviewed various published research reports on the importance and effectiveness of school-based counselling programmes. It provided an argument of how the implementation of school-based counselling programs will in-turn improve the quality of basic education in South Africa. This paper concludes that school-based counselling programmes could help learners in South Africa deal with the various psycho-social problems that continually prevents them from performing to their full potential in scholastic tasks.