Extensiveness of Guidance and Counseling in Combating Students’ Truancy in Public Secondary Schools in Mwanga District, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

The study was based on the extensiveness of guidance and counseling in combating students’ truancy in Public Secondary Schools in Mwanga District. The study was guided by one research question for which the researcher searched for responses. The study was guided by Moral Domain Theory developed by Eliot Turiel in 1983. The study employed Convergent Research Design under Mixed Research Methods. The targeted population was 535 Teachers, 13259 students, 26 heads of Schools, and 1 DSEO. The sample of this study was 10 schools, 10 Heads of schools, 20 guidance and counseling teachers, 50 teachers, 500 students and 1 DSEO, making a total number of 581 respondents. Stratified-random sampling was used to obtain the sample. Data were collected by using Questionnaires and an in-depth interview guide. Validity of the research instruments was done by three MWECAU research Experts in which content and face validity were done. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated by taking 10 Likert Scale items where Cronbach Alpha was computed with the aid of a computer program to determine the internal output on the students’ questionnaire (Q6) and guidance and counseling teachers’ questionnaire (Q6). The result showed that the Alpha levels were found to be 0.77 and 0.81, respectively, which means the instrument was reliable for data collection. The trustworthiness of qualitative data was ensured through triangulation. The quantitative data was coded and analyzed into frequencies and percentages with the help of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 22 and presented in the table, while qualitative data was transcribed and analyzed thematically according to the themes and final data was merged to ensure confirmation or disconfirmation of the findings. The study found out that guidance and counselling helped in combating students’ truancy to a high extent in Public Secondary Schools in Mwanga District. The study concluded that guidance and counselling should be compulsory. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Ministry of the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government, should put more emphasis and strengthen guidance and counselling programmes in public secondary schools.