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Guidance and Counseling

Notes 4.2.6 Follow-up Service
A guidance worker who does not assess the progress made by his/her student is like the physician
who does not verify whether his/her patient has recovered or not.
Here, it becomes very essential in a guidance programme to learn the nature and extent of progress
of the student even after he leaves the school. This service does not only pertains to the study of
occupational aspect but also to other related aspects such as emotional and social adjustments.
For example, if a student has been counseled for social-emotional problem, after he/she leaves the
school, the guidance worker must do a follow-up to check how far he/she is able to cope up with
the new environment and what are the problems he/she is still facing.
Purpose of this Service

(i) It draws upon information from the former students regarding the extent of influence or
effectiveness of the school guidance programme.
(ii) Based on the feedback obtained, make relevant changes in the school guidance programme.
The programme generally keeps contact with the students and drop-outs after leaving school, one
of the most common method adopted for follow-up is the questionnaire which is periodically sent
to the students after they leave their school. On the basis of the experiences of former students, the
guidance worker can formulate the future programme for the present students, further, and thereby
equip the remaining students with necessary activities. The follow-up service has more relevance
for the field of research. After receiving valid information from the former students, the administrators
can improve upon their services. Further, employing this information, the educational institutions
can conduct studies of the relationship between the training given to these former students and how
far the utilisation of the training was made. Studies on the effectiveness, efficiency and desirability
of the courses offered can also be conducted.
The three steps that are dealt in a follow-up programme are :
(i) A systematic gathering of data from the alumni.

(ii) Interpretation and presentation of that data to all the concerned personnel, i.e. student, parent
and community.
(iii) Suggest a modified framework of educational programme based on the findings made.

4.3 Importance of Guidance Services

A good quality-of-life for every people includes good housing, health service social network, practical
coping skills, etc. Child and adolescent which is future of our country, is given, development of any
country is dependent on positive mental development the day to cope up with poverty, malnutrition,
illiteracy, poor health, and India.
Changing structure of the family, modernization, westernization, industrial negatively influenced
child mental health. Incidences of mental health problem pedophilia). Depression and suicide have
increased three to four folds in mental disorders have shown phenomenal rise. Mental health
problems in children affected with riots, bomb blast ever increasing in number. Alcohol and other
drug abuse in children have overall prevalence of mental and behavioral disorders among children
was needing special care attention and guidance. Guidance is very important for all these problems.
Guidance services is needed wherever there are problems. The need and importance of guidance
are as follows.
• Self understanding and self direction : Guidance helps in understanding one’s strength,
limitations and other resources. Guidance helps individual to develop ability to solve problems
and take decisions.

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