Investigation of guidance and counseling services offered to bereaved pupils in Asego Division, Homa Bay Sub County

Every culture has a way of assisting its bereaved members to deal with grief. This study investigated guidance and counseling services offered to bereaved pupils in Asego Division, Homa-Bay Sub County. The objectives of this study were to find out guidance services and counseling services offered to bereaved pupils. Eight primary schools in Asego Division were sampled for this study. Two hundred and forty Luo pupils in classes four to eight in the sampled schools were purposively sampled as participants and descriptive survey research design was used. Questionnaires were administered to the sampled pupils. Focus group discussions for teachers were held in the sampled schools chaired by the researcher with the assistance of two enumerators. Data analysis employed descriptive statistics such as means, frequency distributions, percentages and standard deviations. The findings showed that the 64 teachers offered educational guidance to bereaved pupils when they come back to school through giving missed tests and exercises and having talks with pupils on study skills. The teachers offered grief counseling through giving financial support to the bereaved pupils, expressive art, play therapy, music, writing stories or letters, drama, grief therapy and home visits to the bereaved. The study revealed that guidance and counseling services offered to bereaved pupils are important and should not be ignored even though every culture has a way of assisting its bereaved members to deal with grief. The recommend was to investigate how bereavement affects the academic performance of bereaved pupils.