Marginalisation of Exceptional Children in the Provision of Carreer Guidance and Counnselling Servicves in Schools in Masvingo District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent at which career guidance and counseling is provided to exceptional pupils in Masvingo District of Zimbabwe. It is a fact that exceptional children have been marginalized in a wide variety of educational service provision. The study therefore sought to explore whether exceptional children are also not being marginalized in the provision of career services as much as they have been marginalized in other areas. The research employed qualitative exploratory survey research design. The target population for this study included all special schools and schools with resource units in Masvingo District, together with officers from Schools Psychological Services and Special Needs Education Masvingo Provincial Office. The research indicated that service providers have generally low expectations on the career development of exceptional children. As a result of these low expectations, it was found out that career transition planning and assistance for special children is minimal at the very least. In keeping with these low expectations, it was found out that there were no specialist human resources dedicated to providing career counseling, and that only teachers are much more involved in this endeavor but they have minimal training to provide a satisfactory career counseling service. The research proposes that in the short term teachers be trained to provide efficient career counseling services. In the medium and long term, government should provide resources so that Schools Psychologists are capacitated so that they get involved in vocational assessment and career counseling of exceptional children. Lastly further research on the provision of career counseling for exceptional children should be carried out at a larger scale with a bigger, more representative sample and possibly employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods.