AVAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF COUNSELLING RESOURCES IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN OSUN STATE

Counselling refers to the process of meeting the needs of students in several areas of development, such as academic, career and personal. Counselling services can however not achieve its objectives without the having the right resources and access to these resources. In order words, counselling resources are resources that helps achieve the goal of counselling services which include both human or materials; examples are professional counsellor, filling cabinet, psychological test batteries, career album, information board, counselling offices, counselling laboratory, projectors, television set, and other electronic materials to mention a few. This study examined the availability and accessibility of counselling resources in tertiary institutions in Osun State. The descriptive research design of survey type was employed in the study and a total of 330 sample were selected using the stratified random sampling technique. Findings revealed that the level of availability of counselling resources in the tertiary institutions is moderate. It was also revealed that the top available counselling resources in the tertiary institutions include professional counsellors, internet facilities, and computer for operations and data storage while the least available counselling facilities include counselling room for group counselling, tape recorder and two ways mirrors. Furthermore, a low level of accessibility to counselling resources was recorded. There is no significant relationship between the availability of counselling resources and accessibility to the counselling resources. Hence, availability does not imply accessibility. In addition, a significant difference in the level of accessibility to counselling resources between staff and students was obtained. The staffs have a higher level of accessibility compared to the students of the tertiary institutions. The study therefore recommends that students and staff of the tertiary institutions should be sensitized on the availability of counselling resources and the benefits of making use of the resources and that counsellors that are in charge of the resources should be ready to make themselves available and accessible to students and staff.