Speaker
Description
Danjuma, B. D.
College of Education Gindiri, Plateau State Nigeria
bwededachg@gmail.com
Track: Digital Pedagogy and Teaching Innovation
This study presents an extensive review, that examines how digital tools are reshaping Guidance and Counselling services in Nigerian higher institutions. It investigates the opportunities that online counselling platforms provide and the substantial institutional, infrastructural and obstacles that continue to slow their broader adoption. Using a thematic synthesis of scholarly literature and key policy documents, which are guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the study maps the current landscape of digital guidance and counselling services across Nigeria. Findings reveal that digitalization brings considerable benefits among them are; greater student privacy, improved access, convenience, and demonstrated effectiveness in addressing mental health concerns, like academic burnout. However, inadequate internet connectivity in rural areas, high data cost, lack of the basic digital skills needed to engage meaningfully, with such platforms by the counsellors and clients, are some of the great obstacles affecting digitalization of guidance and counselling services. On the institutional side, insufficient training for counsellors has led to low technological proficiency and heightened professional uncertainty among practitioners. The study concludes that, while digital tools hold genuine promise as a means of addressing long-standing deficiencies in guidance and counselling service provision in Nigeria, unlocking that promise will require urgent, well-coordinated efforts across infrastructure development, compulsory reform, and inclusion of e-counselling training in the curricula.