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Abstract
This paper involves a qualitative survey conducted among secondary school counselors in Adana, Turkey. The main objective was to determine the perception of school counselors regarding the current state of school counseling programs in Adana and whether any improvements are necessary or not. The areas of counseling examined included: the roles of school counselors in promoting the mental well-being of secondary school students in Adana, the difference in approaches used in counseling in secondary schools compared with other levels of education such as the elementary level, the challenges encountered by school counselors in their effort to provide counseling services to learners, and the training necessary to improve the competence of school counselors. The data collection procedure involved a qualitative survey among 20 counselors selected from different schools within the Adana region in Turkey. Personal account and opinions were recorded in relation to the research questions, and an analysis of the results was discussed by comparing them with the literary publications. From the findings, it was evident that school counselors in Turkey did not have significant supportive infrastructure from the government which could be used to facilitate the objective of providing counseling services to students. However, there was a general agreement that counseling contributes to an improvement of the mental state of learners and increases their willingness to undertake learning activities with positive attitudes. It was also established that counseling provides a supportive environment for students to make the right decisions when joining tertiary institutions. This led to the conclusion that counselors are important contributors to the learning needs of students in secondary institutions in a similar manner as other categories of teachers.
Keywords
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