Counseling and Guidance Services for Special Education Pupils: An Analysis of Research Literatures

Abstract

The Malaysian Education Act 1996 gave the liberty to the Minister to establish special education classrooms at any schools that need them, provided the students’ population in those particular schools is sufficient. This clause had motivated the establishment of Program Pendidikan Khas Integrasi (PPKI) in government schools ever since. This move had encouraged parents who have children with issues like learning disabilities and other categories of special need, to send their children to mainstream education system, and the numbers are growing every year. The uniqueness of these students and the special learning needed by them makes it essential for the educational system to provide holistic support elements in school settings. One of these vital elements is the counselling provision specifically tailored for this unique population of students. However, the current school counselling service provided is more based on the “one-size-fits-all” philosophy; thus, tends to ignore the needs of special education students. On top of that, the PPKI teachers are not given proper training or knowledge in counselling and guidance, which prevent them from helping the students effectively in school. This paper analytically reviews the literatures, internationally and locally, with main purpose to establish initial view of the scenario on the provision of school counseling for special education students in Malaysia. Consequently, this literature review will initiate further research works to plan integrated strategies to enhance the existed school counseling service in Malaysian education system.