A survey of counselling needs of seminarians in Catholic major seminaries in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigated the counselling needs (academic, social, emotional, personal career and financial needs) of seminarians in Nigeria Catholic Major Seminaries. The study adopted a descriptive (survey research) design. Simple random sampling procedure was used to obtain a sample of 547 respondents from three major seminaries across the country. The modified Student Needs Assessment Survey was used to gather data for this study. The modified version is titled Catholic Seminarian Needs Assessment Questionnaire. The study revealed that seminarians expressed need for counselling on their academic, career and financial life. It was equally revealed that most of the seminarians (59.9%) seek the assistance of the spiritual directors and other priests in the seminaries in place of the counsellor(s). Based on the findings, it was recommended that seminars, workshops and symposia should be organized periodically for the seminarians in the seminaries to address how to maximally manage time, and avoid distraction when studying in order to obtain the maximum academic proficiency and enhance their social and personal issues. More importantly, the seminary administration should employ the services of trained counsellor(s) and establish counselling units in the major seminaries to address the seminarians’ counselling needs in Nigeria since there is none at the moment.