# Introduction ccording to the Oxford dictionary, guidance means the "help or advice that is given to somebody especially somebody older or with more experience". It is the direction provided by an older person to an individual seeking assistance. The activity of guidance is both formal and informal. As an informal activity it is observed everywhere in the form of suggestion or prescription given by one to another in ordinary situations. The best example of guidance and counseling is the advice given by Lord Krishna to Arjun on the battlefield during the Mahabharata. Guidance however in the present times is a sophisticated activity with clear cut objectives and methodology. Guidance is a general term which means helping people to make wise choices so as to solve their educational, vocational or personal problems. It is a process which enables individuals to understand their own abilities, aptitudes, interests, perceptions, their own strengths and also weaknesses. Guidance provides the individual information not only about himself but also about the world around him. These two sets of information help the individual to develop maturity so as to adjust to the outer situation. "Guidance is a process of helping every individual, through his own efforts, to discover and develop his potentialities." Strang (1966).He gave four important characteristics of guidance: (1) It is a process of gaining understanding of one's self (2) It is a process of gaining understanding of one's relationship to other people (3) it is the process of gaining understanding of solving personal problems,(4) it is a process of gaining understanding of making decisions. Author: ritushastri10@gmail.com Strang (1937) has defined guidance as a process of helping every individual through his own efforts to discover and develop his potentialities for his personal happiness and social usefulness". Lefever (1950) emphasized that, "Guidance is that systematic, organized phase of the educational process which helps youth in his power to give point and direction to his own life, to the end that he may gain richer personal experiences while making his own unique contribution to our democratic society." Traxler (1957) defined guidance as a help which enables each individual to understand his abilities and interests, to develop them as well as possible and to relate the life-goals, and finally to reach a state of complete and mature self-guidance as a desirable member of social order." Chisholm(1950) said that, "Guidance seeks to help the individual discover his own talents in comparison to the opportunities of the world and help him prepare himself so that he can find or develop a place in which he can live a well-balanced life and contribute his part to the welfare of his fellow men." "On the elementary school level, guidance is predominantly educational guidance, broadly viewed as encompassing the objectives of physical and mental health, well-rounded social development, proper use of leisure time and mastery of the fundamental school processes." Ruch and Segel Mathewson (1962) emphasized that "Guidance is a continuous and pervasive process as a favourable directional influence upon appropriate social behavior, personal effectiveness in every day affairs, academic competence and progress and assimilation of right values and attitudes. Guidance cannot remain solely remedial or even orientational, it must also be developmental." Guidance means providing a direction to an individual. It could include helping him make the right choice with regards to important decisions of life. It is the assistance given to an individual in making intelligent choices and adjustments. Guidance is that aspect of educational programme which is concerned especially with helping the pupil to become adjusted to his present situation and to plan his future in line with his interests, abilities and social needs. ( Harmin and Erikson) Crow and Crow (1962) stated that "Guidance is not giving directions. It is not the imposition of one person's point of view upon another person. It is not making decisions for an individual, which he should make for himself. It is not carrying the burdens of another life". Guidance is an assistance made available by personally qualified and adequately trained men and women to an individual of any age to help them manage their own points of view, make their own decisions and carry out their own burden. Shirley Hamrin (1947) defined guidance as , " Helping John to see through himself in order that he may see himself through." Jones (1951) emphasized on the fact that, " the focus of guidance is the individual and not his problem, its purpose is to provide the growth of the individual in self-direction providing opportunity for self -realization and self-direction is the key-note of guidance." Types of Guidance According to Proctor, there are six types of Guidance: # 1) Educational Guidance Educational guidance includes guidance related to educational activities such as understanding subjects, extracurricular activities, adjustment in school, with peers and teachers. It includes the guidance that students need for all the difficulties students face with respect to their studies. # 2) Vocational Guidance Vocational guidance includes all the guidance students need with respect to their vocation or professional activities. In order to settle down well in life each individual needs a career or profession which not only establishes him financially but also gives him a mental satisfaction. All the help one needs to establish himself in his vocation is taken care of by vocational guidance. # 3) Guidance in Social and Civic activities This component takes care of all the guidance one needs in the areas of social activities and civic activities. # 4) Guidance in Health and Physical activities Students need help and guidance in the area of their health and physical activities. This component takes care of their health and physical fitness. Guidance needed by students for their physical well-being and other activities is taken care of by this component. # 5) Guidance in the worthy use of leisure time Proper utilization of free or leisure time is another very important aspect of guidance. It takes care of the activities related to a constructive utilization of free time. # 6) Guidance in character building A high character is the end of education. This component of guidance takes care of all the essential knowledge that needs to be provided to students so as to take care of their high morals and pure character. # II. # Review of Related Literature Tripathi (1986) conducted a study on determination of various guidance needs of the pupils of secondary and higher secondary schools. Pupils' problem checklist was developed consisting of 240 items having nine areas: (1) Physical Needs, (2) Familial Needs, (3) Social Needs, (4) Sexual Needs, (5) Personality, (6) Educational, (7) Financial, (8) Future life needs and (9) Religious Needs. The checklist was administered to the sample of 720 pupils from 24 schools situated in different areas in Ahamadabad. Major findings of the study showed a significant relationship between grades of pupils on the social, personality, educational, financial, vocational and religious needs. Pupils coming from low-economical status needed polite treatment from teachers, also female pupils needed much attention. Fathers' education was highly related with familial, personality, education and financial guidance needs. Bhatnagar and Gupta (1988) studied career maturity of secondary students and effect of guidance intervention programmes. The study aimed to determine if participation in a short term group guidance programme would enable students to move in a positive direction toward the goal to find out sex difference in the career maturity attitudes of adolescents. The sample consisted of 100 students of class 9 ( 62 boys and 38 girls) randomly selected from 2 engineering, medical and co-educational schools of Delhi. Data was collected with the help of the attitude scale of Crite's Career Maturity Inventory (CMI). Major findings of the study were that all the three groups: boys, girls and combined showed significantly higher after the guidance intervention. Kaur (1992) studied evaluation of guidance services in the high/higher secondary schools of Punjab and Chandigarh. The sample consisted of 1334 students from 59 schools from Punjab and Chandigarh, 56 guidance workers, 59 educational administrators, teachers, district assistants, guidance officers and assistant employment officers and 118 parents. Sampling was multi-stage random sampling. The data collected with the help of questionnaire, interview schedule and checklist. Major findings were that guidance and counseling services were not a regular feature in many schools. There exists no separate fund for guidance programmes. The hindrance in the effective implementation of guidance programmes were lack of financial support, lack of provision of full-time counselors, lack of awareness on the part of parents and students about the ability of the programme. Hence the existing guidance programme in Punjab and Chandigarh were not fully achieved. Kesici (2007) conducted a study on middle school students' guidance and counseling needs. The purpose of this study was to determine the guidance and counseling needs of middle school students from their points of views by using qualitative research techniques. For collecting data, semi-structured interview technique was used as a method of data collection. The study was conducted on grade 7 and grade 8 students from public primary Selcuklu schools in the district Konya of Turkey. Various schemes for educational, career, personal and social guidance counseling were established. Individual or group guidance programmes related to effective learning, exam anxiety, motivation techniques, adaptation to schools and lack of attention and interests towards lessons should be implemented. School guidance service and counselors should frequently present introductory information to students about variety of professions. Zaidi (2012) conducted a study on the construction of guidance need inventory at graduate level. In this study Guidance Needs Inventory was constructed by the researcher to assess guidance needs of the students from different streams i.e. Arts, Science and Commerce. The GNI was administered to a sample of 600 students from different streams from Aligarh Muslim University. Mean and standard deviation of students was calculated on five different areas of the GNI. Higher scores indicated more need of guidance whereas low score indicated less need of guidance. Results showed that students need more guidance in personal area compared to other areas. Prahar and Kaur (2013) conducted a study on the guidance needs of secondary school students of Jalandhar district. The major findings of the study show that there was no significant difference in the between the guidance needs of male and female students. Guidance needs of rural secondary school students were more than those of urban secondary school students. # a) Objectives of the Study 1. To study and compare the educational guidance needs of rural male and rural female elementary school students with learning disabilities. 2. To study and compare the educational guidance needs of rural male and urban male elementary school students with learning disabilities. 3. To study and compare the educational guidance needs of rural male and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities. 4. To study and compare the educational guidance needs of rural female and urban male elementary school students with learning disabilities. 5. To study and compare the educational guidance needs of rural female and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities. 6. To study and compare the educational guidance needs of urban male and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities. # b) Hypotheses of the Study 1. There will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural male and rural female elementary school students with learning disabilities. 2. There will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural male and urban male elementary school students with learning disabilities. 3. There will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural male and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities. 4. There will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural female and urban male elementary school students with learning disabilities. 5. There will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural female and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities. 6. There will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of urban male and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities. III. # Methodology The educational guidance needs were measured by the help of the Guidance Needs Scale constructed and standardized by the researcher. # a) Guidance Needs Scale The final draft of the guidance needs scale had 42 items. These items covered the areas of physical guidance needs, social guidance needs, psychological guidance needs and educational guidance needs. # b) Administration of the Scale The scale which included 42 items was administered to the sample of 140 elementary school students with learning disabilities. The students were told to put a tick mark for the correct option. Each item had three probable options : Always (2), Sometimes (1) and Never (0). After that response sheets were collected and scoring was done and results were tabulated. # c) Validity of the Scale The guidance needs scale had content validity because each and every item was selected and finalized with the help of subject experts. It also has construct validity since only those items were retained which had 't' values equal to or above 1.75 (Edward, 1975) and others were rejected. # d) Reliability of the Scale The reliability of the whole test came out to be 0.89. Reliability for educational guidance needs was computed to be 0.81. # e) Norms of the Scale From the scores obtained for all the 42 items norms for the psychological guidance needs were drawn: # Means of Educational Guidance Needs of Elementary School Students IV. # Results and Discussion From the above table the following results can be drawn: 1. From the above table, it is evident the t =.76, therefore P=NS, hence the hypothesis no 1 that there will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural male and urban male elementary school students with learning disabilities is retained. Further, since the mean values of rural males and urban males are 17.56 and 16.97, it is interpreted that they both do not differ much in their educational guidance needs. 2. From the above table, it is evident that t=1.56, therefore P=NS, hence the hypothesis no 2 that there will be no significant difference in the educational adjustment of rural male and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities is retained. Further, since the mean values of rural males and urban females are 17.56 and 16.28 it is interpreted that they both do not differ in their educational guidance needs. 3. From the above table, it is evident that t=.89, therefore P=NS, hence the hypothesis no 3 that there will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural male and rural female elementary school students with learning disabilities is retained. Further, since the mean values of rural males and rural females are 17.56 and 16.97 respectively it is interpreted that they do not differ in their educational guidance needs. 4. From the above table, it is evident that t= .76, therefore P=NS, hence the hypothesis no 4 that there will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural female and urban male elementary school students with learning disabilities is retained. Further, since the mean values of rural females and urban males are 16.97 and 16.97 respectively, it is interpreted that they both do not differ in their educational guidance needs. 5. From the above table, it is evident that t=.01, therefore P=NS, hence the hypothesis no 5 that there will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of rural female and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities is retained. Further, since the mean values of rural females and urban females are 16.97 and 16.28 respectively, it is interpreted that they both do not differ in their educational guidance needs. 6. From the above table , it is evident that t=.80, therefore P=NS, hence the hypothesis no 6 that there will be no significant difference in the educational guidance needs of urban male and urban female elementary school students with learning disabilities is retained. Further, since the means values of urban males and urban females are 16.97 and 16.28 respectively, it is interpreted that they both do not differ in their educational guidance needs. V. # Conclusions The study shows that the learning disables students have almost similar kind of educational guidance needs as they have all fallen in the average educational guidance needs category. They belong to a very vulnerable group of students who need lot of care and attention from teachers and parents alike. The plans which have to be devised for them need to be designed the specific needs of the students. Results are in conformity with Prahar and Kaur ( 2013 ) as they also concluded that rural students have higher guidance needs as the results show that rural female students have higher social guidance needs compared to urban males. Also results are similar to Tripathi (1986) as he emphasized that female students need more guidance compared to male students as in the present study as well one has seen that rural female students have higher social guidance needs compared to rural male students. 1Above 22Highest educational guidance needs19.5-22High educational guidance needs14.5-19.5Average educational guidance needs12-14.5Low educational guidance needsBelow 12Lowest educational guidance needs 2Sr. no.Urban AreaMalesFemales1GSSS Summerhill662GSSS Chaura Madan893GSSS Boileuganj10144GSSS Chhota Shimla155GSSS Sankatmochan636GSSS Dhali53Sr. no.Rural AreaMalesFemales1GSSS Kufri582GMS Jethna463GSSS Banuti Devi164GSSS Bychari615GSSS Mehli466GMS Majhar807GSSS Mashobra63 4Groups ofNMSDMDSEDtcomparisonRM3617.563.04.77.76UM3416.973.37.59RM3617.563.041.28.821.56UF4016.284.09RM3617.563.04.59.71.89RF3016.972.70RF3016.973.040.77.76UM3416.973.37RF3016.972.70.58.76.01UF4016.284.90UM3416.973.37.69.87.80UF4016.284.09*'t' value significant at .05 level of significanceRM Rural MaleUM Urban MaleRF rural FemaleUF Urban Female ## Global Journals Inc. (US) Guidelines Handbook 2015 www.GlobalJournals.org * LCrow Psychology of Human Adjustment New York Alford K. Knoff 1967 3rd ed. * Career Maturity of Secondary Students: Effects of a Guidance Intervention Programme GuptaBhatnagar Indian Educational Review 23 4 1988 * Evaluation of Guidance Services in High/Higher Secondary Schools of Punjab and Chandigarh. PhD ( Education), Punjab University SKaur Fifth Survey of Educational Research 2 1992 * Guidance Needs of Secondary Students MKPrahar KKaur PKaur International Journal of Behavioral Social and Movement Sciences 2 2 2013 * Determination of various guidance needs of the pupils of secondary and higher secondary schools RekhaTripathi Phd( Psychology), Gujarat University. Fourth Survey of Research in Education 1 1986 * Construction of Guidance Needs Inventory at Graduate Level FatimaZaidi Aligarh Muslim University. International Multidisciplinary e-journal 2012