Guidance centre points the way and waits for action

Three years since its inception, the National Centre for Guidance in Education (NCGE) has become the focal point for developing guidance across the education sectors - from primary to second-level to higher and further education, adult education and early school-leavers. This broad remit is unique among the agencies of the Department of Education and Science, remarks NCGE director John McCarthy.

The core funding for the centre comes from the second-level side of the Department and this is the area most people associate with guidance. Indeed, it's an area with a huge need for guidance and one where the greatest concentration of guidance counsellors - 545 full-time equivalents - are employed to service a client group of 375,518 students.

There are 45 careers advisors at third level, which has a student population in excess of 100,000. In the primary sector, there are 27 teacher counsellors.

The provision for early school-leavers involved in the YouthReach and similar schemes is scant. There is no systematic provision, explains McCarthy, but some tutors may have counselling qualifications or guidance may be bought in.

The provision for the 109,815 adults in education is an even rarer commodity and has prompted the recent publication of a report by the NCGE. Guidance in Adult and Continuing Education states starkly that "guidance in adult and continuing education is one of the most neglected areas of education policy, practice and research in Ireland." While the phrase `life-long learning' has become something of a cliche, the reality is that the traditional emphasis on initial education and training is shifting to accommodate adults who wish to return to education.

A study contained in the NCGE report, based on replies from 274 students in 25 education centres, threw up the startling statistic that 66 per cent of these students got no help at all. Only 13 per cent said they had got a lot of help. As well as highlighting the need for guidance, the report stresses the need to formulate a national policy on adult educational guidance.

This is the type of baseline research which has mainly occupied NCGE staff for the past three years. Guidance has been one of the more poorly researched areas in education over the years, says McCarthy.

"Baseline studies were needed to inform our actions," he says. "We've been getting the opinions of principals, guidance counsellors and students and we're addressing these needs in different ways.

"We've just completed another piece of research which looks at the existing provision and further information technology needs in guidance and education." McCarthy admits that the next phase of the NCGE's actions should concentrate on ensuring that the research and policies formulated do not sit in a drawer, unheeded.

Asked to identify the major achievements of the centre over the past few years, the director suggests a different question - "What's the most frustrating thing? The speed of progress with, for example, the implementation of the guidelines for the practice of guidance and counselling in schools and the recommendations that arose out of that . . . it's a Department policy document but moving from policy to implementation is very slow. I think the centre would share the frustrations of the practitioners."

Published in February 1996, there were five recommendations and only two have been advanced: the name career guidance counsellor was changed to guidance counsellor while the development of an action plan is still ongoing. The recommendation that "the existing provision of an exquota resource for guidance should be used for the provision of guidance services only, i.e. educational, vocational and personal/social guidance" would not be a major cost to the Department, says McCarthy, and should have been done a long time ago.

Other recommendations which languish in the document include "a minimum of eight hours per week guidance provision is required in any size school in order to provide a basic guidance service." The NCGE estimates this would mean 13 additional whole-time equivalent guidance posts on a national basis. An interim arrangement which would facilitate proximate schools to combine in order to appoint a guidance counsellor serving the schools also remains to be implemented.

McCarthy suggests a three-year benchmark on progress is appropriate. "As a national agency we have a responsibility to account for the progress made. We need to look at what has been achieved and what still needs to be done. It's important for the public to know our job is to inform the policy of the Department but we don't have a role in implementation."

Having aired his frustrations, McCarthy is happy to talk about the positive side of the past three years. The NCGE prepared a handbook for guidance counsellors in second level. This has been very well received, he says, and people from the other sectors think it may be worthwhile adopting it to meet their needs.

The NCGE has developed its own website (http://www.iol.ie/ ncge). Publications have dealt with guidelines for the practice of guidance and counselling in schools; principals' perception of the guidance service in second-level schools;, NCGE news; guidance in the information society; non-formal guidance for young people at risk. The centre's involvement in European projects is documented in, a twice-yearly projects newsletter.

Involvement with European projects means that the NCGE and guidance in general benefits from the experience of other countries. For instance, the trainers on a new programme on the management of guidance services for adults in education have just spent a week in Scotland being trained by people from Iceland, Slovakia and Scotland. The trainers from NUI Maynooth's department of education and Marino Institute will bring this experience back to the 25 people on the course which is run jointly by the two institutes.

The functions of the NCGE include the development and evaluation of guidance materials, the provision of technical advice and information and guidance practice, the promotion, development and dissemination of good practice in guidance as well as support for innovative projects and informing the Department's policy in matters pertaining to guidance. All of this is summed up in the NCGE's annual review, due to be published shortly.