Guidance minimum accepted

GUIDANCE counsellors who are allocated to schools on a full-time ex-quota basis can in future only be used as full-time guidance counsellors and not as subject teachers, according to new guidelines to be issued shortly to schools by the Minister for Education, Niamh Bhreathnach. Similarly counsellors allocated ex-quota on a half-time basis or less must be used only in guidance work for the equivalent time.

The guidelines are based on a report which was prepared by the recently-established National Centre for Guidance in Education and the Minister has accepted the report in full. The guidelines also provide for a number of smaller schools to share a guidance counsellor. Last year the Minister allocated an additional 100 guidance posts to schools, but there is concern that some are used at least partially for subject teaching.

Schools with 1,000 plus pupils are allowed two full-time guidance counsellors, schools with 850-1,000 a full-time and a half-time counsellor, schools with 500-850 pupils one full-time counsellor and schools with 250-500 a half-time counsellor. The new provisions will create an additional 13 full-time equivalent guidance posts in schools.

The ASTI welcomes the guidelines but has reservations about the full-time guidance recommendation. "We are very much in favour of the enhancement of guidance provision as suggested in the report, but it will have implications for some schools where guidance counsellors have been doing normal classroom teaching. The report does not address how this matter is to be dealt with," says John White, assistant general secretary of the ASTI.

The report recommends that teachers involved in the area be officially called "guidance counsellors". The report agrees with the observation of the School Guidance Committee that a minimum of eight hours per week guidance provision is required in any school in order to provide a basic service.

The Minister intends, she says, to put in place a joint working party to advance the report's proposal for an action plan for guidance.