Government Must Re-Appoint Guidance Counsellors

I have, on many occasions, drawn attention to the serious impact of the Government’s decision in December 2011 to change the ex-quota status of the role of the guidance counsellor in second level schools and he doing so again this week.
Many schools have described the cuts to Guidance counsellors as the cruellest of all cuts and they point out that never before was there a greater need for pastoral care in our Post primary schools .It is unfair to ask that the guidance role be spread among the whole staff unit as this can only lead to a disjointed service instead of the students having access to somebody they can trust and who has the expertise and the time to deal with their problems.
It is now time for our Post Primary schools to be given some respite so that they can deal with so many of the social issues they are facing every day. “There is no school in the country that is not experiencing mental health issues and concerns among their pupils and Guidance Counsellors are an absolute necessity.
Under the new programme for Government I believe it is incumbent on the Minister to act quickly to reverse the cuts of the 2011 Budget and to re-instate the “ex-quota” role of the Guidance Counsellor in our Post-primary schools. I have, on many occasions, drawn attention to the serious impact of the Government’s decision in December 2011 to change the ex-quota status of the role of the guidance counsellor in second level schools and will continue to highlight this serious problem.