Cuts to guidance counselling allocations in second-level schools will not be reversed, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has said.
In a robust defence of his controversial abolition of ex-quota guidance counselling provision, he said that the decision was taken reluctantly in order to preserve the pupil-teacher ratios, but that it was now up to the leadership teams in schools to deploy their resources as they saw fit.
Delegates at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland conference in Kilkenny condemned the Government’s cuts to guidance counselling as “retrograde and destructive”.
A TUI survey conducted last month found that guidance teachers had 40 per cent less time to spend on one-on-one meetings with students.
Helen Mahony, a teacher at Ballyfermot College of Further Education, said that the Minister for Education had destroyed the system of guidance counselling in schools and was guilty of destroying young people’s lives.
Stress
"With the stroke of a pen, he destroyed a system that is so essential to schools," she said. "Students have a statutory entitlement to guidance counselling under the 1998 Education Act, but they are not getting it. Young people are suffering unprecedented levels of psychological stress and economic problems; some children are homeless. Guidance is key to navigating these problems."
Citing World Health Organisation statistics which found that Ireland has the highest rate of suicide for young women in the EU, and the second highest suicide rate for males, Ms Mahony said there was no effective suicide prevention policy in schools.
Unemployment
Diarmuid McCarthy, a teacher from Dublin, said that young people are facing high levels of uncertainty, including parental unemployment, anxiety and depression, and risk-taking behaviour.
Teacher Fergal McCarthy said that the cuts to guidance were “the most cynical cuts that was imposed on our members. Any teacher who has been unfortunate enough to have a critical incident in their school will have seen the importance of guidance. The Minister should be rightly condemned for his attempt to asset-strip schools.”
