A helpline that Leaving Certificate students can ring for advice and career guidance when they get their results next month has been announced by the Minister for Education, Mr Martin.
The helpline is run annually by the National Parents Council and the Institute of Guidance Counsellors and provides advice and information to parents and students on the choices available in further education based on the results. The lines are staffed by guidance counsellors.
Yesterday Ms Rose Tully, president of the NPC Post Primary, called on the Minister to evaluate the existing guidance counselling provision.
"A major change in the guidance counsellor:pupil ratio needs to be made to enable the guidance counsellor to deliver an effective service to schools," Ms Tully said.
Due to the change in the family structure, there was an increasing demand for personal and social counselling. More time needed to be made available by management in schools to guidance counsellors for this work, by freeing them from subject teaching.
Information technology should be used as an effective tool in the provision of the routine aspects of career information, she said.
Careers information materials needed to be developed for students from first year to Leaving Certificate. The statutory role of FAS in providing careers information should be recognised and implemented to the advantage of the student, she said.
Ms Tully cited other needs, including user-friendly information developed and provided for parents; education of students, parents and school authorities about the changing nature of employment and opportunities available; and linked pathways to be clearly defined to enable students to transfer from second level to PLCs, institutes of technology and universities.
She added that funding for the training of guidance counsellors should be made available so that teachers interested in this area of education can train, develop or update skills.
The helpline number is 1-890812812. The lines will be open from Wednesday, August 19th, when the results come out, from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and on August 20th from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Tuesday, August 25th, when students and parents have had time to assess the results, the lines will be open again from 12 noon to 10 p.m.