School guidance counsellors attack dilution of role

THE personal supports given in schools to second-level students are being weakened by the use of outside staff and services, the head of the country’s guidance counsellors has warned.

Eilis Coakley, president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, will tell colleagues at their annual conference that their professional role is being eroded at a time when there has never been more demand for guidance services.

“It is being dismantled in a piecemeal fashion until we become invisible,” Ms Coakley said.