Guidance counsellors fight school cuts

School principals in Kerry are currently assessing the impact of budget cuts in guidance services which will directly affect second-level students from September next.

The Institute of Guidance Counsellors (IGC) Kerry branch has launched a campaign against the cuts, which will have to be managed by schools within their overall teacher allocation.

ICG Kerry spokesperson Niamh Dwyer said current levels of service cannot be maintained if guidance is placed completely within the overall allocation of school hours.

Schools, she said, would be caught “between a rock and a hard place” and forced to make the impossible decision between providing subjects and offering a guidance counselling service.

“There will be an inevitable reduction, if not removal, of guidance counselling services in schools,” Ms Dwyer from Scoil Phobal Sliabh Luachra, in Rathmore, said.

She said the majority of students will not have appropriate access to a guidance counsellor as is their legal entitlement under the Education Act.

“In a school of 450 students, the ex-quota allocation has been 17 hours for guidance up to this year.

“From September, if school management is able to maintain half of the allocation at eight hours, it will mean 264 hours for guidance in the school year to meet the needs of 450 young people. It simply won’t add up,” she said.

A public meeting, organised by the Kerry ICG, with the support of secondary school parents’ councils, will be held in the Brandon

Hotel, Tralee, on Monday, Feb 27 at 7.30pm.

An online petition has also been set up by students in the Presentation Secondary School, Listowel.

* www.petitiononline.ie