Schools must use extra teaching hours for guidance services

The Department of Education has insisted that second-level schools are obliged to ensure extra teaching hours allocated for guidance are used for that purpose.

It was responding to criticisms from the Institute of Guidance Counsellors which claimed a letter from the department to schools, earlier this week, did not appear to guarantee the ringfenced provision of guidance services promised by Education Minister Richard Bruton in Budget 2017 last October.

At the time, the department said schools would be issued a separate allocation for guidance from next September, when 100 extra posts are provided to the country’s 735 second-level schools for that purpose.