Plea over lack of school psychologists

Thousands of children in schools around the country are being deprived of vital services due to a lack of school psychologists, it was claimed today.

Figures from the Education Department have revealed there is a shortage of 63 psychologists in the National Educational Psychological Service.

Jan O’Sullivan, the Labour Party’s spokeswoman on education, said: “Over one third of all positions are vacant nationally, but the position is even more stark in some regions.”

The service set a target figure of employing 185 professional psychologists in schools, but only 122 are actually in place.

The TD said the figures released to her by the Education Department showed the mid-west, including Limerick, was one of the worst-hit regions.

“Two thirds of all posts in the region are currently vacant. We are supposed to have 16 psychologists, but we only have five. Last September we had six, so it’s actually worse,” she said.

Ms O’Sullivan said Education Minister Mary Hanafin must make a major effort to appoint the required psychologists as they were promised as far back as 2000.

“The fact of the matter is that children who have specific psychological needs are not getting the necessary support. This will have an enormous effect at later stages of the child’s education. The earlier children get this support, the better, but that’s not happening at the moment,” she said.

“There has been no effective attempt to recruit these much-needed psychologists, and that’s something that Minister Hanafin must remedy.”

The figures for this month show there are 11 employed in the east coast area and four required, and there were 16 psychologists promised for the mid-western region where five are currently working.

A target of 28 was set for schools in the southern region, where 17 are employed.

Out of the promised 26 school psychologists for the eastern region – there are 16 working.