Vol. 490 No. 7
37 Ms Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on whether there is a need to revise the rules governing the appointment of guidance counsellors to take account of the growing needs of pupils. [11106/98]
The rules covering the appointment of guidance counsellors are laid down in circular letters and deal with: (a) criteria for schools to be allocated guidance posts, (b) qualifications for appointment as a guidance counsellor and (c) the requirement in certain cases for guidance counsellors to engage in a certain amount of subject teaching.
(a) Each school is given an ex-quota guidance allocation which varies according to school size. This criterion is objective and transparent and ensures a full distribution of guidance allocation across the second level sector. There are currently 567 whole-time teacher equivalents allocated to guidance in the system.
(b) In order to be appointed to an incremental post as a guidance counsellor, a teacher must be fully qualified to teach in the relevant sector, i.e. secondary, vocational or community-comprehensive, and must have an additional qualification in guidance. The qualification in guidance must have been awarded at the end of a postgraduate course of at least a year's duration, approved by my Department.
(c) In addition to their guidance qualification, guidance counsellors need to be familiar with the education system at second level and should have experience of working with class size groups of students. For this reason, there is a requirement that guidance counsellors in posts outside the quota should engage each week in at least three hours' subject teaching.
