In the current school year the allocation to second level schools in respect of guidance and counselling is of the order of 580 whole-time teacher equivalents. I recently announced that 50 additional posts for guidance and counselling will be allocated to second level schools to develop innovative ways of enhancing guidance for students and to promote links between schools, business, voluntary and State agencies.
In relation to the current availability of guidance services, I have recently received the results of an audit of all second level schools, conducted on behalf of my Department by the National Centre for Guidance in Education. It is clear from the audit that a significant number of schools are not fully utilising the resources currently being made available to them by my Department for guidance and that, in many schools, the service is not adequately targeted at pupils at risk.
In these circumstances, my first priority is to ensure the resources made available to schools for guidance are fully utilised for that purpose. In line with the Government's priority to promote social inclusion, my other priority is to ensure that those young people who are most at risk of dropping out of education early are a major focus of guidance provision in schools. As a result, any future enhancement of provision to individual schools will be conditional on their making a commitment to providing a service to all their pupils which would reflect both Government priorities and their pupils' needs.
An expert group on teacher allocations at second level is currently examining all aspects of the teacher allocation process at second level, including the provision of staffing resources to schools for guidance. The question of increasing the allocation in respect of guidance and counselling will be considered in the light of the recommendations of the group, which are expected in the near future.