The understaffing of the guidance service in second-level schools should be hotly debated at the teacher conferences this Easter. Motions at the ASTI and TUI congresses call on the Minister for Education and Science to improve the ratio of counsellors to students so that an adequate service can be provided to all students.

ASTI delegates, in Tralee, Co Kerry, will be asked to vote on the proposition that the union "negotiate with the Department of Education and Science for all schools over 500 pupils to have appointed by the Department an ex-quota professional counsellor whose sole responsibility shall be counselling pupils with behavioural, emotional or social difficulties along with co-ordinating a pastoral care programme for schools."

Meanwhile, in Galway, a motion at the TUI congress "instructs the executive to negotiate with the Department for the provision of a full-time guidance counsellor for every 250 students."

The Institute of Guidance Counsellors has asked the Department to treble the numbers of counsellors in school in order to achieve this ratio. Roisin Kelleher, president of the IGC, says that there are 545 guidance counsellors to serve 371,184 second-level students. Almost 1,500 counsellors would be needed to lower the ratio from 680:1 to 250:1.

"When one considers the significant role which guidance and counselling can play in helping individuals, it's difficult to believe that in 1998 30 years after the introduction of a guidance and counselling service, we are still pleading with the Department to restore the provision of one guidance counsellor to 250 students which existed up to 1983," Kelleher told the IGC's recent annual conference.

She cited a survey of second-level schools carried out by the National Centre for Guidance in Education which found that most principals said that this ratio, at the very least, was necessary for an effective service. "We now have a situation where one guidance counsellor can be expected to take responsibility for up to 799 students."

One of the main weaknesses of the service is its concentration on senior-cycle students with little or no provision for those in junior cycle. "If such a provision was in place," says Kelleher, "students would have access to guidance counsellors who would advise them of the risks involved in early dropout and would also encourage them to complete their second-level education. Another weakness of the present system is that little time is available for individual counselling and group work."

In its report for the ASTI convention, the union's education committee expresses its concern that a number of unqualified persons were working in some schools' guidance and counselling services. It recommends that all school should have the services of teachers who are qualified guidance counsellors.

Charlie Lennon, ASTI general secretary, says that it's unfortunate that some schools have to use people without a qualification. It's the result of the failure to train sufficient people, he adds, and the restrictive provision of guidance counsellors to schools.

The Department allocates two full-time ex-quota counsellors for 1,000 or more pupils. There is a sliding pro-rata scale down to 0.1 of a post to schools with fewer than 100 pupils. It may not be possible to get a qualified guidance counsellor for a few hours a week, Lennon points out.

"Every school should have a full-time guidance counsellor and the larger schools should have several. There is a perception that guidance is limited to career guidance. This is not the case."

The TUI is also concerned about the situation and a motion before its members asks that congress direct the union's executive to "ensure that the guidance and counselling provision in VEC schools should only be carried out by fully qualified guidance counsellors."

The Department's allocation puts many schools in a Catch 22 situation, says Tony Deffely, past president of the TUI. They have to provide a service but are not entitled to employ an ex-quota teacher. "Who will give the career information?" he asks. "It falls back on some other teacher who must assume an additional burden of work. The Department is getting guidance on the cheap . . . there is more to guidance than information and it's a great pity that people are being forced to do something that is a professional job in a non-professional way."

The need for guidance has increased in recent years with the introduction of the Transition Year, LCA and LCV, he points out. PLC students also have a requirement for guidance. Many of the submissions to the Points Commission mentioned the need for more guidance. But, it's an area where a cut in staffing still exists, says Deffely.