The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, launched what he regarded as two "seminal events" in the education calendar at the RDS in Dublin yesterday. Kathryn Holmquist, Education Correspondent, reports.
The Irish Times/Irish Guidance Counsellors Higher Options Conference and the Qualifax CD-Rom of information about third-level choices were both essential to helping students and counsellors through the "bewildering array of options" facing students today, he said.
The Minister also announced that all schools will be issued with a document outlining their responsibilities to provide guidance services under the Education Act.
"The Higher Options Conference, in its 17th year, has become the mainstay of the guidance counsellor's diary and provides an invaluable form for students and adult learners alike to identify at first hand the choices and opportunities which are available to them for further study," Mr Dempsey said.
The Minister commended The Irish Times for keeping education at the forefront of the public agenda, although he said that at times he wished the newspaper was not quite so forthright in its work.
He also praised Qualifax, which was produced by Mr Tom Farrell and his team in Carlow, for helping students and counsellors alike to "negotiate a minefield". "In my previous incarnation as a guidance counsellor, and indeed since, I have long been aware of the importance of this resource," he said.
Qualifax provides information from more than 200 third-level institutions on more than 3,500 courses. The Minister announced that Qualifax would be expanded to include adult education opportunities. Any money spent on this resource had been paid back to the Department in value many times over, he said.
The Department will be issuing to schools a document in relation to the implications of the Education Act, "to give clarity to the developing role of the guidance service", he said.
The Department is also releasing guidelines to schools on the planning process necessary to ensure that guidance services are properly responsive to the changing educational environment and are recognised by school authorities as occupying a core role within school structures.
The Minister also presented prizes to the winners of the Young Science Writers Competition, which attracted 200 entries.