Second-level students are receiving less than an hour of career guidance a year, at a time when the range of third-level options facing them had greatly increased, a conference was told yesterday.
The president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, Ms R≤is∅n Kelleher, said the ratio in many schools was one guidance counsellor to 799 pupils, which meant each student received 54 minutes of guidance in a year.
At the institute's annual conference in D·n Laoghaire, she said some students received no guidance at allat a time when "the number and variety of third level courses have increased greatly".
She said the Department of Education needed to restore the ratio to one counsellor to every 250 students. She also accused school managers of using guidance hours "for purposes other than those intended". She said a recent audit of guidance in schools showed that managers "in many instances are not complying with Department of Education circulars".
The accusation was rejected by Mr George O'Callaghan, general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body, which represents them.
Ms Kelleher also said it was no surprise that 12,000 students dropped out of the system each year before completing the Leaving Cert and an alarming number left before doing their Junior Cert. However guidance was not just a service for second-level. The high dropout rates at third-level showed the necessity for increasing resources there.