Cuts to school counselling

COMMENT

Last week, Fianna Fáil put down a private members’ motion in the Dáil calling on the Government to reverse cuts made in the budget to education.

The minister opposed the motion and went on to describe the cut as one that will “give schools more freedom to manage staff”. Ah yes minister, just what the doctor ordered, not money or support or enough staff to do the job in the first place; simply freedom. As the student themselves would say, whoop, whoop!
The Government announced in December’s budget that from next September, career guidance counsellors would be a part of the normal staffing allocation for secondary schools.
What does this mean for students and parents? In a nutshell, school principals will have to choose between offering a subject and offering a guidance counselling service. This pseudo choice is no choice at all; damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Without a guidance counsellor, how can school management remain compliant with DEIS policy, which requires that “students have access to appropriate guidance to assist them in their educational and career choices” (Education Act (1998) Section 9)? Impossible. In order to meet some kind of appropriate guidance requirement, something has to give.
Reduced teaching hours mean class sizes will increase. With this, cuts will have to be made to existing options. Foundation classes for core subjects such as Irish and maths are very likely to be cut. Less academic students will be hardest hit if this happens. The Leaving Cert year is an incredibly challenging time for our youth; add to this sitting an exam, which is beyond your ability and to top it off, no guidance counsellor to discuss the issue with.
The cost of leaving a college programme stands between €1,500 and €3,000 in fees alone. Take into account accommodation deposits, books, travel and general preparation and parents could be looking at a bill of anything up to €6,000 for their child’s ill-chosen programme; not to mention the enormous dent to self-confidence for the young person involved. It has never been more important for students to make informed choices. Families with no previous experience of third-level education are especially disadvantaged without access to appropriate and professional guidance.
There are a multitude of programmes out there to accommodate those who are experiencing financial, academic and social/personal difficulty.
Supports include reduced points entry to college, fee support, study skills and mentoring as well as specific learning difficulty (SLD) support. Who will make the initial links with these agencies and make parents and students aware of the myriad of options open to them?
If guidance is no longer available in our schools and a family cannot afford to pay for the service privately, how does a student make a quality decision on his/her future? How do they know where to start?
Questions such as what kind of person am I and what is important to me; where do I want to go; how will I tell my parents I want to study costume design and not accountancy; I want to train as a mechanic but cannot get an apprenticeship, who can help me figure it out? arise all the time and it is not always possible for young people to discuss them at home.
Guidance counselling is not just about career decision making. It is a three-tiered service covering academic, social/personal and vocational education in schools. It is a service that implements programmes for those who are tuned out and cannot see meaning in the school system; it is the same service that helps identify these students in the first place.
A guidance counsellor creates many and varied links with students and parents. They provide a person-centred support to young people experiencing various crises at home, in their personal lives, victims and perpetrators of bullying, those suffering stress and anxiety, exclusion, depressive tendencies and relationship difficulties with peers, authority or home.
It is an incredibly subtle yet fundamental cog in the school wheel and I dread to imagine how a school could function without it. Who will these students turn to?
Most do not need referral to outside services (this is also part of the guidance counsellor’s role). Ease of accessibility to a professional and confidential service can mean the difference between function and dysfunction in terms of school and personal performance. Is the measure of a civilised society not in how we treat our vulnerable citizens? God knows we are moving further away from that ideal.
A quality leader keeps set values and a vision for the future before them. They align decisions with these standards. I see none.
It is devastating for professionals on the ground; those who have invested heavily in their qualifications, have a passion for education and a quality future for our youth to have to stomach the appalling firefighting that appears to be this Government’s strategy for education. Confucius’ famous quote, “Find a job you love and you will never work a day” is often referred to in guidance counselling. This famous philosopher gives us food for thought when he outlines that, “To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.”
The old, the young, disabled, sick and vulnerable are under constant attack. Are we as lacking in courage as our supposed leaders? What has to happen before we stand up and demand to be heard?

Aisling Haugh is a guidance counsellor at Kilrush Community School.