Freeze on career advisers to remain [Independent.ie]
- Published: 16 August 2011
THE Department of Education will not appoint any more guidance counsellors, despite half of Leaving Certificate students saying they felt "overwhelmed" when making life-changing decisions.
Guidance counsellors, who each have the responsibility for advising close to 500 school pupils, deal with twice the number of students they did in the 1980s -- a ratio described as "totally inadequate" by the Institute of Guidance Counsellors (IGC).
A study by the Economic and Social Research Institute carried out for the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment found almost four out of five sixth-year students would have liked more information before making college and career choices. And around half said they felt "overwhelmed" when it came to making decisions that would affect the rest of their lives.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
