Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 481: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of additional posts in full-time equivalents of guidance counsellors appointed under circular letter PPT 12/05. [37581/06]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 482: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the schedule for the appointment of guidance counsellors in second level schools on September 1980; and the number in full-time equivalents, approved for the school year 1980/81. [37582/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 481 and 482 together.

In 1980/81, in general all post primary schools with an enrolment of 250 pupils or more were granted one ex-quota post for the provision of Guidance. Any school with an enrolment of less than 250 pupils did not receive any guidance allocation. This meant that a maximum guidance provision of 22 hours per week applied regardless of school size.

Under the current arrangements, my Department makes a specific ex-quota allocation of teaching hours in respect of guidance to schools in the second level system based on the pupil enrolment in September of the preceding school year. As a result of my decision to allocate an additional 100 posts to guidance from September 2005, an improved schedule of guidance allocation was put in place. This enhanced provision means that in the case of schools in the Free Education/Block Grant Schemes, the level of allocation ranges from 8 hours per week for schools with enrolments below 200 pupils to 47 hours per week for schools with an enrolment of 1,000 pupils or more.

My Department's Circular Letter PPT 12/05 which issued to the managerial authorities of all second level schools outlined the new arrangements and asked schools to utilise the additional guidance allocation, as far as possible, to focus on guidance provision at junior cycle.

The additional posts also allowed a further improvement in the allocation of guidance hours for post-primary schools participating in the DEIS programme — Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools. The allocation for these schools now ranges from 11 hours per week for schools with enrolments below 300 to 55 hours per week for schools with an enrolment of 1,000 pupils or more.

The improved provision means that, for example, a school with 1,000 pupils now receives an allocation of 47 hours per week compared to the maximum of 22 hours per week which applied in 1980/81. Furthermore if that school is in DEIS it now receives 55 hours per week.

The information requested by the Deputy in relation to the number of guidance posts allocated to second level schools in 1980/81 is not readily available.