Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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75. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide figures on the reductions secondary schools have made in guidance counselling hours as a result of his removal of the ex quota allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42238/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I have already acknowledged to the House that bringing guidance within quota is challenging for schools. However, the alternative was to adjust the PTR staffing allocations. Guidance is a whole school activity and schools have autonomy on how best to prioritise their available resources to meet the requirements in relation to guidance and the provision of an appropriate range of subjects to students. This operates at local school level.

The representative organisations for School Principals and school management developed a framework that assists schools on how best to manage the provision of guidance from within their staffing allocation. This approach puts a greater emphasis on group-work and class-based activity at senior cycle and maximises the amount of time available for those pupils that need one to one support. The budget decision sheltered the impact for all DEIS post-primary schools by improving their standard staffing allocations – a fact which is often overlooked in this debate.