John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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59. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans in relation to the continued funding of the guidance councillor at a college (details supplied) in County Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19788/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Since September 2012 guidance provision is now provided from within the overall staffing allocation of all schools including the school referred to by the Deputy. The alternative to this budget measure was to increase the standard 19:1 PTR.

While the budget measure affected the resources available to schools, schools have greater autonomy to determine how they deploy their teaching resources across the competing needs of the school. I am confident schools act in the best interests of students when determining how best to use the teaching resources available to them.

Guidance and counselling is a whole school responsibility with guidance counsellors playing their part within an overall team approach. 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. Wherever possible, group work and class based activity should be used to maximise the amount of time available for those pupils that are in most need of one to one support.