This week the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) said the Ministry of Education urgently needed to increase the ratio of school counsellors to students.
It said there was one for every 1000 students at present, and that needed to change to at least one counsellor for every 400 students.
Taieri College principal David Hunter said there was a ‘‘real inconsistency’’ across the South, and across the entire country, in the number of counsellors a school had, and the resources available to it.
He said to be able to have school counsellors on site was part of a system that worked to help students who were having ‘‘real concerns’’, and it needed to be funded appropriately.
‘‘Some schools aren’t in a position to fund counsellors like other schools.
‘‘Having a fairer funding system for putting counsellors across all schools would be really beneficial for the mental health of young people.’’
Mr Hunter said the ‘‘scattered’’ funding model meant schools were having to ‘‘dig deep’’ into their own pockets to fund counsellors.
At present, school counsellors were teachers who went on to study a master’s degree in counselling or counselling studies.
‘‘I think it’s a really specialised position.
‘‘We’ve got wonderful counsellors across all schools, but ... they have to be a trained teacher in order to be a counsellor in a school, and fulltime counsellors won’t do any teaching, because they’re counselling.
‘‘It’s such a unique and specialised job, I think it should be recognised as that.’’
PPTA Secondary Principals’ Council chairman Steve McCracken said secondary schools had a systemic lack of sustainable funding for wellbeing co-ordinators, pastoral deans and health teams.
‘‘The school counsellor is usually the only mental health support available, but there is often a long time to see them in anything but a dire emergency.’’
The response came after a report ‘‘Te Tūtanga Kaiwhiriwhiri I Wātū, Counselling Workforce’’ was released, which recommended an increase in counselling staff.
‘‘The money being spent on charter schools could instead fund thousands of teachers or a counselling team in every secondary school in the country — this would give us an increase from one counsellor for every thousand students, to about one for every 170 students.’’
Ministry of Education group general manager of operational standards and support Helen Hurst said schools with secondary students received guidance staffing as part of their entitlement.
‘‘This staffing is designed to support the general guidance needs of students, though it is not specifically tagged for school counsellors — as self-governing entities, schools have the flexibility to determine how best to use this staffing allocation.’’
She said the ministry did not require schools to report how many counsellors they had, or whether they had any employed at all, so they could not verify any statistics.
‘‘There is a range of other counselling and guidance supports for students at secondary level, supplied by non-governmental organisations and other government departments — any change to current counselling provision would be subject to budget decisions.’’
