Schools struggle with one guidance counsellor for every 500 students – Williams
KINGSTON, Jamaica—Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams, has disclosed that there is just one guidance counsellor for every 500 students in the public school system.
She made the revelation on Wednesday as she answered questions from the Member of Parliament for St Catherine South, Fitz Jackson, during the sitting of the Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee that examined the 2023/24 budget.
The shortage exists at a time of frequent student-on-student violence and increasing conflicts between teachers and students.
Currently, there are 1,098 guidance counsellors employed in public schools, a ratio of 1 counsellor to 500 students. Williams admitted that a more ideal ratio would be 1 to 50. However, she noted that the cost to achieve that target would run into billions of dollars. In the interim, the ministry of education is looking to add nearly 300 more counsellors to the system.
“We would love to get to 1 to 400 guidance counsellors but we supplement that with clinical support from professionals that are accessible to our students and teachers and we also just announced that we are increasing the number of deans of discipline in our schools as well,” Williams said.
She outlined that in order to get to a ratio of 1 to 400 the government would have to hire an additional 292 guidance counsellors at a cost of $746 million.