THE OUTGOING president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, Father John Dunne, wants the Minister of Education to provide one counsellor for every 250 students. This ratio would "quickly redress the imbalance of too many people, too badly prepared for the life-long cycle of learning, working, retraining".

Speaking at the IGC's AGM in Kilkenny last Friday, Duane pointed to Ireland's long-term unemployment and the high rate of dropping out without certification - "yet we have a serious shortage of people trained in areas such as electronics, technical engineering, tourism, telemarketing and teleservices".

The Minister must ensure that the time allocated to guidance be used for that purpose only, he said. He also asked her to provide a computer on the desk of every counsellor - "a guidance counsellor without a computer is like a farmer without a tractor, a nurse without the thermometer."

Delegates heard that the past few years had seen great change in the work of the guidance counsellor. "From near-extinction in the I980s, our role is now seen to be central in the education agenda," he said. He quoted from The Practice of Guidance and Counselling in Schools, published in February 1996 by Niamh Bhreatnach, which states: "Given the broad range of activities that it encompasses, guidance and counselling, in addition to being a specialist area of education, is a whole school enterprise and must function as such."

Duane is finishing his term as president of the IGC and left members with the challenge to "get resourced, get retrained, get life-long, get cracking for the good of all citizens in a rapidly changing world".