ALL THREE teacher unions have expressed support for the recent report, published by IMPACT, about the schools' psychological service.

The report highlighted the fact that 80 per cent of primary school children have no contact whatsoever with educational psychologists, and cited a ratio of one psychologist to 18,000 second-level pupils. The report called for a fivefold increase in staffing and for new management structures to be developed.

John Carr, assistant general secretary of the INTO, is concerned that the model developing at primary level is based on the post-primary practice, with a strong emphasis on assessment. The model the INTO supports was developed during a Department of Education pilot project in 1990, in which a more holistic approach was used, involving teachers and parents in planned programmes.

According to Carr, the present psychological service is under the auspices of the inspectorate. The INTO's "strong view is that there should be a separate independent psychological service within the Department, with its own director and its own structure".

The service should be based in schools or communities, not in the Department of Education, he adds.

"It is a public scandal that a Government embargo means that 10 psychologists who should have been appointed last year were not. The embargo means that thousands of children have lost out," Carr says. The INTO is calling for these 10 psychologists to be appointed now, as well as a further 10 for this year.