Cluster-based guidance counsellors having it rough

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Ministry of Education, Youth, Skills and Information embarked on the Cluster-based Guidance Counsellors in January 2021 in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cluster-based Guidance Counsellors in the majority of parishes are assigned two schools for oversight, but Clarendon stands out above the rest. In Clarendon Cluster Based Guidance Counsellors being assigned a whopping four schools they are tasked with providing behavioural support, counselling interventions, developmental activities, home visits, crisis interventions among another myriad of expectations as required.

In essence, Cluster-based Guidance Counsellors in Clarendon are tasked with doing the job of four guidance counsellors in one. Further, it can also be seen that in the years leading up to current, this job has had a high turnover rate.

This takes a toll on Cluster-based Guidance Counsellors’ mental and physical health dealing with four different environments, four different sets of personalities, and four different sets of behaviours and problems, within each specific school environment, and with leaders and supervisors who are not sympathetic in the least. Not to mention the workload and the excessive travelling which is not compensated. Further, if you are a guidance counsellor with a conscience who believes in giving your very best in providing effective solutions and properly catering to the needs of the students we serve, this arrangement gives no room to operate at your fullest potential. When the appraisal period comes around, you are appraised with the same expectations outlined for a guidance counsellor serving one school. The minister of finance and the public service recently signalled that the government intends to implement a pay for performance system for public sector workers, but our current working conditions do not allow for same.

TIRED AND DRAINED

GUIDANCE COUNSELLOR