The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is set to ramp up its response to the shortage of guidance counsellors in schools.

During Thursday’s (March 2) sitting of Standing Finance Committee at the House of Representatives, Fayval Williams, the minister of education, youth and information said that an additional 292 guidance counsellors are needed.

This will come at a cost of $746 million.

“In our schools, in numbers, we have 1098 guidance counselors, in terms of the ratio of guidance counsellors to students right now it is [1:500]. We would love to get to [1:400] guidance counsellors but we supplement that with clinical support from professionals that’s accessible to our students and teachers,” she said.

Williams noted that given the current situation in schools today, the ideal ratio for guidance counsellors should be [1:50].

The education minister further noted that plans are also in place to increase the number of deans of disciplines in schools.