Counsellor-student ratio in schools and percentage of students seeking help

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Ms Hazel Poa, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) what is the current counsellor-student ratio in schools and whether this is uniform across all schools regardless of their size; (b) what percentage of schools have two or more school counsellors; (c) what percentage of students have sought help from counsellors; and (d) how have these metrics changed since 2020.

Response

1.Schools are resourced with one or two trained school counsellors, depending on need. Schools can also deploy flexi-adjunct school counsellors or teacher-counsellors to augment the support for their students. Since 2020, about one-third of schools have two school counsellors. During the same period, an average of 1.5% of the students have approached their school counsellors for help in each year.