NSW: Debnam pledges 280 new school counsellors

AAP General News (Australia)
02-15-2007
NSW: Debnam pledges 280 new school counsellors

The New South Wales opposition leader has pledged to put hundreds of new counsellors
into government schools if elected .. to help students with problems.

Announcing the policy at Randwick in Sydney's eastern suburbs today .. PETER DEBNAM
said a coalition government will provide 280 additional counsellors in its first term
.. and a total of 700 over 10 years.

Mr DEBNAM says after 12 years of Labor there's only one counsellor to every one thousand
high school students .. and one counsellor to every 15-hundred primary school students.

He says the counsellors will be placed in the schools which most need them .. to help
students experiencing problems.

Opposition education spokesman BRAD HAZZARD says the policy will cost 60 million dollars
over four years.

AAP RTV acb/bd/klw/tm/rt

KEYWORD: POLLNSW EDUCATION (SYDNEY)

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