Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang, Nee Soon GRC
Question
To ask the Minister for Education (a) for each year in the past five years, what is the mean and median number of (i) students handled by each school counsellor and (ii) hours spent with each student by each school counsellor; and (b) if the data is not currently collected, whether the Ministry will consider collecting this data.
Response
1. In the past 5 years, each School Counsellor supports an average of 70 students with social-emotional and mental health issues annually. The time spent on each case varies according to the student's needs and the intensity of support required. MOE does not track the time spent on each case and has no plans to do so. Besides counselling students, School Counsellors also work closely with school personnel, community partners and parents on other aspects of the ecosystem of support for students, such as in planning preventive programmes.