HALIFAX – Nova Scotia is committing $14 million over the next three years to increase the number guidance counsellors and improve youth mental health services in its schools.
Premier Darrell Dexter met Wednesday with the Nova Scotia School Counsellors Association to make the announcement.
Dexter says $4.6 million of that funding will allow school boards to add 51 guidance counsellor positions across the province.
He says this will raise the student-to-counsellor ratio to 1-to-500, which is one of the key recommendations that came out of last year’s report from the Task Force on Bullying and Cyberbullying.
There are currently about 200 guidance counsellors working in Nova Scotia schools.
The remaining $9.4 million in funding will go towards hiring mental health workers and youth health centre co-ordinators in schools.
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