Ratio Allocation
In some states in Australia there is an oversupply of personnel who are qualified to be
school counsellors, who are still working in the classroom. In 1992 there were 1400 school
psychologists Australia wide in government schools (Whitla, Walker, & Drent, 1992) with a
ratio of counsellor to student between 1:1544 in NSW to 1:4200 in South Australia. In 2013
there were over 2,000 school counsellors with the ratio of counsellor to student from a low of
1:1050 in NSW to 1:3500 in South Australia. It is interesting to note the increase in
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practitioners over this time period and the consequent reduction of counsellor to student ratio,
with the ratio in NSW still the lowest and South Australia still the highest.