I chose to investigate ‘‘adolescent attitudes towards sex roles’’ in two Sydney schools which were then contrasted with the findings of a US researcher.The project was a pre-requisite towards gaining my registration as a psychologist. The Department of School Education in NSW strongly encourages counsellors to seek registration. All of the school counsellors I am acquainted with are, like me, proudly registered psychologists.

It should be noted that school counsellors are the most academically qualified group of professionals working in NSW schools. Not only do they possess masters degrees but most have a professional qualification which is in addition to a teaching degree. All school counsellors are also qualified teachers with teaching experience, which gives them a unique insight into the way the classroom really works.

The National School Chaplaincy Association has admitted the main qualification for becoming a chaplain is to be ‘‘religiously trained’’. Further, their brief was to help students find a better way of dealing with issues ranging from family breakdown and loneliness to drug abuse, depression and suicide. To top off their new super-skilled de facto counsellor status, chaplains are apparently ‘‘a caring presence for kids in crisis’’. It must be stated all of these are issues traditionally the domain of the skilled and highly trained school counsellor.

There is no academic training necessary to become a school chaplain and the majority of well-intentioned but abysmally unqualified chaplains have done nothing more than a vague pastoral care certificate of roughly three weeks to three months duration. Please don’t let them loose on unsuspecting and vulnerable students.

The problem is that school chaplains have been given the status of de facto counsellors, both by the National School Chaplaincy Association and the federal government that pays their salaries. In this situation, the potential for a sense of entitlement is hardly surprising.