President of the Tasmanian School Psychology Association Lesley Fraser said there was an urgent need for more Tasmanian school psychologists, but the pathway was a challenging one.

“If [graduates] want to be a school psychologist, they go onto the same pay grade as a classroom teacher who has studied five years,” she said.

“So already, they’ve done more uni but they’re on the same wage.”

A graduate with six years of university is also required to have teaching qualifications to apply for a senior school psychologist role, bumping them up to eight years of study to earn the same rate as an advanced skills teacher.

Mrs Fraser, a former school psychologist working in Tasmania, said one school psychologist might have as many as 1000 students in their school, with practitioners often “exhausted” by the end of each term.

Increasing reports of anxiety and depression in children from primary through to senior secondary meant school psychologists were in a key role of providing expert advice to principals and teachers on individual student needs, Mrs Fraser said.

“[Teachers[ can’t know everything, they know a lot, but school psychologists bring a different layer,” she said.

“They’re able to look at behaviours … what is the purpose of this child’s behaviour, where is it coming from, and therefor what can we do to support that child?”

The Liberals, Labor and the Greens have all pledged to increase the number of school psychologists and other support staff such as speech pathologists and social workers.

Labor’s pledge is to increase support staff by 30 full-time equivalent positions, while the Liberals have pledged 20 positions.

The Greens promised to increase to 73 school psychologists to reduce the ratio down to one psychologist per 500 students, and would recruit three trauma-informed care specialists.

Mrs Fraser said it could be difficult to attract and retain educational psychologists with the present pay grades and lack of career progression, with recruitment interstate possibly required.

Another issue, she said, was the University of Tasmania only trained clinical psychologists, and not educational and developmental psychologists.

“Psychologists that come out with a Masters degree are clinically trained, which doesn’t mean they don’t make good school psychologists … but they’re not trained in assessments and general child development,” she said.