Vol. 435 No. 10
74 Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister for Education her views on whether the proposed new Leaving Certificate courses are more outward looking than the traditional ones and on whether these courses will be looking to the educational resources of the community; and if, in view of this, she will introduce a system whereby teachers appointed to act as coordinators for these new courses will be given reduced teaching hours to enable them to carry out their work.
A revised structure and format of the curriculum at the senior cycle of post-primary education is being implemented from September 1995. These are intended to provide maximum flexibility in catering for different needs, aptitudes and abilities of pupils within an overall three years in senior cycle.
The structure of the leaving certificate with effect from September 1995 has three main orientations: the leaving certificate to be offered at Higher and Ordinary levels with revised syllabuses provided on a phased basis; the leaving certificate applied programme which is a self-contained course incorporating and expanding on the current senior certificate and vocational preparation and training programme; a modified and expanded leaving certificate vocational programme. The new arrangements are all based on work that has been in progress in schools for some time and will, particularly in the case of the applied and vocational programmes, involve use of the out-of-school environment and links with industry, business and the community generally.
The manner in which to organise these elements of the new programmes appropriately is at present the subject of active consideration by my Department and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. While there will be need for in-school co-ordination work in connection with the new programmes, I am satisfied that this can be catered for within flexible time-tabling arrangements.
