Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 28 Sep 1995

Vol. 456 No. 2

Written Answers. - Early School Leavers.

Kathleen Lynch

Question:

11 Kathleen Lynch asked the Minister for Education the steps, if any, being taken by her Department to identify and offer services to the reported 6 per cent of students who, as per the report by the Educational Research Centre, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, leave school having failed the junior certificate examination; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13494/95]

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

The Youthreach programme is a primary means of identifying early leavers from the school system. The programme is delivered jointly by my Department and the Department of Enterprise and Employment, through a network of training centres under the vocational education committees and community training workshops funded by FÁS. It provides two years integrated education, training and work experience for young people in the 15-18 year age group who are at least six months in the labour market and who have left school early without any qualifications or vocational training. Co-ordination at local level between the vocational education committees and FÁS is handled by the chief executive officers of the vocational education committees and the regional directors of FÁS. In February and October of each year, schools make returns to their local FÁS office giving details of those who have left school early. This information is used for compilation of a social guarantee register from which trainees are recruited on to Youthreach. Young people are also referred on to the programme as a result of contact with welfare, probation, Garda, youth and community agencies.

For young people who have already left the school system early without any qualifications or vocational training, Youthreach provides an integrated programme of education, vocational training and work experience in an out-of-school setting. At present approximately 3,000 first year places are provided on the programme, of which 2,000 are in the vocational education committee sector. I will be allocating a further 450 places on the programme to vocational education committees shortly. Measures have also been put in place which are designed to ensure the retention of young people in the school system. These include: the junior cycle schools programme, which is designed to meet the needs of a small proportion of pupils in the junior classes of second level schools who do not benefit from the junior certificate programme. This programme is being developed at pilot level for introduction, on an expanded basis, from September 1996; the leaving certificate applied programme, which I introduced from September 1995, will prove an attractive option for those who find the existing senior cycle curriculum unsuitable, as well as those who would normally have left school with poor results at junior certificate level. It is my policy to increase the rate of retention of young people to completion of senior cycle education to 90 per cent by the year 2000. This objective will be achieved through providing an effective foundation of general education and a strengthened and expanded vocational orientation in a restructured senior cycle.