Vol. 536 No. 5
384 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Education and Science if his Department, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Children, is about to introduce a special health programme for transition year and leaving certificate students through a module being developed by a company (details supplied). [14954/01]
The Irish Pharmaceutical Health Care Association has, in conjunction with a lecturer from the School of Science and Technology, Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, designed a module for transition year and leaving certificate applied students. This module is called Medicines and You. It aims to heighten the awareness of young people to the need to be careful with medical prescriptions, to store medicines properly and to read carefully the instructions on all medicines.
The module consists of seven units as follows: getting the best from your medicines; managing your minor ailments effectively; introduction to medicines; medicines and disease; preventing disease: the role of vaccinations; researching and developing new medicines; and the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland.
Each unit is independent and consists of teacher guidelines, student information sheets, student activity sheets and a glossary. The module was recently sent out to five pilot schools in Mayo, Galway, Meath, Cork and Kilkenny. The schools have expressed great enthusiasm for the materials and expect to use them on a trial basis in September.
This module has applications in the leaving certificate applied and in career investigation work in the leaving certificate vocational programme. Some leaving certificate applied teachers have piloted the materials and found them effective but as yet no decision has been taken to introduce the module formally as part of the leaving certificate applied. If, when the piloting phase is over, this module is evaluated positively, it will be available to schools in the same way as a large number of similar modules. The social, personal and health education programme, SPHE, which focuses on a much broader range of health issues, is being introduced to the junior cycle of all second-level schools at present. This initiative is supported by a group of 20 trainers, jointly formed by my Department and the Department of Health.
