Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 19 Apr 2000

Vol. 518 No. 4

Written Answers. - Transition Year Programme.

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods):

It is not possible to establish at this stage in the year the number of second level students who will take the transition year programme in the school year 2000-01. The exact figure will not be known until the schools send in their returns to my Department in October 2000. In the current school year, some 23,500 students are taking the programme in 502 schools, 36% of the entire cohort.

Projections for the uptake of the transition year programme in the school year 2000-2001 show an upward trend. By this time last year, 32 new schools had applied for the programme. The corresponding figure in the current year is 50 schools.

Since the transition year programme was revived and expanded in 1994, it has been the policy of my Department to allow schools to choose whether or not to offer it to their students. Recent research carried out by the Education Research Centre for the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment shows considerable gains in terms of points attained at leaving certificate level by students who have taken the transition year programme over their peers who have not. Since the objectives of transition year do not include an increase in leaving certificate points, these findings do not in themselves constitute a reason for my Department to encourage more students to take the programme. The outcome of this research should, however, allay the fears sometimes expressed by parents that their children may lose their study skills during transition year and encourage them to request more schools to provide the programme. Such requests always receive a favourable response from my Department.