Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 457: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her assessment of the success of the leaving certificate applied examination; her views on whether it adequately meets the particular requirements of students with special needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17472/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) is one of the options of the expanded senior cycle provision designed to cater for the diversity of participants' needs. The programme was introduced in 1996 and it has proved to be most successful.

The success of the Leaving Certificate Applied is evidenced by the continuing substantial increase in the level of participation in the programme. When it was first introduced, 50 schools and centres for education offered the programme and 1200 students enrolled on it. Now, 360 schools and centres for education provide LCA and just over 3200 candidates completed the final examinations in June 2005. Within the next few days, teachers from fifteen schools that will provide the LCA programme for the first time in September 2006 will undertake in-service training.

A national evaluation of the programme, conducted by the inspectorate of my Department in forty seven schools and two out-of-school centres, identified a wide range of areas in which the LCA was found to be particularly successful. These included the extent to which programme objectives were being met in schools, the benefits of realisable short-term goals and immediate feedback to students and the level and quality of teacher engagement in professional development activity. The report on this evaluation was published in 2002 and is available on my Department's website, (www.education.ie).

The State Examinations Commission published a range of reports on candidate performance in the LCA examinations in June 2005. These contain substantive evidence of the continuing success of the programme. They are available on the Commission's website at www.examinations.ie.

The LCA programme was designed for students who do not wish to proceed directly to third level education or for those whose needs, aspirations and aptitudes are not adequately catered for by the other Leaving Certificate options. It meets the needs of a broad range of students including some who have special educational needs. Before an individual student enrols on the LCA programme, the needs of that student should be carefully considered to ascertain whether the programme is designed to meet his or her requirements.

I believe that the key to the success of the Leaving Certificate Applied is that it focuses on the talents of individual students and helps them to apply their learning to the reality of their lives. The programme is innovative in the way students learn, in what they learn and in how their achievements are assessed. It is characterised by educational experiences of an active, practical and student-centred nature and it concentrates on providing for the development of students' understanding, self-esteem and their sense of responsibility.

The LCA programme statement and its modules are subject to review and appropriate revisions are made to ensure that the needs of all students in the intended target group are met in the best possible way.