vulnerable students don’t matter’ - new LCA attack
(01 Mar 2010)
For meagre savings, the rationalisation of the posts of national co-ordinators of the LCA and Transition Year (TY) programmes will cause huge damage. The Leaving Certificate Applied has proved extremely successful in keeping 8,000 high risk students in the education system to attain certification, but TUI believes the systematic stripping of its assets will have devastating educational, social and economic consequences.
The move has also been criticised by one of the main second level parent groups.
Speaking today, TUI General Secretary Peter MacMenamin said:
“The LCA is aimed at students who wish to follow an applied and practical programme with a strong vocational emphasis. It was specifically developed to retain students in the education system, acknowledging that not every student is suited to the traditional Leaving Certificate. The LCA offers both experiential and academic learning methodologies which allow every student the opportunity of reaching their potential. Upon completion, students can progress to third level following a one year Post Leaving Certificate course.
At any one time the programme serves 8,000 students, yet the Department believes that neither LCA nor TY should have separate single national co-ordinators from next September. It is difficult to see this hostile action as anything other than another nail in the coffin of the LCA programme.
The block on appointments to middle management posts in schools is also asset-stripping programmes at a local level, with co-ordinators not replaced upon retirement or leave. The support framework is being dismantled at both national and local level and schools will no longer be in a position to provide the duty of care that retains students for the two year duration of the LCA programme. It will put at risk the opportunity that was being afforded to these already disadvantaged students of obtaining a Leaving Certificate.
In addition to this, a long-standing package of resources to schools taking on the LCA programme for the first time was abolished last year, a move which has effectively stunted its growth and starved it of much needed resources.
Needless to say, cutbacks to the LCA will not impact on those schools in affluent communities which operate selective enrolment policies. It is a short sighted, mean spirited and hugely damaging development for disadvantaged communities. For too many students, the classroom is the only safe place that they know.
We demand that at the very least the Department maintains the position of a full time national co-ordinator in its current form for each of both programmes and also gives an amnesty in relation to the block on appointments to the local co-ordinator positions around the country.”
Jackie O' Callaghan of the National Parents’ Association for Vocational Schools & Community Colleges said:
“Plundering the paltry resources of the LCA programme is an economic absurdity. Students who fall through the cracks are ten times more likely to become dependent on the State and a burden on the Exchequer for the foreseeable future. As many as three in ten students in areas of urban disadvantage do not stay on to complete the Leaving Certificate cycle and it is certain that this ratio will increase further due to these cutbacks.”
“This is a direct attack on the most vulnerable members of society. Now more than ever, with high unemployment levels and fewer employment opportunities, these programmes need to be protected in their current form and enhanced where possible.”