Your education questions answered

As a parent of a 15-year-old boy, I recently attended an information evening on Transition Year. I heard pretty strong arguments from the school in favour of students taking this programme. I have also heard reports that this year can be a waste of time and give students bad study habits. What do you think are the main strengths and weaknesses of Transition Year (TY)?

Meetings on this issue are being held in schools up and down the country around now. The arguments in favour include:

• The normal school curriculum develops a very specific range of intelligences, which facilitates those students who are good at expressing themselves in writing under a time constraint. TY allows students whose strengths lie in other areas to discover these strengths and to evaluate themselves in a more balanced way.
• Many students find that having completed the Junior Cert they have fallen behind in a number of subject areas. TY allows them to come up to speed in those subjects prior to starting the Leaving Cert programme.
• Choosing subjects for the Leaving Certif is a difficult task at the best of times. TY allows students to undertake a module of all the Leaving Cert subjects available in the school. This is particularly important in the areas of business and science, where the subjects available at Leaving Cert are not available in the junior cycle.
• If work experience is chosen with an eye to perceived career aspirations, it can provide a very strong motivation to work hard. It may also dispel myths.
• ' The prominence of project work in TY helps students to develop time-management skills which are very useful in developing study programmes both at Leaving Cert and at third level.
• The combined effects of all the above factors facilitates a maturing process. Students undertake the Leaving Cert a year older and wiser than those who move directly from junior to senior cycle.
• Students who undertake TY get, on average, 46 points more than those who do not take the programme.

The arguments against participation include:

• Students can lose the study habits developed in the junior cycle and fail to re-engage with them after the more relaxed regime of TY.
• TY has allowed this generation of 16 year olds to become dependant on a certain income level, which has to be maintained. This can lead to a large amount of part-time working, which plays havoc with school life.
• Some TY programmes are better funded than others due to the capacity of parents to fund the range of activities involved.
• Unless schools manage the above issue very tightly, some students in TY programme may end up with large blocks of free periods, which is very dispiriting to all involved.

On balance, I believe that participation in TY is a very positive experience for students. The positive benefits to the student of participation in a successfully run and monitored programme makes it well worthwhile.

Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors.

E-mail questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie