Students who do transition year at second level can get up to 40-45 more CAO points on average than those who do not, and are also more likely to go on to third level education, a study by the Economic and Social Research Institute has indicated.
The report also reveals that more students from higher professional backgrounds take part in transition year than those from less well-off families.
This indicates that well-off students can enjoy a significant advantage when it comes to obtaining a place on the university course of their choice. Many popular arts degree courses, for example, require between 300 and 400 points.
The transition year programme, which allows students to spend a year developing their personal, social, learning and employment skills, has existed since the 1970s, but has expanded significantly since the mid-1990s.
The report shows students who have completed the transition year perform particularly strongly in subjects such as maths and English. This seems to contradict the widely-held view among many parents that the programme is a wasted year where students lose the habit of studying.
But students in disadvantaged schools where the year is compulsory, and male students who work part-time up to their Leaving Cert, do not perform better academically as a result of having taken the programme.
The report, entitled "The Transition Year Programme: An Assessment", finds many students and teachers are positive about their experiences of transition year. But other students consider the year to be a "doss" and "boring".
Dr Emer Smyth, one of the report's authors, yesterday warned that while there were a number of factors influencing student participation on the programme, the relatively low levels of participation by students from unskilled manual backgrounds suggested they could be losing out in the Leaving Cert.
"There are equity issues if it has positive benefits in Leaving Certificate performance," she said. "If we're looking to expand provision, then we will have to look at how to make it more attractive to students from less well-off backgrounds."
The report says Transition Year could be made compulsory in every school in the State.
But a major concern is that the quality and content of programmes vary greatly across schools, it concludes.
Key findings of the report
Over half of students from higher professional backgrounds take transition year, compared to less than a quarter of those from unskilled manual backgrounds.
Students who have taken transition year achieve higher grades than their counterparts from similar social class backgrounds.
But transition year students from predominantly working-class schools achieve lower grades in the Leaving Certificate exam than those who do not participate.
Participation in transition year increases student involvement in paid employment outside school and frequently continues during senior cycle.This cancels out the benefits of the year for male students.
Student drop-outs tend to be higher in schools with a compulsory transition year, as some students may become disaffected or underperform academically if they do remain within the system.