The LCA offers students an alternative to the regular Leaving, and may even provide a model for reform, writes Louise Holden

The LCA - a working example of a reformed Leaving Cert? Ask any parent or student what they think of the Leaving Cert and you're likely to hear the same grievances - it's too academic, it's not practical, it's too pressurised. Every player in education from the Minister to the fifth-year student gazing up a tower of textbooks is calling for a more democratic approach to education. Not many are prepared to jump ship, however, and leave the ruthless points race for the relative civility of the Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA).

The LCA has everything that parents and students say they want. It emphasises the strengths of the student and encourages him to compete with himself rather than with his classmates. It prepares students for a world where job interviews, mortgage repayments, community relations and computer applications are more pressing than poetry recitals and calculus. The Leaving Cert Applied embodies every aspiration that we have for the Leaving Cert from continuous assessment to health education. And it's not all practical - there is a compulsory and wide-ranging arts component and Irish is still a core subject.

The LCA programme has gained a significant foothold in the post-primary system. Of more than 500 schools providing second-level education in Ireland, 300 now offer the LCA. When it was first offered in 1995, it was the preserve of the vocational sector - now it is offered in all kinds of schools with the exception of the fee-paying sector. The LCA does not feed the universities and is unlikely to find favour with expensive private schools.

"It's ironic that the LCA does not provide a route to university when it is such a good preparation for university," says national LCA co-ordinator Sheila O'Driscoll. "LCA graduates are highly skilled in interview techniques, self-directed learning, information technology, research and personal organisation. If they want to go to third level, however, they must complete a PLC course first, and then they can qualify to take up one of the 1,000 places reserved for them in the institutes of technology."

O'Driscoll believes that students who get a distinction in the LCA (over 85 per cent on average over all subjects) should be able to go straight into the institute of technology sector because it is such a significant achievement. The idea of equating LCA grades to CAO points has been touted, but in O'Driscoll's view, that would defeat the purpose of the programme.

"The LCA was introduced in 1995 to provide an alternative to the Leaving Certificate and the points race. It was preceded by two popular programmes, the Senior Certificate and the one-year Vocational Training Programme, so there was already a significant demand for something different. The main problem with those earlier options was that they received little recognition among parents and employers. The LCA was introduced to give students not only a viable alternative, but one that would be publicised and recognised by stakeholders."

There is a long way to go on that front. The number of candidates taking the LCA grew from 1,278 in 1996 to 4,763 in 2003, with little or no public relations campaign to bolster the figures. The students themselves are the best ambassadors for the programme and with 90 per cent of candidates going on to further education or employment the prospects for LCA's graduates look good. However, the numbers sitting the exams have dropped by more than 1,000 between 2003 and 2004 - more than can be accounted for by the falling demographic.

The drop in numbers could be a top-down phenomenon. Organisers of the programme have accused the Government of retreating from the programme over the last two years. In a letter to the Department of Education last year, Mary Farrell, secretary of the National Association of Leaving Certificate Applied Co-ordinators, complained of a huge reduction in the level of support and in-service training for teachers on the course, with the result that "it appears that there is no longer a dedicated support team for the Leaving Certificate Applied".

The LCA is a work-intensive programme for teachers, and schools are unlikely to offer it without the necessary resources.

It takes a committed school to embrace the LCA. The programme's core subjects include an intensive career guidance component, a series of work experience modules, community work modules, seven major projects for submission and evaluation over two years, drama, dance, outdoor pursuits, regular one-on-one interviews with students, mini-companies, events management and a range of practical learning projects that bring the classroom into the community.

Unlike Transition Year, where teachers must write their own programmes, LCA teachers follow a strict National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) syllabus, but its delivery is very work-intensive.

"Given the demands of the LCA it's amazing that so many schools are offering it," says O'Driscoll. "Schools make the effort because they genuinely want to meet the needs of all their students. I think that if the necessary resources were made available many more schools would take this on."

In the meantime, with pressure on resources for the delivery of the programme, LCA organisers simply do not have the time or the manpower to give the LCA programme the hard sell. The star graduates of the LCA do not appear on the cover of The Irish Times each October and there is no LCA cheerleader lobbying IBEC or UCD for better recognition for its candidates. However, even while it is dwarfed by the Leaving Cert, the LCA may be breaking the system down from within.

"There is no doubt that the quiet success of the LCA programme is influencing the Department's plans for Leaving Cert reform," says O'Driscoll. "The evaluation methods, the ongoing assessment and the modular approach to delivery have provided an excellent example of how a reformed Leaving Cert might work. The recent NCCA Review of Senior Cycle referred to many of the successful components of the LCA programme in its recommendations for reform."

As a national, long-term pilot project for a reformed Leaving Cert, the LCA is a resounding success, but does it have a future in its own right?

"Naturally there is unequal status between the two programmes and if they continue to be offered separately there is a risk of ghettoisation," says O'Driscoll. "The NCCA is currently considering allowing an element of interface between the LCA and the Leaving Cert, giving students a chance to choose elements from both. For the time being, however, the LCA is providing all sorts of students with a real alternative to the Leaving Cert. We need to get the message out there that these students are creating new opportunities for themselves outside the points race. They are not closing any doors."