Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

80 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?other Leaving Certificate classes as they were mixed together for assembliesand sport events:We were with them going up. … You’d be going on the same breaks as themstill, no, live near most them anyway so, there was always, still hang around withthem, you know, so … sure everyone would be still the same. Yeah, there wasnever any divide or anything like that, no, no never. Sure a sports day and stufflike that or awards ceremonies in the hall, the school hall, you’d be all the sameso. (Andrew, 21, completed LCA, apprentice)I still hung around, because my best friend was in normal Leaving Cert so we stillhung around every lunchtime, every break time, we met up like. (Annette, 21,completed LCA, employed)However, a significant issue that emerged from the interviews withyoung people was the negative labelling of LCA students by other LeavingCertificate students in some schools. Some of the respondents recalledbeing called names by their peers in the LCE class. Respondents differed,however, in the extent to which they regarded such remarks as ‘harmless’,either laughing them off or taking them more seriously:You’d always have … other students in the school slagging you about the LCA,because … it’s a bit easier than the normal Leaving Cert, you know, youprobably have Lowest Class Applied and you know, stuff like that, you know,just people making jokes like that but sure they wouldn’t probably mean anyharm, just everyone having a bit of a laugh, you know. (Andrew, 21,completed LCA, apprentice)What was the thing, Lowest Common Arseholes was what it was, LCA, yeah,but you took no notice whatsoever. Some people have a dim view because … youcan see people are under severe pressure … and you know we weren’t underpressure, we were doing it over the two years. … Most people had an okay viewabout it like, you know, but there would have been some alright that were justlike, you know, god you’ve no brain inside your head kind of thing like. (Sarah,21, completed LCA, employed)It was just slagging your spelling … Another thing which I thought was terriblelike a lot of them called it the handicapped Leaving, which really annoyed me.…It really annoyed me, I thought that was awful. (Barbara, 23, completedLCA, employed)Interestingly, some of the respondents referred to the LCE as the‘normal’, ‘real’ or ‘straight’ Leaving Certificate which may suggest they alsohave negative perceptions of the LCA.Some young people reported that their class was labelled as the ‘dumb’or ‘thick’ class. Even where pejorative terms were not employed, many feltthat the other Leaving Certificate groups did not understand the nature andpurpose of the LCA programme:She was like saying oh the LCA is a doss year … but I stood up for myself, Istood up I said that’s the way I’m going to college, I’m confident, I’ll be able to go