The traditional Leaving Certificate is unsuitable for some students and militates against the confidence and self esteem which is linked with the achievement of a student's potential, the Minister for Education has said.
For this reason, the new Applied Leaving Cert had been introduced into schools last autumn.
Ms Breathnach was addressing the third European Conference on Affective Education, which opened in Dublin yesterday. Affective education, also known as pastoral care, is concerned with the attitudes, feelings, beliefs and emotions of students in the learning process.
