The Junior Certificate School Programme is based on the concept that all young people are capable of real success in school and that they can have a positive experience of school if the conditions are favourable.

The Programme is a national Department of Education and Science Programme within the Junior Certificate aimed at students who may leave school early.

The JCSP has been designed to ensure that these young people can benefit from their time in school and enjoy the experience of improvement and success.

It sets out to ensure that each individual student in the Programme experiences success and progression and to make the experience of school relevant and accessible to those young people who find it difficult to cope with the school system. It does this by providing a curriculum framework which will assist schools and individual teachers in adopting a student-centred approach to the Junior Certificate specifically aimed at those young people who show signs of school failure or early leaving.