METHODOLOGY

A questionnaire concerning the provision of tuition for the Junior Certificate examination and the 1999 Junior Certificate results was circulated to all VEC YOUTHREACH, Community Training Workshops and Senior Traveller Training Centres in October and November 1999. 85 of the 141 centres returned completed questionnaires, giving a response rate of 60%, which would be considered very good for a postal questionnaire without follow up, where in some circumstances response rates can fall as low as 15% (Harper, 1971:21). This response rate is almost identical to last years, where 86 centres responded to the questionnaire - response rate 61% (Ryan, 1999: p.2). In the present survey, the 85 centres provided junior certificate results for 233 students.

Quantitative data was inputted and analysed using a computerised statistical package.