Praise has been heaped on the Department of Education and Science in a hotoff-the-press ASTI survey which reports "widespread satisfaction" with last year's in-service courses on the new Leaving Cert music and business syllabi.

The courses, organised through the Waterford Education Centre, were developed by business and music teachers through the Department's In-Career Development Unit in Dublin.

In business, recipients of praise were Greg O'Connor, Blackrock College, Dublin; James Mulcahy, North Monastery, Cork; Matt Hynes, St Mel's College, Longford; Maria Lyle, Scoil Chaitriona, Dublin 9; Aine Nerney, Mount Anville, Dublin; Seamus Robinson, Community School, Gort, Co Galway; and Michael Daly, Vocational School, Hacketstown, Co Carlow.

And the music team was Jean Downey, Presentation Secondary, Ballypheane, Cork; Chris Kinder, Castleknock College, Dublin; Kathryn Fitzgerald, Loreto Abbey, Dalkey, Co Dublin; and Martin Barret, Ardscoil Ris, Limerick.

The revised Leaving Cert music syllabus was introduced in all schools last September and the in-service programme started at the same time. At least 80 per cent of all respondents to the survey said the programme was either excellent, very good or satisfactory. There was particular satisfaction with the preparatory printed material.

Overall, 40 per cent of all respondents thought the delivery of the programme as a whole to be "excellent," 35 per cent said it was "very good," 18 per cent said it was "satisfactory" and 8 per cent said it was "unsatisfactory."

There was "widespread satisfaction" with the in-service programme for the business syllabus, which was also introduced last September. Up to 90 per cent said the programme was either excellent, very good or satisfactory. Overall, 28 per cent said the delivery "excellent", 39 per cent said it was "very good", 23 per cent considered it to be "satisfactory" and 10 per cent considered the delivery "unsatisfactory."

The survey was circulated to all voluntary second-level, community and comprehensive schools and got a response rate of 68 per cent.