Written Answers. - Special Educational Needs.
Richard Bruton
Question:
470
Mr. R. Bruton
asked the
Minister for Education and Science
the purpose of making an annotation to the examination certificate issued to a person with dyslexia or other condition who requires assistance in completing a written examination paper; and if his attention has been drawn to the concern that this practice may lead to discrimination in employment opportunities for people with dyslexia and similar conditions.
[4741/02]
Richard Bruton
Question:
471
Mr. R. Bruton
asked the
Minister for Education and Science
if the system whereby the examination certificate of a person, who has received special consideration in the marking of an examination to take account of their dyslexia, has been challenged here before the courts or any other adjudication authority on grounds that it is discriminatory, or on grounds that it is revealing private information regarding a person's personal condition; if his Department has, as a result of such cases, modified the certificates being issued either generally or in a particular instance; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[4743/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 470 and 471 together.
Inclusiveness and transparency are core principles underpinning the certificate examinations. My Department is of the view that the range of measures introduced since 2000 were appropriate and positive in the interest of enhancing the inclusiveness of the examination system. Under the new measures, it is now open to special needs students to apply to have a part of an examination waived and to be marked out of 100% on the balance. In other words, a candidate being exempted from part of an examination will suffer no disadvantage and can obtain a top grade in that subject. This option was not available before. The concept of using an explanatory note to enable such a development is one that is in use in many other jurisdictions, where the special need or the nature of the arrangement provided is noted on the certificate.
My Department considers that by ensuring the explanatory note is confined to a factual narrow statement on the assessment issues, rather than a reference to the nature of the arrangement or the special need of the candidate, we have a better model than that employed elsewhere. We feel that our model does not categorise or label the candidate in any way because the explanatory note is confined to the assessment issue alone. In fact, the notation is presented as a positive statement. We use the format that all elements of the examinations were assessed except the xxxx element. Even though a candidate may have made known to us that he or she does not have the skill-competence under assessment in the national test instruments we do not state that anywhere on their certification. Rather, we state that we were unable to assess it given the nature of the arrangement sought by the candidate. The core issue is thede facto exemption from an element of the standard assessment.
It should be added that in other jurisdictions, the examining authorities take the view that students with a specific learning difficulty should not be allowed any accommodation in language tests such as assistance of a scribe, use of a tape recorder or spell check on a personal computer, on the basis that to do so is totally inconsistent with standard national assessment criteria. By contrast, my Department not only allows the candidate such accommodations, but also allows that candidate to obtain full marks or avoid mark loss, even when some of the marks are allocated to core assessment objectives such as spelling and grammar. In our view, this represents a very positive discrimination for the candidates concerned.
The use of an explanatory note enables my Department to maintain existing accommodations and introduce new ones by striking a balance between doing all we possibly can to help special needs candidates who have a difficulty with attainment in core elements of the examination, and ensuring that our approach is credible, valid and defensible in assessment terms.
The matter referred to by the Deputy has not been the subject of a court case in Ireland. My Department has received correspondence from the Office of the Information Commissioner, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Equality Authority on the matter, and has provided comprehensive responses explaining the position in respect of the issues raised.
In one individual case where legal proceedings had been initiated, my Department decided that, without prejudice, it would not have been reasonable to record an explanatory note on the certificate because the candidate in question may not have been afforded due process at the time of the initial application.
