Vol. 574 No. 2
111 Mr. Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will consider stopping the practice of appending explanatory notes to the certificates of candidates with specific learning difficulties who are granted special accommodations in State examinations, in view of the fact that this may prejudice a potential employer against the candidate. [26624/03]
The Deputy will appreciate that the matter now under debate is a matter for the State Examinations Commission. However, the position is that inclusiveness and transparency are core principles underpinning the certificate examinations. I am 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 previously.
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. I consider that, by ensuring that 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, the model used here is better than employed elsewhere. This model does not categorise or label the candidate in any way because the explanatory note is confined to the assessment issue alone. The notation is presented as a positive statement. We use the format "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. Rather we state we were unable to assess it given the nature of the arrangement sought by the candidate. The core issue is the de 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 we not only allow the candidate such accommodations but also allow that candidate obtain full marks or avoid mark loss even though some of the marks are allocated to core assessment objectives such as spelling and grammar. This in our view represents a very positive discrimination for the candidates concerned.
