Vol. 497 No. 6
228 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the amount of additional time available in taking State examinations to students with a disability; if this is based on an objective assessment of the impact of the disability on that person's speed of response; the maximum additional time made available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25907/98]
Under the scheme of special arrangements relating to the certificate examinations operated by my Department, extra time, subject to a maximum of ten minutes per scheduled hour of each question paper, may be approved where the candidate needs the help of a scribe or would otherwise be unable to make adequate use of the mechanical aids provided for recording the answers or where the candidate is visually impaired.
Ten minutes additional time per question paper may be allowed in the case of candidates who are profoundly deaf.
Each individual case is assessed separately to determine the precise arrangements to be made for the student concerned.
The Education and Training (Qualifications) Bill is currently being drafted and it is hoped to publish the Bill in the new year. The aim of the Bill is to promote access, mobility and progression within adult, continuing, further and higher education and training, effectively all education and training from post-primary education to third-level education excluding the currently established universities.
The Youth Work Bill will be brought to Government shortly. The Bill will be a re-working of the Youth Work Act enacted in 1997. The latter is largely inoperable as its provisions were to a large extent dependent on the establishment of education boards. As well as confirming the Government's commitment to establishing youth work on a sound statutory footing, the Bill will enhance youth work provision in a number of significant ways. In particular, the Bill will provide for the development of co-ordinated plans at local and national level.
A school attendance and educational welfare Bill is being drafted and it is hoped to publish the Bill early in the new year. The new legislation is intended to address not only the problems attached to school attendance but also issues relating to the educational welfare of children in general. It will emphasise the importance of both identifying cases where a child is experiencing difficulties in school attendance and intervening at an early stage.
The George Mitchell Scholarship Bill was debated in the Dáil this morning. The purpose of the Bill is to enable the Government to pay a sum of £2 million into a scholarship fund to enable American students to study in Irish universities. It is intended that the legislation will be in place before the end of the year.
Work is ongoing in my Department on a Bill which will amend the Vocational Education Acts. The aim of the Bill will be to modernise certain aspects of the existing legislation. Consideration will be given to the composition of the bodies so as to give parents a statutory role and it is proposed to review the accountability and reporting provisions so as to bring them into line with modern best practice.
