Exam assistants giving pupils ‘unfair advantage’

EXAM assistants may be giving unfair advantage to students with special needs in the Junior and Leaving Certificate, research has suggested.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) provides readers and scribes for students who need help in the exams each year because of a learning difficulty. In June, 5,952 candidates were given reading assistance which allows for somebody to read the questions to them in an individual exam centre, and 1,077 students were allocated scribes who are allowed to write down their spoken answers.

While the sample of 61 people who responded to the questionnaire from Kate James is relatively small, she said the findings may have implications for the validity of candidates’ results and for the integrity of the exams.