'Urgent' appeal for Leaving Cert and Junior Cert students with dyslexia to get extra exam time

Dyslexia Association of Ireland CEO Rosie Bissett says there has never been a clear rationale why extra time is not given for State exams, 'even though it is being done in so many other jurisdictions and at university level'. Picture: Nick Bradshaw

The allocation of extra time for students with dyslexia doing State exams must be urgently tackled, according to the CEO of the Dyslexia Association of Ireland. Rosie Bissett was commenting in advance of the start of the Junior cert and Leaving cert exams which get underway on Wednesday. Ms Bissett said: 

A student doing their Leaving Certificate doesn’t get extra time but an engineer or a primary teacher or a doctor or a nurse doing their final exams in university is getting extra time.

“There has never been clear rationale given at any point why extra time is not given for State exams, even though it is being done in so many other jurisdictions and at university level.”

Last year, the Dyslexia Association of Ireland petitioned the State Examinations Commission for extra time for the Leaving and Junior Cert exams.

Last month, the issue was discussed at the joint Oireachtas committee on public petitions and the ombudsmen. Representatives from the Department of Education and the State Examinations Commission (SEC) appeared before the committee.

SEC chief executive Andrea Feeney told the committee that a number of accommodations are already in place for students with learning difficulties including dyslexia.

The accommodations include an individual reader to read the examination papers; a reading assistant; an exam reading pen, which scans text and converts it to speech; a laptop or tablet to type responses; a recording device to record responses; and, in exceptional circumstances, access to a scribe.

Ms Feeney said that a review of the Reasonable Accommodations in State Examinations scheme is to get underway in the coming months, with the issue of extra time being considered as part of the review.

While the Dyslexia Association of Ireland welcomes the review, the timeframe of at least two years for its completion is a concern, according to Ms Bissett. She said: 

I see no reason why extra time could not be in place for the State exams next year.

“How many more Junes must we wait, and how many more thousands of young people will not have it?” 

Fine Gael senator Tim Lombard said that students with dyslexia are not on a level playing field with their peers. 

He added: “On average, 10% of the population are dyslexic, so over 13,000 of students sitting state exams this year will be dyslexic.”