Students with dyslexia seek changes to help them during exams
The challenge in determining the allocation of additional time for candidates with learning difficulties, including dyslexia, was recognised by an expert advisory group.
“Primary and secondary school were probably the hardest time of my life,” Lauren Lynch told the Irish Examiner.
A student at the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) in Mayo, Lauren’s experience of third-level education has been as different to secondary school as night and day. She does not believe much has changed since she completed her Leaving Certificate in 2018.
“I had a very, very tough time in secondary school. I wasn’t a good student but that wasn’t because I didn’t want to learn. I couldn’t learn in the environment provided for me, there was no accommodation whatsoever.”
Lauren was diagnosed with dyslexic tendencies in fourth class, and at the age of 17, she was diagnosed with severe dyslexia. Her assessment recommended she be given an exemption in Irish and Spanish.
“My school wouldn’t support [this] so I then had to drop two subjects. It also said in my report to get assistive technology. My school denied that privilege because I would ‘distract’ other students.”
Under the State Examinations Commission’s (SEC) Reasonable Accommodations at State Examinations scheme (RACE), Lauren was granted a reader during her Leaving Cert. Extra time is not an accommodation offered to students with dyslexia, making Ireland an outlier, according to the Dyslexia Association of Ireland.
“I didn’t have extra time in my exams, I had a reader, but I still had to write my answers, which was just ridiculous when I was advised to use assistive technology,” says Lauren.
This week, Lauren completed her last college exam as part of her degree in early childhood education. During her studies in college, Lauren had access to assistive technology, as well as extra time in exams, a spelling and grammar waiver, and extensions on assignments. “It’s been very good,” she said.
Students who qualify for the RACE scheme may receive a spelling and grammar waiver in the language subjects or access to a reader or a scribe during their Leaving or Junior Cert exams.
They may also be granted the use of a recording device, word processor, or laptop. However, extra time is not among the options available, although it is available as standard in exams for dyslexic students at third level.
Lauren said: “I hear the SEC say there doesn’t need to be additional time; were dyslexic people even involved in that conversation? How did they come to that conclusion, because they wouldn’t have come to that conclusion if they had been.”
Dyslexia affects roughly one in ten people, occurring on a spectrum with some people more affected than others. Common features associated with dyslexia include difficulties with reading, spelling, and writing as well as related cognitive and processing difficulties.
In Dublin, fifth-year student Lucy Brennan is preparing for her summer exams. A movie lover, when she finishes school, she’d like to study film and history. Due to the pandemic, Lucy didn’t sit Junior Cert exams which were cancelled in 2020 and 2021. “I’ve never done a proper State exam but my summer exams are coming up.”
“I’d be more of a visual learner,” she explained. “If a teacher isn’t as interacting with the class, I find that quite difficult. It can take me more time to learn something and comprehend something than with other subjects so it can be difficult but every Thursday I get extra help with the subjects I do find difficult.
“I personally think that extra time is something the SEC should consider,” said Lucy.
“To have that extra time to process, and go over what I’m reading would be really helpful for me and it would help to level out the playing field with my peers.”
Keith Murphy, Kildare, discovered he has dyslexia in 2017 during the first year of a PhD in Maynooth. He
returned to education as a mature student, having found school “horrendous”.
“In that day, you were just a messer, you weren’t trying like everyone else but it was more than that.”
His youngest daughter, Riley, who is currently preparing for her Junior Cert exams, also has dyslexia. “She still does find it tough but since her diagnosis, she’s been getting support, which is a great help to her, ” said Keith.
“I think extra time in exams is vital,” he said. “I think it should be offered to every neurodiverse child. I know it’s stressful for everybody, but a person who has dyslexia might have to read the question ten times before they’ve made sense of it.”
“It will lessen stress for them and give them a better opportunity to fulfill their potential as well."
“The characteristics of dyslexia and the characteristics of an exam environment are opposite. You get the extra time when you get to level, they just need the extra time to give them a little bit more time to comprehend and work things out.
“English prose questions or maths calculations, for anybody it takes time to work out what’s being asked. For people with dyslexia, it takes longer to work it out.”
In Waterford, Monica Grant also has two daughters preparing for the Junior Cert: Twins Síofra and Bláthnaid.
Síofra is entitled to a spelling and grammar waiver but wouldn’t qualify for a reader or a scriber. She learned to read in fifth class. “Ever since then, she’s just a massive reader. She consumes books, one or two a week, every week. She loves them,” said Monica.
“She tries really hard in school. Typically, when she does homework, she scores 90 to 100%, not in every subject, but in a good few of them.”
However, this wasn’t reflected in her pre-exams earlier this year. “It just wasn’t enough time for her, it was a disaster. No matter how hard she studies, she couldn’t get the information on the paper. It’s so disheartening because she studies quite well.
“She’s very interested in going to college, but she needs to get the opportunity to show how clever she is because at the moment she can’t have the time to process her answers.”
The Dyslexia Association of Ireland is calling on the SEC to urgently review its reasonable accommodations policy for dyslexic students. It argues that extra time is available as a standard accommodation for students at third level, and it is well established internationally.
A spokesman for the SEC said it will be happy to listen to the views of the Dyslexia Association of Ireland on this and other issues of concern when it meets with them at a planned meeting at the end of the month.
From the 2016/17 school year, the RACE scheme underwent fundamental reform, said the spokesman. However, additional time in which to complete the written or practical examinations is not an accommodation that can be sanctioned in its own right under the scheme.
The challenge in determining the allocation of additional time for candidates with learning difficulties, including dyslexia, was recognised by the expert advisory group. Two measures were introduced in response. This included the introduction of an additional 20 minutes per examination paper for all candidates in the Leaving Cert subjects Irish, English, history, and geography.
“It remains the case that the examinations in these subjects are 20 minutes longer than the time they were designed to require.”
The introduction of a waiver from spelling, grammar, and punctuation in the language subjects was also specifically developed to address the time issue for candidates with learning difficulties, said the spokesman.
Monica said: “The exam times are not long enough. When Síofra brought home her English pres paper, it was like a different child had done the paper. None of her brilliance showed in it.”
“For them to say there is time ‘built in’, there isn’t. Not enough.”
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