More exam time needed for students with dyslexia
Cork County Council has written to the Minister for Education asking that second level students with dyslexia be granted additional exam time.
The move would bring Ireland in line with countries such as France, Italy, and the UK and aims to help students with dyslexia to reach their full academic potential.
Dyslexia affects approximately 10% of the population and involves difficulties along a spectrum from mild to severe with information processing which mainly impact on writing and reading.
The motion was brought to Cork County Council on Monday by Social Democrats Cllr Liam Quaide who said dyslexic people can be at a major disadvantage in the absence of appropriate accommodations in schools and colleges. Cllr Quaide said that outcomes for young people with dyslexia are much better now than they were in previous generations when it was misunderstood as a general learning difficulty.
“Many people with dyslexia show strengths in other areas such as spatial reasoning and in visual arts,” said Cllr Quaide.
He continued: “Ireland is an outlier in not allowing dyslexic students extra time in state examinations. Students who qualify for the Reasonable Accommodations at Certificate Examinations (Race) scheme may receive a waiver from the assessment of spelling, grammar, and punctuation in the language subjects or access to a reader or a scribe. They may also be granted the use of a recording device or word processor or laptop. However, extra time is not among the accommodations, although it is available as standard in exams for dyslexic students at third level.”
Cllr Quaide also pointed out that the Dyslexia Association of Ireland had already made the same request most recently in May 2023.
Fine Gael Cllr Susan McCarthy, whose daughter has severe dyslexia, supported Cllr Quaide’s motion. She said: “This one is very personal to me having a daughter who has a very, very severe form of dyslexia where she falls into less than 1% of the population. I could write the book on this one.”
Cllr McCarthy said she had previously been in direct contact with the Department of Education and though the responses she received were supportive, she said she felt the was “no meaningful support for this yet”.
She continued: “They have made some very good progress in terms of the spelling waiver, the reader, and the scribe, but it must be pointed out that for those who are dyslexic, to try to get a reader is just so difficult and it’s left to the discretion of the school, which I also have a big problem with.
“I think it should be that once a person has a diagnosis of dyslexia, they should automatically get access to a reader,” added Cllr McCarthy.