Extra time needed in exams for dyslexic students

Dyslexia Ireland is the national charity representing people with dyslexia. We have been calling for the long overdue introduction of extra time as an exam accommodation for dyslexic young people when they sit their Junior Cycle or Leaving Certificate exams.

Such an accommodation is vital to level the playing field for students with dyslexia and would allow them to work to their potential on the most important days of their education.

We have overwhelming support for this campaign. There are close to 35,000 petition signatures and an ever-increasing list of TDs and Senators pledging their support.

When we speak to people about this issue, many will respond that they had assumed that such an accommodation was already in place, and most others are incredulous that it is not. Especially when extra time is the norm for all our European neighbours, and at third-level here in Ireland.

We recently contacted Norma Foley, the Minister for Education, seeking her support. The response from her team was that it is not a matter for her or her Department, and we were redirected to the State Examinations Commission (SEC) without further comment.

With an election just around the corner, we were surprised with this response, that evidenced a lack of care and urgency. Especially when each August Minister Foley seems more than happy to pose with beaming certificate-brandishing students (the ones that succeed in the Leaving Cert). 

It seems to be a case of turning up for the nice stuff, only to go missing in action when vulnerable students come calling, seeking assistance and leadership.

The SEC, who manage the scheme of exam accommodations, is technically independent of the Department of Education, but the agency comes ‘under their aegis’ of the Department. One can’t help but feel like the deliberately vague ‘under the aegis’ is a term that is specifically designed to provide distance for the Minister and the Department of Education when it is politically expedient.

The SEC have eventually agreed to review the overall scheme of exam accommodations, yet when pressed in the Oireachtas Pubic Petition Committee earlier this year, they gave a timeline for this review of at least 2-3 years. This is unacceptably long.

It is additionally frustrating that an Expert Advisory Group commissioned by the SEC 18 years ago, actually recommended the immediate provision of extra time for students with dyslexia and other additional needs as one of its recommendations. This seems to be another case of the State’s ‘implementation deficit disorder’.

“It was ever thus,” the cynic might be expected to bark from the end of the bar. And it is indeed the case that many of us with vulnerable young people at home are at this point worn down trying to navigate the system.

We are tired of seeing issues of disability and additional needs pushed between different Government departments, despite the hollow rhetoric of ‘whole of government’ approaches. We are resigned to be bounced between a Department and its agency, as one body claims responsibility only for policy, and the other only for ‘operational issues’. We are sick of letters of correspondence and Parliamentary Questions bouncing back with only copy and paste responses, and evident disinterest.

A functioning democracy might expect itself to facilitate positive and timely policy change, especially where its elected members of parliament are wholly in agreement. 

And yet it seems that public servants, with little to no accountability, can choose to ignore their duty to serve the public in this regard. Instead they seem happy to kick the ball into the long grass, and then work extra hard to keep it there. Something is clearly not working.

So, when the politicians come knocking in the coming weeks, asking for your time; you might ask them for extra time for our most vulnerable students in their exams next June. And whilst they’re on the doorstep, you might focus their minds on the fact that 10% of the electorate are dyslexic. And that dyslexic people (and their families) vote.

See dyslexia.ie/dyslexia-awareness-month-2024 for more information on this campaign.