Ms Andrea Feeney:

Yes, absolutely. We read it and have given a response to it. That was a particular objective of project maths which was to interconnect the various strands in maths which meant that, as part of the development, there was a knowledge that there would be additional reading for students in that examination. However, because of the policy imperative associated with project maths, on balance, it was felt that was the way to proceed with the teaching and learning of mathematics. For students who have a difficulty with reading, there are three reading accommodations they can be provided with depending on their level of need. They can have a full reader to read the examination to them, they can have a reading assistant to read words or phrases from an examination paper, or they can use an examination reading pen. In terms of the State Examinations Commission, the reading pen is really recognised and we were one of the first organisations to actually push the reading pen into schools. We met with a number of schools.