Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The State Examinations Commission, SEC, has statutory responsibility for the certificate examinations. A waiver from spelling and grammar can be provided to candidates with special educational needs under the scheme of reasonable accommodations in the certificate examinations, RACE. A devolved system is in place for the junior certificate examinations. Schools can recommend the granting of accommodations which are then granted by the State Examinations Commission. However, accommodations which are granted for the junior certificate will not automatically be carried on to the leaving certificate. Instead, all applications for accommodations in the leaving certificate are referred by schools to the National Educational Psychological Service for a decision.

Applications for the year 2012-13 are not yet complete. In the 2012 leaving certificate examinations, a total of 3,940 candidates applied for a waiver from the spelling and grammar element of language subjects. Of these, 2,587 or 66% were granted and 1,353 or 34% were refused. The State Examinations Commission cannot provide statistics on candidates refused such a waiver at leaving certificate who had a waiver at junior certificate. This information would require a manual examination of each file. Appeals against any State Examinations Commission decisions on RACE can be made to an independent appeals committee.

Statistics for the leaving certificate 2012 on the spelling and grammar waiver

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