Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue which affects approximately 1,000 students who are due to sit the leaving certificate examination in the coming week. They have special needs and applied through the Department to the State Examinations Commission for a reader to assist them in reading the examination papers in order that they will be able to answer the questions to the best of their ability. Many of them suffer from dyslexia and as a result have a difficulty in reading examination papers. However, they have been refused this special support. Members will understand what I am talking about. There is a system in place under the State Examinations Commission to provide readers for students sitting the junior and leaving certificate examinations. Last week I asked about a case in Portlaoise, to which I will return, in a parliamentary question. I then asked for the overall numbers involved, which I received in a letter from the State Examinations Commission last night.

The reasonable accommodation provision under the certificate examinations scheme has been designed to assist students with special needs. It applies to candidates with a physical disability, a visual or hearing impairment or a specific learning difficulty. The purpose of the scheme is to remove as far as possible the impact of the disability on the student in order that he or she can demonstrate his or her level of attainment. The provision is very clear. The reader does not help the student to answer the examination questions. He or she just reads them to the student who must reply in full himself or herself. The scheme has also been designed to ensure no candidate with a reader will be given an unfair advantage. We understand the scheme which is both good and fair.

Last year 914 students were refused a reader under the scheme. I can only conclude that the figure is of the same order this year, as there is no reason to think otherwise. I asked for the figures for each of the past three years to see what was going on. Last night the State Examinations Commission told me that in 2012, 669 students had been refused a reader. The figure increased to 894 in 2013, while last year it was 914. I am sure the figure this year is the same as last year at least. In a short period of time since 2012 the figure has risen from 669 to 914, an increase of 245 students or 37%. That did not happen by accident. It was a deliberate policy on the part of the Government to cut the funding available to cut down on the cost of examinations. The former Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, took the clear decision to cut the number of readers provided.

The students concerned have passed through the full primary and post-primary education systems. Because they have special needs, they have been assisted along the way. In their final examination they need a continuation of the help they have received, but the Government has slammed the door in their faces. They had the assistance of a reader in their junior certificate examinations. Does the Minister of State know how they feel having been deprived of the services of a reader at this stage? They have been reduced to tears and their parents are helpless. This is cruelty shown to students sitting the leaving certificate examinations. The Government has stepped up its approach in the past couple of years. The number of refusals was 600 when it entered into office and is now around 1,000. It is slamming the door and students are crying and afraid to sit their examinations because they are being deprived of a facility of which they were able to avail in their junior certificate examinations.

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