Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy has articulated, the SEC has specific responsibility for the operation, delivery and development of the State examinations. As part of its remit, the SEC provides the scheme of reasonable accommodations, which is known as the RACE scheme. This scheme facilitates access to the State exams by candidates who would have difficulty in accessing the exams or communicating what they know because of a physical difficulty, visual and hearing impairments or a learning difficulty. A physical difficulty could include medical, sensory, behavioural and mental health difficulties.

The SEC advises that the focus of the RACE scheme is on the need to remove barriers to accessing the examinations while retaining the need to assess the same underlying skills and competencies as are assessed for all other candidates and applying the same standards of achievement as apply to all other candidates. A central tenet of the RACE scheme is to ensure equitable treatment for all candidates. The range of accommodations provided under the scheme has been designed to ensure fairness for all when facilitating candidates in demonstrating their level of achievement. The RACE scheme is operated by the SEC within the context of the annually issued RACE Instructions for Schools, which is the handbook on RACE. All applications for reasonable accommodations are considered within a published framework of principles.

The SEC has advised that, in 2022, almost 25,000 candidates, or 19% of the total candidates, were provided with 30,000 individual accommodations under the RACE scheme. This is an increase over 2019 when 20,000 candidates, or 17% of the total, were provided with accommodation.

From the 2016 to 2017 school year, the RACE scheme underwent fundamental reform. The reform focused on a number of areas and intended to ensure greater integration of the RACE scheme with overall Department of Education special educational needs policy, to enable greater access to the scheme, and to allow greater autonomy to schools and certainty to students about the examination supports available to them. These candidate-centred changes were informed by engagement with stakeholders. This included representatives of students, including those with special educational needs, such as the Dyslexia Association of Ireland, the Special Needs Parents Association, school management and leadership bodies, Government agencies, including the National Council for Special Education and the National Disability Authority, and statutory bodies.

The RACE scheme continues to be subject to a process of ongoing review and improvement by the SEC. For example, recent enhancements to the scheme include the introduction of deferred examinations, within the policy context of the scheme, for leaving certificate candidates who miss their examinations in the main sitting due to close family bereavement, serious accident, illness or injury. A number of specific initiatives were introduced in 2023 for candidates with visual impairments.

In addition to the fundamental reform for the 2016 to 2017 school year, and the ongoing process of review and improvement, the scheme will be subject to further review by the SEC in the context of reform of the senior cycle. One of the key priorities will be increasing the use of assistive technology to enhance access and integrity and to further support independent learning. In this regard, I am assured the SEC intends that there will be extensive consultation and engagement with all relevant stakeholders.

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