Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I am sure the stakeholders will be happy to hear that. However, I feel the need to raise the current issues. The framework of principles for the reasonable accommodations scheme, which the Minister mentioned, states they are designed to assist a candidate in demonstrating their achievements in an exam setting. The Deputy is correct that demand for the scheme has increased every year for the past decade, likely due to a greater understanding of additional needs.

The Minister spoke about fairness. The National Council for the Blind of Ireland, NCBI, recently told the joint committee on education that there is no consistency and confusion regarding accommodation for students with visual impairment. One student can get something while another cannot and there is no logic or rationale as to why that decision has been made. The Joint Committee on Disability Matters recently heard from a student who sat her junior certificate examinations last year. She knew she was entitled to a scribe, a special centre and extra time. Unfortunately, it was later that she found out she was also entitled to the same rest break between exams as her peers. She said the reasonable accommodations scheme is a one-size-fits-all approach and the needs of individual students are not acknowledged. Despite the most common form of accommodation provided relating to spelling and grammar, followed by reading assistance, there remains no entitlement to extra time for students with dyslexia who have problems with processing information and retaining it via the short-term memory.

The Minister mentioned that the scheme is under constant review. I ask her to publish the most recent review of the scheme so that stakeholders can be aware of where the current situation is at and where it is that they will be making requests of the SEC at a future date.

See this speech in context