Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. I welcome the opportunity to update the House on the issue, which affects many families throughout the country. It is of great importance for a large number of students taking examinations at both second and third level.

The State Examinations Commission has responsibility for the operation, delivery and development of the State examinations. Before I address the Senator's points regarding the RACE scheme, I take the opportunity to welcome the recent confirmation by the SEC that it intends to issue the leaving certificate 2023 examination results on Friday, 25 August. This is a full week earlier than the 2022 results, which issued on 2 September last year. It provides clarity for students, parents, teachers and other relevant stakeholders.

As part of its remit, the SEC provides the RACE scheme to support students with a complex variety of special and additional educational needs. The scheme facilitates access by candidates who have difficulty in accessing the examinations or communicating what they know because of a physical difficulty, visual or hearing impairment or learning difficulty. The RACE scheme is operated by the SEC within the context of the annually issued RACE Instructions for Schools document, which is the handbook for the operation of the scheme. All applications for reasonable accommodations are considered within a published framework of principles.

Starting from the 2016-17 school year, the RACE scheme underwent fundamental reform. That reform focused on a number of objectives, including ensuring greater integration of the scheme with overall Department of Education special educational needs policy, enabling greater access to the scheme by students with learning difficulties, and allowing greater autonomy to schools and certainty to students as to the examination supports available to them. These candidate-centred changes were informed by engagement with stakeholders. They included representatives of students, including those with special educational needs, such as the Dyslexia Association of Ireland and the Special Needs Parents Association, as well as school management, leadership bodies, Government agencies 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 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 or serious accident, illness or injury. As set out in the 2023 Instructions for Schools, published in October 2022, a number of specific initiatives are being introduced this year for candidates with visual impairments. In addition to the fundamental reform commenced in the 2016-17 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 at senior cycle. One of the key priorities will be increasing the use of assistive technology to enhance access and integrity and further support independent learning. I am assured that the SEC intends to have an extensive consultation and engagement with all the relevant stakeholders in this regard, including the Dyslexia Association of Ireland.