Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Next Wednesday, 5 June, is the start of the leaving certificate examinations. It is important that this House at some stage has a debate about how we actually deal with the 13,000 or 14,000 kids who are sitting their leaving certificate and junior certificate exams who have dyslexia. A significant campaign has gone on in recent years to try to make sure this cohort of children gets extra time in exams. Extra time in exams happens across the entire European profile of schools. Places like Germany, France and the UK all give extra time but Ireland does not. I cannot understand how we are in another leaving certificate process and this is happening again. There seems to be no movement from the Department of Education. We need the Minister to come to this Chamber to give us her vision of what happens regarding dyslexic kids. The stress they are put under is totally inappropriate. In the next few weeks they will be under time pressure going through exams because it takes them longer to compute the issues that are put in front of them. They are probably the brightest in the class but they just need that little bit of extra time to get through it. That they get the extra time at third level but not in junior and leaving certificate exams is an awful insult to the students who are fighting so hard to do well in exams.

There is another issue. This is not just about English, geography or history. The maths questions are a huge issue. It takes some students longer to go through those because of the wordy nature of the maths questions now. There is no acknowledgement from the Department about those issues at all. It is appropriate now that the Minister should come to the House to tell us her vision for these 13,000 children who will be put through examinations that will put them under exceptional mental and physical pressure because we will not do what happens across the entire European platform and we will not do what happens at third level. I really am lost for words here. This is not the first time I have raised this issue and I will continue to raise it. I ask the Acting Leader to make sure the Minister comes to the Chamber before the recess because this needs to be hammered out. We cannot have another leaving certificate where they are going to be caught for extra time and they will not have the ability to finish the exams. It is just unfair. All I ask is to get fairness back into the exam process.