Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Following on from Senator Clonan, my Commencement matter deals with a similar theme, namely the inaccessibility of education for people who are visually impaired. I am really glad of the opportunity to highlight issues relating to the rights of people with disabilities, particularly their right to live life on their own terms. I want to extend a really warm welcome to Ms Niamh Kilcawley and her mother, Sinéad, who have travelled here today to hear this Commencement debate. This Commencement matter was inspired by Niamh who is blind and has had to fight for every single accommodation she has received for her junior certificate. It is a critical issue that demands our immediate attention. In fact, it should have been taken care of already. We must ensure that the Department provides adequate accommodations for students who are blind and visually impaired. It is not only a moral obligation; it is an absolute necessity to create an inclusive and equitable learning environment that caters to the needs of every single student, regardless of ability. It is our responsibility to ensure that students have equal access to educational resources and the necessary tools and accommodations to enable them to achieve their full potential.

There are several issues and questions that I would like to speak about in the context of day-to-day education and the practicalities of exams. In terms of day-to-day education, the accessibility of class work, handouts and materials is important. Teachers and SNAs need to be trained in the most up-to-date technology. The importance of training and awareness of the accessibility of information and educational materials cannot be underestimated. It is the difference between getting an education and not getting one. Schools need to be given the capacity to do this. They also need to be given the capacity to mirror during school exams the accommodations given during State exams. There is also the issue of the practicality of timetables. If there is a delayed start, there must be a delayed finish. Is the CAO process accessible? Are higher and ordinary level exam papers available in Braille for students on exam day? Other important issues include rest breaks, exam timing, the time between exams, the role of the scribe and the actual exam papers, as I have mentioned. Rest breaks are particularly important. Students have to dictate all their answers, which causes significant mental fatigue for candidates. They need extra time because they have to mentally retain information as the reader calls out the questions, translate that into thought and then deliver their answers onto an exam paper. French comprehension, for example, is particularly demanding on memory. It should be a prerequisite so that a reader can inform the candidate as to the time, as people cannot see the clock. There are issues in relation to the insufficient time. For example, at present in English and history, ten minutes extra is given to students over the course of the three-hour exam to listen to the exam paper. They may dare to have someone re-read an exam paper. The student has not met the scribe before and the scribe may not understand the student's accent or may need them to speak more slowly. There are so many obstacles in students' way. It is ludicrous to think that for subjects like history and English only ten minutes extra over the course of three hours is given to students. Ms Kilcawley has gone through an awful lot of difficulties in her life. Despite the State constantly putting obstacles in her way, she achieved the highest junior certificate results in her school. No thanks are due to the State for this. It is thanks to Niamh fighting for every single accommodation. Now, 12 months on from her doing the leaving certificate, we are here to try to pre-empt that. We need an awful lot of help to make sure that obstacles are not put in front of students like Niamh.

Tom Clonan (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Hear, hear.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator McGreehan for raising this issue. I welcome Niamh to the Chamber and it is great to see my old pal Ciarán accompanying her. This is a very timely Commencement matter. I am meeting Vision Ireland tomorrow afternoon to discuss this and many other issues relating specifically to my work with the Department of Finance on access to financial services for those with visual impairments. This follows on from a lot of work we have done with Senator Martin Conway on access to apprenticeships, particularly in the retail sphere. We have been very lucky to have some progress in this area over the past couple of months.

I will deal specifically with the status quo and a few changes that have been put in place for the junior and leaving certificate examinations. Then I will address some of the Senator's suggestions in a bit more detail.

The State Examinations Commission, SEC, has statutory responsibility for the operation of the State examinations. This includes providing access to the examinations for candidates with a complex variety of special educational needs under its scheme of reasonable accommodations, known as the RACE scheme. In 2023 the SEC piloted the provision of read-only digital versions of examination papers to leaving certificate candidates who are vision impaired and under the care of the visiting teacher service, VTS. This was in the context of an ongoing review and improvement of the RACE scheme. Read-only digital PDF versions of the standard examination papers were provided for the purposes of facilitating zooming and panning, along with the potential for users with appropriate accessibility software to adjust the colour or tone of the background and/or the text. A total of 14 candidates participated in these pilot arrangements.

Following a Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, case about inclusion of junior cycle candidates in the pilot, and having given detailed consideration to the issue, the SEC decided to extend the scope of the pilot to the junior cycle in 2024. The scope was also extended to include modified as well as standard versions of examination papers. A total of 26 leaving certificate and junior certificate candidates are included in the pilot arrangements this year.

On the first morning of the examinations, Wednesday, 5 June, there was a technical, security-related issue in accessing the digital examination paper through the SEC’s secure portal. I can advise that ten schools reported this issue to the SEC on behalf of ten candidates. The issue was resolved by 11.15 a.m. that morning. The SEC had also provided the examination papers for these candidates in traditional enlarged-hard-copy format. This enabled the ten affected candidates to take their examinations using the hard copy of the paper. Any time lost was restored at the end of the examination session.

The SEC has asked each school in the pilot to appoint a designated liaison person. The SEC has engaged with them to review what happened in their school and to apologise to the affected candidates. Arrangements will made to ensure that there is no disadvantage to these candidates. A comprehensive review of the pilot was planned, which will now include this specific issue.

An extensive range of examination supports is already available to support candidates with vision impairments but the Senator has made the case quite clearly that these are insufficient. It is not just about the range of additional services but it is the whole range of supports that apply to the entire education process, not just to the couple of hours of the examination. There is an opportunity here. There will be a review of the updates that were made for this year's junior certificate and leaving certificate regarding the issues I have laid out.As part of that, this is the moment where we address what is clearly an awful shortfall for those who are visually impaired and have additional needs and are sitting second level examinations and accessing education. I say this from a personal point of view; my brother is head of resources in a secondary school in Wicklow and is sitting on hand with students as we speak for examinations at leaving and junior certificate level. They are, of course, the history students the Senator mentioned because that is his main subject focus.

Let us use this moment as an opportunity. The Senator raised a number of key issues. I am over time and will come back to them. Let us take them directly to the Minister, Deputy Foley, bring the involved families in and use Vision Ireland and this as an opportunity to make the progress the Senator so eloquently laid out.

Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is laughable that we are piloting accessible and inclusive education. The Minister of State said things have changed and there are digital papers. We need papers in Braille. We need to consider all of our students. The current system is restrictive and there is no flexibility. Students with disabilities are not a homogenous group. Reasonable accommodations for one are completely irrelevant for another. There needs to be an individualisation of accommodation for students. That would allow students to thrive, not just survive and get by in school.

By looking at what a student needs, we can identify what is needed, such as extra time between or while doing exams. A child has the audacity to have ambition and the cheek to want to go to college and do better. We are 12 months out from the next leaving certificate. Please do not have us or somebody else standing here next year speaking about obstacles or highlighting them on television when Niamh is being disadvantaged during her leaving certificate. Not many visually impaired or blind students do exams every year. Surely the State, with all its resources, can pull together to make sure we change the system.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Senator is correct. Only 24 children are looking for equality of access and opportunity. It is not too much to ask. The technology is evolving daily. There have been changes to what the Senator and I experienced when we did our leaving certificate a number of years ago, and we would have known individuals for whom no accommodation was made. Changes have reached a 1999 or 2001 standard, but we are in 2024 and will soon be in 2025. We have to make sure the standards are of a 2025 standard, not just for Niamh but for all of the others.

There is a review process based on the use of digital papers, as I mentioned, in this year's junior and leaving certificate examinations. That provides a window of opportunity and there is a responsibility on all of us to seize that opportunity. I will do anything I can to ensure that the Ministers, Deputies Naughten and Foley, along with the Ministers in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, as one leads into the other, are in a position to address these situations. I will ensure that is delivered.