John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 304: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will confirm that persons with an asterisk after their grades in junior and leaving certificate examinations will not be discriminated against when applying for further education and employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33726/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations, including making arrangements for the marking of work presented for examinations and issuing the results of examinations.

Arrangements for the assessment of candidates with special needs in the certificate examinations were the subject of lengthy consultation and consideration by an Expert Advisory Group on Certificate Examinations.

The group recognised that there are cases where many of the elements of a subject that are marked in the examination are accessible to a student but some, because of a particular difficulty the student has, are not. An example is the aural component of a language subject that may not be accessible to a student with a hearing impairment. The Group contended that it was reasonable to allow a student to sit for examination in the components of the subject in which achievement was possible, and to exempt the student from the specific and identifiable elements when it was not. What this means is that the national standard for assessment should be modified to accommodate the student and this modification is enabled by including an explanatory note with the results.

These measures make the examination system more flexible and responsive to the needs of students who would otherwise have difficulty with some examination subjects because of their special needs. This represents a significant advance in the inclusiveness of the examination system.

I want to assure the Deputy that in implementing these measures the State Examinations Commission confines any explanatory note to the assessment issue in the subject or subjects concerned. There is no reference to the special needs of the candidate or to the accommodation provided. The note explains only how the standard national assessment was modified. The annotation on certificates does not impact on CAO offers of third level places to students.