Madam, - A front-page report in your edition of June 7th implied that 2,400 pupils cite learning difficulties to gain an exemption from Irish. This is a dangerous assumption and simply not true. No student would admit to a learning difficulty unless he or she actually had one. No young person wants to be different, no young person wants a label, nor do they want the stigma and trauma associated with having a learning difficulty.
The number of pupils with specific learning in secondary education is increasing every year due to better diagnosis and greater understanding in second level. Approximately 5 per cent of the population have dyslexia, so if we assume that 5 per cent of pupils sitting State exams could also have dyslexia, then more than 5,000 pupils could be eligible for those exemptions. This means that the 2,400 figure is under-representative of the real number of eligible pupils.
Pupils with dyslexia experience great difficulty with the reading, writing and structure of the English language. Exempting pupils with dyslexia from Irish is not giving them an advantage, but merely enabling them to compete fairly with other pupils.
It is simplistic to suggest that fee-paying schools are abusing the system just because their exemption rate is higher The real reason is that parents can afford the private psychological assessment required for the exemption. In other homes the parents cannot afford the €400 required, which means that pupils may never have a validated diagnosis as the National Educational Psychological Service is seriously under-resourced and the waiting list for NEPS assessments can be up to two years.
Achieving equality of education for students with learning difficulties does not mean treating all pupils the same, but rather understanding the problems faced by students and providing them with individual assessment and fair accommodations such as the exemption from Irish. - Yours, etc,
ANN HEELAN,
Executive Director,
Association for Higher
Education Access and Disability,
Dublin 2.
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Sean Flynn, Education Editor, writes: The report was based on concern expressed by the inspectorate of the Department of Education that the numbers seeking exemptions has risen so dramatically