Sir, – I read your article on the State Examinations Commission (SEC) with great interest (Education, November 25th). My daughter is dyslexic. She received her accommodations for the Leaving Cert on the Friday prior to sitting her English exam last June. This resulted from the intervention of the Ombudsman for Children in her case.
My wife and I were shocked when Hannah was refused her accommodations in January. We had applied for exemption on spelling and grammar, and the use of a laptop for speed.
Throughout her school years she had received all the supports needed to help her cope with her dyslexia. In the Junior Cert she had an exemption for spelling and grammar and the use of a laptop.
The DARE supports available now to Hannah in college are quite phenomenal. She is provided with tools, study aids, assistance and support. You do not “recover” from dyslexia, you cope.
There seems to be an in-built culture that the SEC knows best and that parents are trying to cheat the system. How can this culture inform key decisions at the most crucial point in our children’s lives? Why is it necessary to have an exemption to type your exam on a laptop? There is no job that requires an individual to hand-write, under pressure, for three hours.
It was only with the intervention of the Ombudsman for Children that we got the result we needed. What if my wife and I had given up? How many other parents give up or do not know how to deal with a State bureaucracy, to the ultimate cost of their children and society.
Both the Department of Education and the SEC need to have a good hard look at how this process operates and they need to fix it. – Yours, etc,
CONOR McWADE
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.