Opinion: additional time would greatly benefit the thousands of young people with dyslexia who face challenges during formal state exams
Dyslexia is a learning difference that affects about 1 in 10 individuals, manifesting on a spectrum from mild to severe. The European Dyslexia Association estimates that dyslexia affects between 5% to 12% of the world's population and Turkey has the lowest prevalence of dyslexia at 0.05% while Nigeria has the highest prevalence at 33.3%. Estimates of the prevalence of dyslexia depend on a variety of variables including language complexity. The internationally agreed consensus is that 10% is the average worldwide estimate.
Dyslexia is legally recognised as a disability, which ensures the right to various accommodations in both educational settings and the workplace. In many countries, students with dyslexia and other neurodiverse conditions are granted additional time to support them during their formal state exams. But there is no provision for this in Ireland despite ongoing advocacy for students with dyslexia to be awarded extra time in state exams.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime in May 2023, Rosie Bissett from the Dyslexia Association of Ireland on calls for dyslexic students to be given extra time in Leaving Cert exams
Dyslexia is often explained as a specific learning difficulty that occurs on a continuum from mild to severe. Nonetheless, the characteristics of having dyslexia are a commonality of difficulties, such as reading, spelling, writing cognitive and processing difficulties related to these. Rather than dyslexia being a learning difficulty, it tends to impact specific processing skills which changes depending on the environment and what the person with dyslexia has been asked to do.
Dyslexia also has impacts on confidence, esteem and relationship building. Students with dyslexia process information differently than students without dyslexia. This is in relation to reading text, processing what that information means, understanding it and how to articulate the information, either verbally or to answer an exam question on paper. When this is all combined and under a time constraint, a person with dyslexia can become stressed, anxious and often 'freeze’.
There is plenty of research conducted nationally and globally on the possible solutions that may work for students with dyslexia in an examination situation. Very often, dyslexia is not a stand-alone difference as research has showed familial clustering with other neurodivergent differences. Students with dyslexia can be slower at articulating their subject knowledge, have slower handwriting than their peers without dyslexia and their writing can lack legibility and this leads into issues with focus during long exams also.
From RTÉ News, 2024 Leaving Cert student Lucy Brennan talks about dyslexia and how she studies differently
Formal, timed, written, and closed-book examinations are widely utilised in educational contexts. These assessments remain the most prevalent method for evaluating a student's subject knowledge, abilities, and skills after completing a course of study. The extra pressure and anxiety of a time constraint can disadvantage all students, but it has been shown that extra time in exams can make a significant difference to achieving a better grade for disabled students, where it had no real bearing on a non-disabled student's grade.
Educational institutions in Ireland have both an ethical and obligatory responsibility to proactively remove or minimise obstacles to education for individuals with disabilities. Reasonable adjustments in learning (such as scribes, readers, and technology) and in teaching and assessments (including classroom learning, revision, exams, and essays) are essential components of a student’s educational experience.
One common accommodation in formal second level state exams in many countries is the provision of extra time. This allows students with dyslexia to complete formal assessments with additional time allocated per hour. In France, students with dyslexia receive an extra 33% of time, in Italy 30%, and in the UK 25% for secondary level exams. In higher education in Ireland, extra time is allocated to student with dyslexia in the form of an extra 10 minutes per hour, but there is currently no provision for extra time in exam situations here for students with dyslexia at secondary school level.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's News at One, Carole Coleman on calls for a 25% increase in exam time for students with dyslexia
Many parents, professional organisations, educational psychologists and researchers believe that additional time would greatly benefit the thousands of young people with dyslexia who face challenges during formal state exams each year. As Donald Ewing, Head of Education Policy at Dyslexia Ireland, puts it, "it is the equivalent of glasses for those who are short-sighted. This accommodation allows them to access the exam on a level playing field".
Providing extra time would enable students with dyslexia to reach their full potential, significantly reduce exam-related stress and anxiety and enhance their overall educational experiences. Students have reported needing extra time because reading questions and formulating answers takes longer due to their unique information processing styles, which can hinder their performance in exams. This, in turn, can have lasting impacts on their self-esteem, career choices, and opportunities in further education and employment.
Despite the substantial evidence supporting the need for extra time, the State Examinations Commission (SEC) in Ireland has been slow to initiate a review of this matter. While they have acknowledged that extra time might help students provide more comprehensive answers, they believe it could also be perceived as granting an unfair advantage to some candidates. This statement seems ironic given the extensive support for the accommodation from various sectors of society across the world and its implementation in many educational systems worldwide.
From RTÉ's Lost for Words, Dr Keith Murphy on his experience of dyslexia and journey to earning a PhD
The SEC’s response has totally ignored the issue of Ireland being a complete outlier compared to other countries in terms of additional time for second-level exams, as well as being at odds with arrangements here in Ireland at third level, and with professional competency exams (including even the driver theory test). All of these other exams are equally as high stakes as the Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate, and yet in these other settings extra time is routinely provided.
The views of a 25 year-old report that extra time would be ‘well-nigh impossible’ seems to be at odds with this reality. It is also contradicts a 2009 expert group which recommended the immediate introduction of extra time for students with additional needs.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
