The decision to give roughly 30,000 students with additional needs 10 extra minutes to complete their State exams is ‘really quite paltry’, Dyslexia Ireland has argued. 

Following years of campaigning, the Department of Education announced that change for students who have already been assessed by the Reasonable Accommodations at the Certificate Examinations (RACE) scheme. 

Last year, of the 140,000 children who sat State examinations, 26% of them had been granted an accommodation under RACE. 

Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton described the change as an “important step forward in ensuring that students with specific needs are supported in a fair, consistent and effective way”. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Dyslexia Ireland CEO Rosie Bisset described it as “welcome” news. 

 “Although I would say the amount really is quite paltry,” she added. 

“It's literally just 10 minutes per written exam, which really compares quite poorly to what's available in other countries.” 

Students doing their Leaving Cert exams in Bandon, West Cork. Picture by: AG News / Alamy Stock Photo.

While most countries give students with additional needs an extra 25% exam time, the 10 minutes given to Irish pupils amounts to about 5 to 7%. 

“We're hoping that this is just the beginning, the first little bit that they're adding in this year,” Ms Bisset added. 

“Certainly, we'll be campaigning that it will be improved because, as you say, 10 minutes is nothing.

“For our candidates, it's not about extra time to read back over it, it's time to even get the exam completed; reading takes them longer, they run out of time when writing and answering questions. 

“For so many of our young people, they walk out of exams, be it school exams, and obviously, in particular, their state exams, Junior Cert and Leaving Cert, never having completed an exam, always running out of time.”

Main image: A student sitting his Leaving Certificate. Picture by: AG News/Alamy Live News.