Leaving Certificate students with dyslexia should be given an extra 10 minutes per hour in their exams, a lecturer has said.
Students with certain needs, such as dyslexia, were this year given an extra 10 minutes per State exam for the first time.
This interim measure was advanced during a review of the Reasonable Accommodations at the Certificate Examinations scheme.
However, those 10 minutes are not enough in exams that can last over three hours, said Technological University Dublin lecturer Keith Murphy.
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“We need at least an extra 10 minutes per hour, or to be on par with how other countries in Europe do it. We need to resource the thing and do it right, because we’re just reproducing generations of kids who are being seriously impacted,” he said.
Murphy was one of those “kids” whose education was seriously affected by his dyslexia. He left school aged 14 and did an apprenticeship to become a painter.
“When I was in school, my experience was horrible,” he said. “From the time I was 14 until I was 42, I believed I was stupid. I never read a book because I just thought I was too stupid to read a book.”
When he was in his 40s, Murphy had a workplace accident that meant he could no longer paint.
He decided to go back to education. The road began with a Fás course and he then progressed through to university, completing a master’s in education and eventually a PhD.
It was not until he was undertaking his PhD in 2017 that he discovered he was dyslexic. “Suddenly, much of my earlier educational experience made sense,” he said.
Murphy used his experience in his work, researching dyslexia, neurodiversity, inclusion and equality in education while also working as a lecturer in applied social care at TU Dublin.
It was during his time in third-level education that he noticed the difference in the treatment of students with dyslexia compared with their treatment in second-level education.
Leaving Certificate results will be published on Friday, and this week will bring feelings of “anxiety, stress, fear and unfairness” back to the surface for students with dyslexia, he said.
However, for those who choose to go on to college, they may well find the supports available to them are very different.
Most universities and colleges in Ireland participate in the Disability Access Route to Education (Dare) scheme, which is an alternative admissions scheme for school-leavers whose disabilities have had a negative impact on their second-level education. Dyslexia is covered under this programme.
As well as saving places on many courses specifically for Dare applicants on reduced points, the scheme also provides a variety of educational, technological and personal supports for students while studying.
These vary by college, but can include assistive technology, exam accommodations, education support workers and academic tuition.
The vastly improved accommodations for dyslexic students through this scheme at third level is unfair and creates a contradiction in policy, Murphy said.
“What happens between second and third level? Does dyslexia become more legitimate when a student turns 18? Of course not,” he said.
“The introduction of additional time in 2026 should be seen as a beginning, not an endpoint. Ten minutes is progress, but it does not bring Ireland in line with comparable European systems.
“Most importantly, it does not resolve the underlying contradiction between what we recognise as necessary in higher education and what we provide at second level. We should not need another generation of young people with dyslexia to experience unnecessary anxiety, stress and self-doubt before we decide that the system itself needs to change.”
