Madam, Kate Holmquist's article ("Language of Educational apartheid - December 9th) displayed a complete lack of awareness of how Irish exemptions are granted to students with dyslexia in primary and secondary schools.
A child is not allowed to be exempt from the study of Irish simply because he or she is dyslexic, or because they "wrote their letters the wrong way round". A child is only granted an Irish exemption if their reading and spelling levels in English are at the 10th percentile or lower. It is totally outrageous to claim that a student at second level would feel that having literacy attainments in the bottom 10 per cent of their age group is an "enviable bonus". Ms Holmquist's article was quite offensive to children and parents of dyslexic students, especially the idea that a parent would "pick" dyslexia for their children. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Kate Holmquist consistently refers to a 10 per cent bonus awarded to pupils who do their Leaving Certificate through Irish. She fails, however, to make clear that the bonus marks are awarded on a sliding scale, with the percentage awarded being considerably reduced the higher the pupil scores. Thus those pupils achieving the highest marks gain minimal bonus. It is completely disingenuous to suggest that high- achieving students studying medicine and law gained their places through a 10 per cent bump. Indeed, the vast majority obtain their high points without the need for a bonus and through their own hard work.
When I sat my Leaving Cert in 2005 I did so without the advantage of a single up-to-date textbook in Irish. As I'm sure Ms Holmquist will appreciate, the burden of translation this involved considerably increased my workload in an already stressful year.
Grind schools, with their infamous "notes", so favoured by many of my peers, were of little use to me. Therein, of course, lies the real apartheid in Irish education.
Undoubtedly, many of those who attended Gaelscoileanna fare so well because they have heeded their teachers' advice to research topics before commenting on them - a lesson Ms Holmquist would do well to learn. - Yours, etc,