Student challenges refusal of a reader assistant for Junior Cert

A student with dyspraxia, and speech and language difficulties is suing the State Examination Commission for refusing to give her a reader assistant when she sits her Junior Certificate.

The student, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had applied to the High Court to have an individual reader assist her in reading the questions to her.

Represented by Feichin McDonagh SC and Brendan Hennessy BL, and instructed by solicitor Eileen McCabe, she has been diagnosed with several conditions including language disorder, auditory processing disorder and dyspraxia which inhibit her ability to process information.

The court was told she is hard working but needs help from a special needs assistant to access the school curriculum on a daily basis.

Her family applied to the Commission’s Reasonable Accommodations at Certificate Examinations (RACE) Scheme, designed to facilitate access to examinations for those with physical, visual, hearing or learning difficulties.

Errors

Her application was supported by reports from doctors, speech and language therapists and an occupational therapist but was refused because she obtained scores that were too high in certain tests. In one test, she obtained a score of less than 7 per cent reading errors on sample exam papers.

The commission said her scores did not entitle her to have a reader assist her during the exams. The student appealed but the refusal was upheld.

She claims the refusal is flawed, lacks proportionality and reasonableness and did not engage with the fact she has an auditory processing disorder. The commission failed to conduct an adequate inquiry into the information submitted on her behalf, she also claims.

She will be seriously prejudiced by the refusal, it discriminates unfairly against her and has caused her significant stress and anxiety, it is further claimed.

Permission to bring judicial review proceedings against the commission was granted on Monday by Mr Justice Seamus Noonan on an ex parte basis (one side only represented). Noting the examinations start in early June, the judge returned the matter to next week.