Students waiting five years for exam certificate

MORE than 250,000 people are still waiting for their Leaving Certificate parchments -- even though some of them sat the exam five years ago.

A legal wrangle is delaying the issuing of the formal papers for people who took the exam since 2005.

Even when it is resolved, it will take some time to clear the backlog for those waiting for their actual certificates.

At present, all that students get is a provisional statement of results. They are missing the final certified parchment from the State Examinations Commission (SEC).

Labour education spokesman Ruairi Quinn said some people would probably never get their certificates as the SEC would not have up-to-date addresses for all of them.

He said that the printed certificate was needed by some people, especially those going to work abroad and not being able to get them proved very inconvenient.

However, a commission spokesperson said that where it was requested, a statement of results was issued on SEC notepaper.

The delay in issuing the certificates is caused by lengthy legal proceedings.

In 2005, an equality case was taken by two students who received exemptions from spelling and grammar in language subjects.

In both cases, the certificates included a 'notation' to the effect that spelling and grammar were not assessed.

They argued successfully that this was discriminatory but the Equality Tribunal ruling was overturned in the District Court which found that the inclusion of this explanatory note on their examination certificates was not discriminatory.

That judgment was, in turn, appealed last year to the High Court and the outcome is due shortly.

The commission was advised not to issue annotated certificates and it decided not to issue any certificates to anybody until the matter is clarified legally. The commission agreed that getting through the backlog would take some time.

The question of putting the special annotation on the certificates became contentious as the numbers of students availing of what are called 'special accommodation' grew over the past decade.

Accommodations

A total of 17,233 'reasonable accommodations' were made available last year, up from 15,488 the year before while the number of special centres rose from 6,912 to 7,587.

The number of students availing of spelling and grammar waivers has grown dramatically from 1,240 in 2001 to 7,157 last year.

The number of students availing of component exemptions in the state examinations has grown from just 22 in 2001 to 2,433 last year.

Other groups of students also avail of special assistance.

Last year, a total of 733 exam candidates were able to use tape recorders, 906 had the aid of a scribe to write their papers, 479 were able to use word processors and 126 used visually modified papers.

The numbers who availed of reading assistance rose from 4,969 in 2008 to 5,369 last year.

- John Walshe Education Editor

Irish Independent