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Written evidence from Sonia Ash

1. I would like to draw your attention to the discrimination of students with Dyslexia in GCSE exams, under the Equality Act 2010, due to the 20% SPAG allocation for English language GCSE’s and 5% in English Literature, History and Religious studies. The more recent changes to exams, including scrapping coursework, scrapping the English oral exam, the introduction of closed texts and the reduction in SEN spending by local authorities mean those with dyslexia are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain a grade 4 even if they have a talent for English. This is preventing them from pursuing their career choices in higher education and apprenticeships.  I have written to the DoE who have assured me that dyslexic students are on an ‘even playing ground’ due to reasonable adjustments such as extra time. None of these reasonable adjustments will ever enable a dyslexic to be able to spell. It is unfair that they lose the equivalent of 2 grade boundaries before they have even entered the exam room.

2. The Department of Education have not collected data on dyslexia as a sole need, instead lumping any candidate with SEND together. In the initial consultation concerns were raised that Gove’s SPAG allocation would be discriminatory to those with dyslexia and that their performance should be monitored. This clearly hasn’t been done. This is unsatisfactory as there are huge differences between types of SEN and, without their progress being monitored individually, the Department of Education cannot see if there are issues or the best way to address these.

3. The data that has been collated, however, shows that there is a huge gap in attainment between the performance of SEN children and those without SEN in their GCSE results. The figures for 2017 puts the gap at 45% for a pass in English and Maths grade 4-9 with 70% of non send children achieving this compared to 25% of SEND children. Surely this is not acceptable. Dyslexics are no less intelligent than non-dyslexics, that is a proven scientific fact. Therefore, it follows that there should be no difference in attainment between them and non-dyslexics if the adjustments made for them in GCSE exams put them on a ‘level playing field’. This data proves the adjustments made are not enough for them to be even close to a fair advantage.

4. I would like the DoE to review what they are actually testing and for what and whose benefit. Singapore, the leading nation in the world for education has just scrapped exams as no longer relevant to skills needed in the future workplace. The MOE said that teachers will continue to gather information about pupils’ learning through discussions, homework and quizzes. Schools will use other ways like “qualitative descriptors”, in place of marks and grades, to evaluate pupils’ progress at these two levels. The reason for this is because we will need different skills and different intelligences in the near future. This would be a much fairer system and place far less stress on children, especially dyslexics. It also means children can fulfill their potential. India, for example, allows candidates with dyslexia and dyscalculia to have calculators in Maths exams.  Both Scotland and Ireland have much more forward thinking education systems which do not penalise candidates for spelling. Ireland, like Singapore, has increased coursework rather than removed it.

February 2019