ADVICE CENTRE:How is it that students taking non-curricular EU languages in the Leaving Certificate achieve such high grades?
Firstly, examinations in the Leaving Certificate are available in the 15 official non-curricular languages of the EU: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Modern Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovakian and Swedish.
There are a number of conditions for admission to these examinations, chief among them being the following:
candidates may sit only one of these examinations; the language in which candidates opt to be examined is their mother tongue; candidates are following a programme of study for the Leaving Certificate; candidates are taking the Leaving Certificate examination in English.
The facility is predicated on the spirit of Article 149 of the Treaty of Nice, which states: "Community action shall be aimed at developing the European dimension in education, particularly through the teaching and dissemination of the languages of the member states."
Are these students getting an advantage over Irish Students?
The Leaving Certificate in English is assessed through a six-hour examination, which is offered at mother-tongue level only, and which requires the study of the language and literature of English at a high level. All students are required to sit this examination and, clearly, this requirement can create a disadvantage for non-native speakers of English who are required to deal with texts from both English and Irish authors, past and present.
For native speakers of languages, taught as part of the school curriculum - French, German, Spanish or Italian, for example - this disadvantage is counterbalanced by the corresponding advantage of sitting the standard foreign-language examinations in these subjects. For native speakers of other languages, however, the problem of disadvantage remains, and this disadvantage may extend to competition for entry to universities or institutes of further education.
In an attempt to redress this situation, special arrangements for the non-curricular languages were put in place so that students who experienced such a disadvantage could sit a language exam in their own mother tongue as a compensation for the difficulty presented by the examination in English. The intention of this is to provide equal opportunity across the whole cohort of students sitting the Leaving Cert. Irish students are at no disadvantage since they, too, present for examination in their own mother tongue and have equal opportunity in other languages. One should also remember that students taking the non-curricular language examinations will be taking all other subjects through the medium of English.
Since the non-curricular language examinations are, in effect, mother-tongue language examinations, no oral or aural components are examined.
As in the language components of mother-tongue English, it is the candidate's ability to understand and produce the written language that is under examination. The examinations are set in co-operation with the Academic Council of the European Schools and are equivalent in standard to similar component of the European Baccalaureate.
TALKBACK
STUDENTS with a diagnosed disability or specific learning difficulty who are sitting the Leaving Certificate in 2009 are facing a new barrier.
Until now, applicants could present an educational psychologist's report that could be up to five years old. In previous years, CAO applicants could produce one which was drafted by a psychologist from the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) when they entered second-level school. However, following a decision of the colleges - one which they have been trying to implement for a number of years, and are now introducing for 2009 entry - a psychological report will only be considered if it is less than three years old.
Why does this matter? Leaving Certificate students applying for a place in an Irish university or institute of technology who have a diagnosed disability or a specific learning difficulty (which is supported by appropriate medical consultant report or psychologists report) will have their disability taken into consideration, by the colleges. This may take the form of reduced-points entry requirements, ie lower than that which a standard applicant must achieve.
Colleges make the argument that if they are giving an applicant a concession - which could give them a place ahead of other applicants who have higher points - they need to be certain that the applicant has a genuine case. Therefore, applicants must now provide a psychologist's report which is less than three years old.
Who will this decision affect most? Those applicants who have a diagnosis of dyslexia which is more than three years old, and who cannot secure a new assessment through a NEPS psychologist and who cannot afford to obtain a private assessment due due to limited resources.
• You can talk back to Brian Mooney at talkback@irish-times.ie
