SQA To Allow Dyslexic Students PCs In Exams After Trial Success

Children with dyslexia in Scottish schools will be able to sit electronic exams rather than the traditional paper version after a successful pilot scheme.

Scotland’s exam body has approved the scheme after a small study found that dyslexic pupils coped better with digital exams using laptops rather than having questions read to them and writing out answers in longhand.

Currently, severely dyslexic pupils who struggle to construct or read written sentences are provided with a helper for exams – a so-called scribe – who reads out questions and, in some cases, writes down the answers given to them by the candidate.
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However, using the new exam papers, developed by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in partnership with Edinburgh University, pupils can write their own answers because they are automatically corrected with a spellchecker.

Because the exams are digital, candidates can refer to the questions as many times as they like without having to keep asking their helper – and they can also scroll up and down what they have written.

For those that need it, voice recognition technology allows candidates to speak answers which are then automatically turned into text.

Yesterday, the British Dyslexia Association welcomed the move, which it said would give new independence to dyslexic learners.

“Having a scribe to help with exams can be a cumbersome process and can make pupils feel that they stand out from the rest of their peers,” said a spokesman.

“We think the use of laptops in exams and in the classroom generally is of great benefit to students and we would like this sort of initiative to be rolled out to all schools because it makes a significant difference to the pupils involved.”

Moira Thomson, a committee member of the south-east branch of Dyslexia Scotland, added: “This sort of technology can make a big difference to the candidates involved and it makes them much more independent. Taking an exam is pressurised enough without having to sit in a separate room with a scribe and an invigilator.”

Karen McCallum, SQA’s director of operations said: “We are delighted to add this new option for our candidates. This innovation – and we believe we are the first exam body in the world to offer this in external exams – is another major step forward in making Scotland’s qualifications system as inclusive as possible.”

Last week, Professor Julian Elliot, of Durham University, created a storm of protest after raising doubts about whether dyslexia existed as a medical condition. He claimed it was used by middle class parents who feared their children would be classed as low achievers.

However, racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart, president of Dyslexia Scotland, hit back at a conference on the condition last week, saying Professor Elliot was ill-informed.

The conference found that secondary teachers – particularly in modern languages – were letting dyslexic pupils down because they did not know how to teach them.

It has been estimated that as many as 10% of any school class could be suffering from dyslexia or a dyslexia-type illness.