NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS (Annotation of certificates for students given special arrangements)

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the rationale for his Ministry's recent requirement that students who need special arrangements or considerations for national examinations (PSLE, "O" and "A" levels) will have their certificates annotated with special symbols; (b) on a nationwide basis, how many of these students who sat for the national examinations last year had asked and were given such special arrangements or considerations for their examinations; and (c) what proportion of the total cohort do these numbers represent.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Sir, before I ask Question No. 2, I would like to declare that I have a son who is dyslexic and is taking his PSLE examination this year.

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Mr Speaker, Sir, in every examination, there is a set of pre-determined conditions, for example, the duration of the examination, to ensure that all candidates are assessed on a common yardstick. Special arrangements, however, are made for certain candidates to allow them to take their examinations and demonstrate their mastery of the subject being examined without being disadvantaged by the special difficulties that they have. By doing so, our intention is to open up opportunities for students with special needs to sit for and obtain qualifications at the various national examinations. And indeed, the number of such students who have been able to get such special arrangements has been rising. This will pave the way for them to proceed on to further education. The special arrangements that are made include giving the candidate additional time to write the examination, exempting him from aural/oral test and providing other forms of assistance that may be needed.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of requests for special arrangements. For example, there was an increase of 39% in the requests received between 2000 and 2001, from 469 to 650. These requests come from candidates with a wide range of medical or psychological conditions of varying degrees of severity from mild to very serious. The determination as to whether a condition merits special arrangements, and the extent of special arrangements a disability merits, are not clear-cut, black and white decisions. The Ministry has therefore decided that an even-handed, transparent and fair approach be adopted. All candidates who have been granted special arrangements in an examination will have an annotation in their certificates. This annotation will indicate that these candidates have taken their examinations under conditions which are different from those who take the examinations under the normal prescribed conditions. The annotation will only state that the students sat for the examinations under special arrangements. No details of the special arrangements will appear on the certificate. The Ministry of Education will also not reveal details of the student's reasons for requesting the special arrangements unless the student authorises the Ministry to do so.

This policy of annotation will ensure that even as we allow candidates who need special arrangements access to our examinations, we do so in a way that maintains transparency in our examination system and that the examination system is as fair as possible to those students who take the examinations under the normal prescribed conditions. And that it is also fair to those small number of candidates each year who do have medical or psychological conditions which are serious enough to merit special arrangements.

Last year, there were 216 students from the PSLE and 434 students from the GCE N', O' and A' level examinations who applied for special arrangements. Of these, all the students from PSLE and 382 (88%) students from the GCE N', O' and `A' levels who applied for special arrangements were given such special arrangements.

These numbers represent about 0.43% of the total candidature for the 2001 PSLE and about 0.63% of the total candidature for the 2001 GCE N', O' and `A' level examinations.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Sir, I would like to ask the Minister if the Ministry had considered the negative impact and consequences of annotation on these children in subsequent years, such as labelling and stigmatising, which could bring about a further reduction of opportunities for these children for mainstreaming and integrating into the society and hence, increase the obstacles for independent living, when all that such disadvantaged students are asking for is accommodation to help them level up.

Secondly, did the Ministry discuss the issues with the relevant organisations such as the Society for the Deaf and DAS before implementing the annotation policy?

Finally, besides the US, which are the other countries that practise annotation or flagging?

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Sir, the Ministry considered the matter very seriously and we decided to adopt a balanced and open approach. We recognise that there are students who have medical or psychological problems who will be able to sit for and do well in their PSLE, GCE 'O', 'A' and 'N' level examinations. because we want to give these students an opportunity to take these examinations that we provide this accommodation.

Sir, there is no question about not providing accommodation. The Ministry is prepared to provide accommodation where there is proper medical and psychological assessment and the Ministry considers that these reasons are strong and serious enough to merit special arrangements. That will continue.

On the other hand, we have to balance this against fairness to other candidates who may not have asked for special arrangements to take their examinations under normal circumstances. The range of requests has increased over the years. In the early years, we have had very clear-cut requests - generally, physical disabilities for which there is very little doubt one way or the other. But in recent years, we have received a larger number of requests, mainly of a psychological nature for which the severity and the precise nature of the requests require much more judgement, and even the medical and psychological professionals do not always agree on them. So what we want to do is to balance this desire to accommodate more of such requests which are valid together with the need to be more open and balanced with regard to having agreed to these requests. We believe that this is a fair and open system by which students who have conditions which are serious enough will be able to get access to special arrangements and allow them to proceed on to higher education.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Sir, I would like to ask the Minister to comment on the number of students who have been asking for special accommodation which has increased over the years. Would it not be fair to say that previously, most parents would not be so informed as to the types of disabilities that our children could suffer from but with society maturing and becoming more sophisticated and informed, some of these disabilities which were previously not detectable or the parents would not know about it ---

Mr Speaker: Dr Khor, could you make your questions concise, please?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I would like to ask the Minister to comment that perhaps the Ministry could look at it from the point of view that the number has increased because of information access.

My other question is: why did the Ministry actually implement the annotation policy at a time when the College Board of the US has just agreed to stop flagging the scores of disabled students who take the SAT under special conditions, such as extra time? From what I read about the practice of flagging in the US, one of the reasons for flagging is to prevent abuse by students who, in reality, have no real disabilities.

Mr Speaker: Dr Khor, you are making a speech again.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: No, I am asking a question. This links to the question that I am asking now. If indeed one of the primary objectives of the Ministry is to prevent this abuse, can the Ministry consider instead to implement more stringent conditions under which a student can have special accommodation? For example, recognising tests ---

Mr Speaker: Dr Khor, if you do not ask your question, I will ask you to resume your seat.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Yes, this is the question. I would like to ask the Ministry if they can consider recognising tests from, say, accredited panels so that the Ministry can be assured that these are students who have real disabilities and are asking for special accommodation.

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Sir, Dr Khor is indeed correct. As I have said earlier, there is an increasing number of conditions which have now been recognised for which students are asking for special accommodation. So, the increase in the requests for special accommodation do come from this wider range of conditions. Not all these conditions are completely well established. Even among the medical professionals and the psychologists, there may be some disagreement as to the impact of these conditions on the examinations which the student is taking, and they may well disagree also on the extent and whether or not accommodations are justified. So the Ministry is, in a sense, in a rather difficult position. And even the doctors, whom the parents who bring their children/students to, are also in a difficult situation, because the parents, obviously, would want doctors to certify their children/students and would bring such certifications to the Ministry.

For some of these conditions, there is no clear-cut decision one way or the other. And the kinds of accommodations the Ministry can make have to be of a rather coarse nature. We cannot say that with this condition, we will give you two minutes extra time per hour. This other condition, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes. It is very difficult to make such fine adjustments. Basically, where there is a request for extra time, generally, we give a student about 15 minutes extra per hour. So this is a coarse assessment, and we are unable to make such fine assessments.

The differentiation between mild, moderate and serious is very judgmental. Basically, what the Ministry has decided is that if the student feels that the condition is serious enough to merit special arrangements, and if that is the case, then we ought to annotate it, because the condition is serious enough.

Dr Khor asked what other countries practise annotation. Annotation is practised in the UK as well. The UK Examinations Board does so. Dr Khor is right that the College Board which runs the SAT 1 in the US has recently been ordered by the courts in the US to stop annotation. Dr Khor is also correct that there have been concerns raised about whether this will cause abuse of the system. If I may quote from an article in the New York Times of 15th July by Tamar Lewin entitled "Abuse is feared as the SAT test changes disability policy". It says:

"High school guidance counsellors have said that the elimination of flagging could set off a wave of new applications for accommodations, including some from students without disabilities."

It goes on to say:

"Some college admission officers too say they worry about how the change will play out and whether it will lead to so many requests for extended time that ultimately everyone will be allowed four or five hours on a 3-hour exam."

So, there are real concerns about abuse, and it is very difficult to make a judgment on these situations. Because some of the conditions are quite new ones which are not completely well understood even by the professionals.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Sir, I would like to ask the Minister whether the Ministry is aware that in countries where annotation is practised, such as in the US, the level of special accommodation is generally higher. For instance, a dyslexic child is not only given 50% extra time, say, in the SAT test, but is also given a reader to read the questions, and a writer to write the answers as directed by the student.

I would also like to ask whether the Minister could actually reconsider the accommodation provided to such students, to see whether the same level of accommodation can be given since annotation is here to stay. So, it is not just a negative impact that the disabled student would receive. In addition, he would be able to level up.

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Sir, my Ministry is prepared to make special accommodations. And the kind of special accommodations which we are prepared to make include extra time allowance, modified question papers, exemptions from certain components of a subject, eg, aural/oral test, the use of readers and the use of practical assistants as well, particularly where a student has physical disabilities which make it difficult for the student to write or to manipulate a piece of equipment. We have Braille question papers; we have enlarged print and so forth. Basically, the objective is to try and make the examinations more accessible to students with these kinds of conditions. But, at the same time, we need to balance this with having a more open and transparent system, so that students who offer reasons which they consider serious enough to merit special consideration would also have this annotated in the certificate.