15th December 2017 15:40
By Blue Tutors
There has been a raft of controversy recently about the substantial increase in privately educated students being diagnosed with special needs, and therefore qualifying for extra time in examinations as well as other ‘advantages’. The media tells us this is a bad thing, but this is not at all the case. Indeed, such rhetoric is already having adverse effects on students who - even with a documented history of diagnosis and need - are being denied the special exam arrangements they need simply because they skew the schools statistics.
Surely this only reflects the increased funding thrown into recognition and diagnosis - it's not that more people are dyslexic or have ADHD than ever before, it's that more people are being diagnosed than ever before, and so are having access to the help that they need. If more people happen to break their leg in a year, we don’t go round shouting that too many casts have been given out and therefore money has been wasted.
One detail does remain an issue, however, and that is that this increase is only so substantial in private schools. This isn’t because the children of more affluent families are more likely to read their ‘p’s as ‘q’s than state-educated pupils, it simply comes back to the age-old dilemma of money.
I attended a northern state school that regularly ranked as outstanding in Ofsted reviews, but when my mother barged into the deputy heads office demanding to know why certain arrangements hadn’t been made for my exams (a hefty dyslexic, without extra time and a private room I’d never have got into university), the teacher stood baffled and said ‘you mean we should treat all students as individuals?’, as if this was an unthinkable notion. To deprive a student who has special needs of the aid they require is tantamount to telling the shortsighted student they cant wear their glasses in the exams because it might give them an unfair advantage… but it boils back down to funding, statistics and schools putting their public profile above the welfare of their pupils.
This is something we cant afford not to spend money on - and now more than ever. A recent BBC article tells us that ‘the gap between SEN (special educational needs) pupils and their peers has risen from 48 percentage points in 2016 to 52 this year.’ The primary aged students these statistics refer to are the ones who, as our population continues to age and Brexit fumbles its way into existence, will be a potentially pivotal generation in this country’s development. The article goes on to say that ’18% of SE children reached the expected level in reading, writing and mathematics, compared with 70% of their peers without special needs.’ What sense is there in denying half of those pupils the tools that can help them to access further education and become the people they very definitely have the potential to become. We wouldn’t be doing our future selves much of a favour, now would we.