Forum: Academic standards can be maintained while recognising learning differences
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.
I refer to the Forum letter “Rethink fairness in exams when accommodating students with dyslexia” (Feb 25). It touches on a question many families have wrestled with for years.
In an earlier Straits Times feature on access arrangements, parents described how adjustments such as extra time allowed their children to demonstrate what they had learnt without altering academic standards. I shared that for my own daughter, these arrangements did not make examinations easier. They removed barriers that would otherwise have masked her understanding.
The issue, in my view, is not about advantage. It is about precision. What exactly are we intending to measure in an examination setting? If a student understands the content but struggles with the mechanics of rapid decoding or transcription, we should ask whether the score reflects knowledge or the speed at which that knowledge can be expressed.
Access arrangements, such as additional time or supervised rest breaks, were introduced to address this tension. They aim to preserve standards while recognising that students process and produce language differently.
Language papers understandably raise deeper concerns. English Language examinations assess specific constructs, including spelling accuracy and written expression. It is therefore reasonable that examination authorities are cautious about tools that may influence those components.
At the same time, literacy today rarely occurs in isolation from technology. In higher education and the workplace, writing is drafted, reviewed and refined digitally. For students with dyslexia, certain tools do not replace thinking. They support the physical act of writing so that thinking can be seen.
Acknowledging this does not diminish the importance of foundational skills. Rather, it invites continued professional reflection on how best to assess them in ways that are both rigorous and fair.
Fairness is not about uniform treatment, but ensuring that the qualities we say we value are the ones we actually measure.
Geetha Shantha Ram
Director, SpLD Assessment Services
English Language and Literacy Division
Staff Professional Development Division
Dyslexia Association of Singapore
