More students with special needs get support during national exams

They are granted access arrangements, allowing their skills to be assessed fairly

- Stacey Ngiam

When Dr Geetha Shantha Ram's daughter Tara was in Primary 3, she struggled to keep up academically.

Simple mathematical questions were a struggle for Tara, not because of poor calculation skills, but because she could not comprehend the questions.

Tara was later diagnosed with mixed dyslexia, a learning difficulty that affects both sound-based and visual processing.

Based on her diagnosis and recommendations by a psychologist, the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) granted Tara extra time, larger spacing and font size when she took her PSLE.

She was also exempted from taking mother tongue language as an examinable subject.

Such accommodations, known as access arrangements (AA), are designed to support students with special educational needs during national exams - allowing their skills to be assessed without compromising assessment objectives.

In 2024, about 6,700 students were granted AA, such as extra time or support from human readers, scribes or prompters. This was up by about 60 per cent from 2015.

According to SEAB, the most common conditions among this group are dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and the rise in numbers could be attributed to more students being diagnosed with special needs.

As at 2023, there were about 36,000 students here with reported special education needs. Around 80 per cent of them were in mainstream schools, with the rest attending special education schools.

Students with dyslexia may take a longer time to read text and spell even common words, which can affect their writing pace and ability to express themselves through writing.

SEAB also allows the use of assistive technology such as a reader pen, which scans and verbalises written text for the visually impaired. Other tools include desktop magnifiers, word processors and screen readers.