Ben Duffy one of the Kapiti College, year 10, dyslexic students who made a submission to an education select committee hearing on dyslexia.

Special needs students in private schools and high decile state schools are receiving publicly-funded assistance in exams at a much higher rate than those at low decile schools, according to official figures.

The figures from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, revealed that only 197 special assistance conditions (SAC) were allocated to decile 1 schools, compared to 1365 to decile 10 schools.

SAC provides aid, including reader/writers, extra time to complete exams or a separate room to sit exams, to students with conditions such as dyslexia and dyspraxia.

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Labour's associate education spokesman Chris Hipkins said the funding disparity meant exam results would be skewed in favour of high decile schools.

His claim is backed by a 2013 Ministry of Education report which warned minister Hekia Parata the equity gap between low and high decile schools threatens to undermine the credibility of the entire NCEA system.

"The review reveals that the allocation [of special assessment conditions] is highly inequitable with students in a decile 10 school being 17 times more likely to get a SAC than a student in a decile 1 school," the report stated.

Bruce Mercer Education Minister Hekia Parata says students in low decile schools are still missing out on accessing special assessment conditions for exams.

While the gap has narrowed since 2013 the Ministry said "the actual numbers of students being approved SACs in low deciles schools is still low compared to high decile schools" and "there is still more to be done to address the inequities".

Hipkins said the figures made a mockery of claims that children were competing fairly.

"It really does undermine the credibility of the whole education system but more importantly the qualification system because it's saying to people looking at qualification records that they also need to ask kids, how much support did you get to achieve your qualification?"

Hipkins said a qualification should be a genuine reflection of a student's achivement and results shouldn't differ based on what school they went to.

"At the moment you can't say that," he said.

Education Minister Hekia Parata said between 2013 and 2014 the number of applications for extra funding from school-based evidence increased from 296 to 633.

"That is good news. However low decile schools are still under-represented and that is why NZQA and the Ministry are taking further action to ensure every student who needs assistance receives it," she said.

Dyslexia Foundation chair Guy Pope-Mayell said it was "astounding more progress hasn't been made".

Pope-Mayell said putting the onus on schools to identify kids with special needs but not providing additional funding or resourcing was setting them up to fail.

Post-Primary Teachers' Association president Angela Roberts said the burden of assessing students has been shifted onto schools, who aren't equipped to deal with it.

"Every time a decision is made saying schools can do that and there's not a penny or minute's worth of time put into those schools it's not sustainable."

She said the Government needed to stop "putting politics before children" and be honest about problems in order to find the right solutions.

Concerns about wealthier schools receiving greater access to funding were raised with Parata in 2013.

But despite some private schools receiving exam assistance for more than 15 per cent of their students over the past two years, funding for special assessment conditions (SAC) has remained unchanged.

In March, the Ministry was asked to provide a 'one year on' report to address what difference the review and its recommendations had made on the gap between low and high decile schools accessing SAC.

The Ministry repeated its concerns about the gap, in particular the high number of private school students receiving SAC, despite interim measures being put in place.

Those measures included scrapping an expensive independent assessment for students to qualify for SAC and replacing it with an evidence system carried out by teachers in schools.

In addition to that, special education needs co-ordinators and resource teachers (RTLBs) were invited to seminars to understand how to identify learning difficulties that would entitle students to SAC.

It was noted that students at top Auckland private school Kings College were receiving SAC for 21 per cent of their NCEA candidates; 16 per cent at Christchurch's St Andrews College; 15 per cent at Diocesan School for Girls and 14 per cent at Christ's College.

Questions of political interference have also been raised after the Ministry made changes to the draft report in March after a staffer in Parata's office questioned some of the wording in the report, including saying Budget bids had been "rejected".

The staffer also asked for a "more qualified opinion" after the Ministry said the interim measures hadn't "translated into sufficient increases of students in lower decile schools receiving SAC".

Parata said the comment had been taken out of context, saying the "full comment was a request for the Ministry to provide sufficient evidence to support the point of view advanced in the draft document".

One teen's experience:

Wellington teenager Ben Duffy vividly remembers bursting into tears as a six-year-old after his teacher got angry at him for not being able to read some words.

The Kapiti College 15-year-old was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was 8 and said up until that point he felt bullied by his teachers for having a learning difficulty.

"I didn't get help until Mum and Dad started fighting for extra tuition...the teachers became the school bullies in the end."

Duffy considered a number of secondary schools and was keen to go to one that excelled at sport, but when his parents were told those schools offered little help for their son's condition, the decision was made to go to Kapiti College.

"I have a reader/writer at school and it's amazing. If I didn't have one I wouldn't have got achieved in my tests and any test I've taken without one I didn't achieve in."

Kapiti College has close to 150 students who suffer dyslexia and has a reputation for being inclusive and "bending the rules" to provide special assessment conditions (SAC) for students from year 9.

Kapiti College dyslexia specialist and teacher Sarah Sharpe oversees students with learning difficulties and ensures they have the help they need to sit assessments and NCEA exams.

SAC can be applied for through the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to assist with exams but Duffy said he wouldn't have passed a single assessment in year 9 and 10 without SAC support.

"I recently got an excellence for a social studies assessment that I was really proud of and I wouldn't have passed without a reader/writer."

Duffy is unable to spell words with more than three letters and his writing ability is minimal.

Sharpe said there is one resource teacher allocated to a cluster of schools in Kapiti, which isn't enough to cater for the hundreds of students with dyslexia and those needing to be assessed.

A teacher aide has been employed to help deal with the workload but without extra Government funding, Sharpe said it would be impossible for schools to meet the needs of students with learning difficulties.



﻿SAC applications by school decile

Decile 1 - 197

Decile 2 - 164

Decile 3 - 258

Decile 4 - 454

Decile 5 - 466

Decile 6 - 769

Decile 7 - 849

Decile 8 - 113

Decile 9 - 1164

Decile 10 - 1365

Decile 99 - 225 (includes new schools without a decile and correspondence schools)

Total - 7024.

Source: New Zealand Qualifications Authority.