Ombudswoman says children with disabilities discriminated against in exams

Children with disabilities are discriminated against because they must take the same common exam as all other students, Ombudswoman Maria Styalianou Lottides said on Tuesday.

Lottides published a report after the mother of a boy with disabilities complained the education ministry refused to proceed to the “necessary reasonable adjustments” in the Pancyprian exams for her son. The mother had requested for different examination essays, exemption from the essay test in modern Greek subject and from the listening test in English.

The explanation provided by the education ministry was that, according to the relevant laws, “the test material and the test essays of the Pancyprian Entrance Examinations must have the same degree of difficulty for all candidates and cannot be differentiated for any candidate or group of candidates.”

However, the commissioner said the ministry’s refusal “finds no basis in the law and in UN Convention No.24 which provides for the provision of reasonable adjustments in Education, but neither does it find any basis in the UN General Comments on the rights of persons with disabilities”.

The UN notes that “not providing reasonable adjustments and support to students with disabilities and requiring them to pass a common/standardised test as a condition for ensuring their admission to school constitutes indirect discrimination against them,” Lottides said.

The commissioner said she will forward the report to the director of higher education and the head of examinations service and invite them to consultations on April 5 to submit their recommendations.

According to the commissioner, both in this case and with other children with disabilities, the ministry should proceed “with the necessary reasonable adjustments in the national access examinations to enable them to be tested in a differentiated examination essay, based on their assessed and individualised educational needs”.

For the specific case, Lottides added, Education Minister Prodromos Prodromos is expected to recommend to the state universities to consider the admission of the complainant’s son in the second round of admissions.