Judge criticises refusal to grade home-school pupil
Department’s stance on Leaving Cert was ‘irrational and unlawful’
A HOME-SCHOOLED Leaving Cert student and his family are celebrating, after the High Court ruled that he should not be excluded from receiving a calculated grade for his State exams.
Judge Charles Meenan said the move by the Department of Education to exclude Elijah Burke on the grounds that his teacher – his mother – had a conflict of interest was ‘irrational, unreasonable’ and ‘unlawful’.
He noted that Elijah, 18, who is from Co. Mayo, was the youngest of ten children, all of whom had been educated at home by their mother, Martina Burke.
Yesterday she said she was ‘overjoyed’ by the ruling as she felt her family had been treated like ‘second-class citizens’.
Eight of Elijah’s siblings had an average points of 520 in their Leaving Certs, and had gone on to obtain first-class honours degrees in their chosen fields of law, arts, education, journalism, education, science and mathematics.
In his education at home, Elijah said he followed the Department of Education curriculum, and studied from 9am to 4pm, with the same holidays as schools.
He hoped to attend NUI Galway to study biomedical science, or history with music, and expected to get the required points.
His mother is a qualified teacher, who previously taught in community schools in Tallaght and Greystones, before working as a tutor in Mayo, and then home-schooling her children.
She has also worked as an examiner for the State Examinations Committee, correcting Junior and Leaving Cert exams.
Judge Meenan noted that 62,000 students had been due to sit the Leaving Cert exams this summer, but that for reasons of public health, it was decided not to hold the examinations for fear of spreading Covid-19.
He said that without a Leaving Cert, the class of 2020 would have been ‘left stranded’, so an alternative system had to be devised, in which teachers assessed their pupils.
There was then to be an ‘alignment process’ of marks by the school, followed by a further standardisation process. He said the rules barred a teacher who is a close relative of a student from giving estimated marks to that student, because it would undermine the process’s credibility.
However, in a school setting, the scheme allows another teacher to step in to replace the close relative, and the conflicted teacher is allowed ‘to assist in the process, by handing over data or factual information’. There is no such provision for students like Elijah, who had no contact with any other registered teacher apart from his mother.
The judge said the contrast between these provisions was ‘very striking’. He said ‘out-ofschool’ learners ‘should have the benefit of a similar solution’.
He said an independent teacher should be appointed to take the place of Elijah’s mother and award estimated marks. It was not sufficient for the department to say that Elijah could sit the Leaving Cert in November, with anyone else who was dissatisfied with their grades, as this would delay his start at university by a year.
Speaking after the judgment, Ms Burke said: ‘We are overjoyed at the court upholding the rights of people who home-educate.’ She said the last few months had been stressful, adding: ‘We had trusted the Government. We trusted Leo Varadkar when he said the Leaving Cert would go ahead by hook or by crook. We then realised that wasn’t going to happen.
‘Then, with the calculated grades, the [former] education minister Joe McHugh said all students would be offered an option to accepting calculated grades. We trusted that, and filled out all the necessary procedures.
‘As time went on, we became concerned, as there was no
Contrast ‘very striking’ ‘Enshrined in the Constitution’
engagement whatsoever from the department. I could see my son, who had worked so hard, becoming deeply worried.
‘At the very end, we were just being ostracised... I was calling the helpline continually, and not getting any answer. ’
Ms Burke said it is ‘enshrined in the Constitution that parents are the primary educator of their children’, adding: ‘The State acknowledges that right and respects it.
‘When we start to home-educate, we are standing on that right, we are not asking someone for a favour to be allowed to home-educate. That’s what we were lacking: the respect which should be given to home education.
‘They made us feel we were second-class citizens.’