Mr Sherry was one of a number of students who initiated High Court actions claiming that a decision to exclude an individual school’s historic performance in the Leaving Cert from the calculated grades process worked to his disadvantage. Many students say it cost them their desired college place.
Ms Foley had taken the decision in late August to exclude an individual school’s historic performance following controversy in the UK over what was described as “school profiling” and a “postcode lottery” in their calculated grades system.
It was seen to be unfair to pupils from schools in disadvantaged communities, which tend to have poorer academic track records, and Labour education spokesperson Áodhán Ó Ríordáin had railed against it all summer.
High Court dismisses challenge to calculated grades system taken by Belvedere College student
The action is a test case from about 50 other challenges by other Leaving Cert students. By Rónán Duffy Tuesday 2 Mar 2021, 4:17 PM Mar 2nd 2021, 4:17 PM 16,222 Views 0 Comments
Image: RollingNews.ie
Image: RollingNews.ie
THE HIGH COURT has dismissed a challenge to last year’s Leaving Cert calculate grades system, stating that the Minister for Education’s decision to remove schools’ past performance as part of the system was taken “in the public interest”.
The action was taken by Belvedere College student Freddy Sherry and is a test case from about 50 other challenges by other Leaving Cert students against the calculated grades process.
There is disappointment but no surprise for principal Alice Lynch that her school’s showing in annual college ‘league tables’ has dropped dramatically this year.
St Kilian’s Deutsche Schule, the German school in Clonskeagh, south Dublin, would expect a transition rate to higher education of between 90 to 100pc, but for 2020 it fell to 63pc.
“This bears out what we anticipated. We are disappointed but not surprised,” said the principal.
The fee-paying school previously raised serious objections about how the Leaving Cert calculated grades affected its students’ results in German, at which they normally excel. The St Kilian’s board of management and nine pupils are pursuing the matter through a High Court action, one of about 50 cases triggered by the calculated grades process.
Students from lower- and middle-income backgrounds scooped up more college places in the autumn after the June 2020 Leaving Cert was replaced by calculated grades.