State argues exclusion of home-schooled students from calculated grades process was 'rational'

The Court of Appeal will hear final arguments next Wednesday.

One appeal was from a student home-schooled by his mother, a registered teacher, and the other was from a student home-schooled by her mother, with help from her father and private tutors. File photo: iStock/PA.

The exclusion of home-schooled students from the Leaving Certificate calculated grades process was rational and justifiable and the High Court erred in deciding otherwise, lawyers for the Minister for Education have argued before the Court of Appeal.

In upholding separate challenges by two home-schooled students over their exclusion from the process, the High Court intruded on policy considerations and effectively created an “alternative” process, it was argued.