JUDGES will tomorrow be asked to allow a child with special educational needs (SEN) to challenge the dates of the grammar school transfer test because "valuable classroom time has been lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic".
The `leave hearing' is part of a judicial review taken to try and delay the tests to allow the child enough time back at school to prepare for the controversial tests.
The unnamed child is from a disadvantaged background and their lawyers Finucane Toner Solicitors say academic research "demonstrates that those who are socio-economically disadvantaged suffer most as a result of academic selection".
The child's family cannot afford private tuition "which puts children from poorer backgrounds at a greater disadvantage" and "without valuable classroom time that has been lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the child is more likely to underperform".
Solicitor Ciarán Toner said by not changing the 2020 transfer tests to take into account lost classroom time the Association for Quality Education (AQE), Post Primary Transfer Consortium and Education Authority - who are all named in the action - "are acting unlawfully, as they are discriminating against Special Educational Needs children and those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds".
"The continued insistence upon academic selection for entrance to grammar schools in 2021 only serves to widen the inequality that exists for this child and many other children in similar positions," he said.
"Whilst the purpose of this challenge is to delay the date of the transfer test, the applicant's mother hopes that it shall also lead to a social discourse that will permanently end this unfair procedure which perpetuates social and economic inequality"
