A 16-year-old Co Leitrim boy, who has been educated at home for the past nine years, is not receiving suitable elementary education, a High Court judge decided yesterday.
Mr Justice Paul Gilligan upheld a conviction against James and Lucy Duffy, Derrynahinch, Drumkeerin, Co Leitrim, for having failed to send their son, Rory, to school.
The Duffys, who claimed they kept their son at home because he had been physically abused by a teacher, had sought to quash an October 2000 Circuit Court decision convicting them of an offence under the School Attendance Act and fines of £10 each.
Judge Gilligan said the Duffys had failed to establish their son had been observed pursuing any study period or method, or any observation of the parents actually imparting any information or instruction to him.
The School Attendance Act required parents to see their children attended school unless they could show the child was receiving suitable elementary education in some other manner.
Judge Gilligan said that when requested by an inspector to write something Rory had not complied and he was driven to the conclusion this could derive from Rory's inability to perform a very simple request.
No literacy or numeracy tests had been undertaken and no objective criteria was used to try to establish the level of education Rory had available to him.
"In my view Rory has been left in a position of disadvantage where he is unlikely to be capable of performing as well as other students of his age in either competition for entry to further education or employment," Judge Gilligan said.
He had no doubt that the Duffys believed passionately they had acted in the best interest of Rory. While they believed they had not committed an offence, they had to prove there had been a defect in the decision-making process of the lower court.
He said he had been satisfied there was nothing wrong with this process in the case.