A LEGAL case which has delayed the issuing of more than half a million Junior and Leaving Cert parchments for up to five years is expected to be resolved next week.
The High Court appeal concerns the “notation” of certificates for students who received waivers for dyslexia. An Equality Authority finding that two dyslexic students were discriminated against when their Leaving Certs carried special explanatory notes, was overturned by the Circuit Court in 2007.
The forthcoming judgment could have implications for thousands of students who are given waivers annually. More than 7,000 exam students were granted the spelling and grammar waiver in 2005.
Since 2005, only a provisional statement of results rather than a final certificate has been issued by the State Examinations Commission (SEC), while it waited for the outcome of the appeal. The judgment is scheduled to be delivered next week, a spokeswoman for the SEC said.
The approach taken by the SEC was yesterday criticised as “excessive” by Labour’s education spokesman Ruairí Quinn.
There were thousands of people who could not prove they completed their Leaving Cert to potential employers or colleges, he said.
