
Judicial Review – JR159: School starting age
Legislation governing the compulsory school starting age for children in Northern Ireland is inflexible and unjustified, the High Court has ruled.
A judge also held that a prematurely born four-year-old boy's human rights could be breached if he is forced to begin classes in September.
Mr Justice Scoffield urged the Department of Education to try to reach an agreement with the child's family before the new term.
Northern Ireland's starting age for pupils is the currently lowest in Europe.
Urgent judicial review proceedings were launched after a request for the boy to be allowed to commence school in September 2022 was refused.
Lawyers for the boy argued that it was an arbitrary and unfair situation where the start date would be put off by 12 months if he had been born just a day later.
They claimed the decision is incompatible with rights to private and family life under Article 8 European Convention on Human Rights.
The Department's legal representatives told the court that while legislative reform is...