The Supreme Court has held that the constitutional right to State-provided free primary education ends when a person reaches adulthood, which it considered reasonable to place at 18 years of age.
The ruling arose from litigation concerning Jamie Sinnott, who was born in 1977 and was described as profoundly mentally disabled, and his mother and lifelong primary carer, Kathryn Sinnott.
The High Court had found that the State failed to provide Jamie with education appropriate to his needs and ruled that his right to free primary education had no age limit. It awarded him £222,500 in damages and ordered funding for an intensive home-based programme and ancillary services. Mrs Sinnott received £55,000 for the harm caused to her by the State’s failures.
The State accepted that Jamie’s constitutional rights had been breached during childhood. It also agreed to pay his general damages, fund the education ordered for three years and meet the litigation costs. The remaining dispute included whether Article 42.4 created a lifelong right to free primary education.
Mrs Justice Denham concluded that it did not. Reading Article 42 as a whole, she held that its education guarantee concerns children within the family and that the constitutional entitlement reasonably ends at 18.
The judgment stressed that this did not mean Jamie ceased to have other constitutional rights or no longer required continuing training and support. His rights to dignity and bodily integrity remained.
Mrs Justice Denham also concluded that Mrs Sinnott had her own enforceable constitutional rights. The State’s failure to educate Jamie imposed additional work, time, distress and burdens on her as his parent and primary carer. She held that this amounted to unequal treatment and infringed rights protected by Articles 40.1, 41 and 42.4.
She would therefore dismiss the State’s appeal against Mrs Sinnott’s award and uphold her £55,000 damages.