Court suspends child’s move to special unit

An education ministry decision to move a student to a special unit was suspended, after the district court found it would harm the child more than it would help.

The decision on Wednesday, outlined it would wait until the parent’s appeal hearing with the ministry is completed.

The education ministry’s decision outlined a student in grade six primary school should be transferred to a special unit in a different school starting January 9, 2023.

The parents disputed the decision, taking the case to court. They also submitted a request to suspend the execution of the ministry’s decision.

It appears to be the second time this year this has happened. In the beginning of the new school year, the student’s transfer order was suspended and eventually nullified by the district court on November 4.

The latest transfer order should be suspended because “it was issued without listening to the parents, requires the student to transfer to another school and face the huge and damaging change of a different school unit, in the middle of the year, where he will have to adjust to an unknown environment with teachers and classmates who are strangers to him.”

The court added the transfer decision “does not have the child’s interest at heart” and was not evaluated properly.

“The decision did not take into account that the abrupt change of in environment in his last year of primary school would have an irreparable impact on his health and consequently education and socialisation.”

Court will convene again on January 3, 2023.

Last month, a decision to assign an eight-year-old student to a special education unit was met with uproar from her parents, who said the ministry was excluding her.