Court rejects student’s challenge against Leaving Certificate Mandarin Chinese marking system

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THE HIGH COURT has dismissed a secondary school student’s challenge against the marking scheme for the Leaving Certificate Mandarin Chinese examination. The application was dismissed by Mr Justice Garrett Simons, who rejected claims that the system discriminated against those who answer using traditional Mandarin characters as opposed to simplified characters. The judge was also critical of how certain linguistic experts gave their evidence to the court. In this case, the judge said that several expert witnesses had wrongly “assumed the role of advocate and purported to express views on legal issues” which were matters for the courts. The student, who...