Published Thursday, 25 February 2010
"The 11-Plus was morally wrong, educationally unsound and it inflicted year on year wholly unnecessary trauma and suffering on 10 and 11-year-old children", she said on Thursday.
The conference was organised after Catholic Bishops called on all Catholic schools in Northern Ireland to abolish transfer tests within two years, formally supporting Sinn Fein's policy of ending all academic selection in the region.
"We have set 2012 as the date by which we would like academic selection to have ended," Cardinal Sean Brady told the conference.
"When people have failed an exam at 11 there could be that sense of failure already at that age and that would be deplorable," he added.
The meeting was organised by the Catholic Principals Association.
"Catholic schools are only one part of the educational landscape in Northern Ireland and we want to show leadership to the controlled sector," Dr. Seamus Quinn from Catholic Principals Association told UTV.
"The Catholic Bishops have signalled the direction of travel for the Catholic Grammar Schools, through the abandonment of academic selection. I very much welcome this positive move", Mrs Ruane said.
Grammar schools across Northern Ireland, including Catholic schools, set their own private transfer exams in 2009 after the 11-plus was abolished without political consensus for an alternative.
Earlier this month the UUP leader Sir Reg Empey told UTV his party would not sign up to the Hillsborough deal unless a "consensus" is found to solve the education debate.
"Working groups established by other parties outside the structures of our political institutions have no status and are no more than hollow publicity gimmicks. The place for debate and agreement was in the Education Committee, in the Executive and in the Assembly", Mrs Ruane said on Thursday.
"Reg and his party refused to even discuss those proposals a few years ago. We've moved on," she told UTV.