Published Monday, 21 November 2011
The DUP's Mervyn Storey revealed on Sunday that he had held talks with the First Minister to discuss moves to encourage more co-operation between the two bodies currently supplying transfer tests to schools in Northern Ireland.
At the moment two bodies - the Association for Quality Education and the Post Primary Transfer Consortium - provide tests to local schools.
The AQE exam is used mainly by non-denominational schools, with Catholic-maintained schools mostly using the PPTC's GL assessment.
Sinn Féin have described the transfer test as "outdated", claiming it causes "social division, not academic division".
However, Mr Storey, who is the chairman of the Assembly's Education Committee, has defended schools who use the exams to determine transfer selection.
"The legal position is very clear", the Northern Antrim MLA said.
"Now I am very clear that there needs to be a discussion between the two organisations that have organised the tests.
"We will shortly initiate discussions with those two organisations."
However, Sinn Féin's education spokesperson Daithi McKay has hit out at the decision to encourage the establishment of a single test.
He said: "Statistics clearly show that children who live in more deprived communities in the north are less likely to attend grammar schools.
"That is not because they have any less academic ability than children from a more affluent area, but this does demonstrate that schools involved in these tests are involved in social division not academic division."
He added that the tests went against efforts to build a "a 21st century education system".