Talks expected over academic selection

Published Monday, 21 November 2011
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The DUP and Sinn Féin are expected to begin within weeks about the establishment of a single transfer test for grammar schools.

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Since the 11 Plus was abolished, thousands of pupils have been sitting tests introduced by both non-denominational and Catholic maintained schools.

The tests have been introduced by individual schools that decided they still want to use academic selection after it was eradicated by the Department of Education.

This means children are often required to sit more than one exam for each school and while the parties agree there are too many tests, they have not yet reached an agreement about academic selection.

DUP education spokesperson Mervyn Storey said schools that want to use academic criteria for transfer selection were entitled to do so

"Now I am very clear that there needs to be a discussion between the two organisations that have organised the tests," he said.

"We will shortly initiate discussions with those two organisations."

While Sinn Féin regard the tests as causing "social division, not academic division".

The party's education spokesman Daithí McKay 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."

© UTV News
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1 Comments
Billy in Belfast wrote (185 days ago):
So this is the first of the Empty Promises of Our New Assembly. So much for the BIG Four-Year Plan! I honestly can’t see the Necessary Legislations being Passed within this Government. When are the People going to realise that Our Tax Monies paying for these Clowns is just throwing Good Money After Bad and to get out of this Mess we Must return to Direct Rule albeit for a period until we have Leadership that can Represent Us as a whole and not to Fill Their Own Pockets.
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