Danny Kennedy, Ulster Unionist MLA for Newry & Armagh, has commented on the wasted opportunities to build a consensus on post primary school transfer in the period since devolution was restored.  Mr Kennedy was formerly the Chair of the Education Committee at Stormont between 1999 and 2002.

During a debate on Post Primary Transfer, Mr Kennedy said:

“I have in recent weeks rejoined the Education committee after a 13 year hiatus.

I chaired the Education committee during the first flush of devolution between 1999 and 2002.  I remind members that this was a time when the education debate was dominated by the thorny issue of post primary transfer.  It was a time when we had the Burns Report, the Gallagher Report and a major public consultation exercise which involved a household survey.

“It was a period of great public debate, sometimes heated, but mostly serious and focused.  Looking back I believe that there was an opportunity to create broad agreement about replacing the 11+ with something better which would have commanded widespread public support.

“A suggestion that 14 was a more appropriate age for a pupil to decide upon an academic route or a more vocational route was gaining traction.

“In the response to the household survey 30 % of respondents were in favour of abolishing academic selection, 64% were in favour of keeping academic selection, and 7% were undecided.

“At the time the Ulster Unionist Party said the transfer test in the form of the 11+ was unsustainable and that a replacement selection process should be developed. We favoured a transfer system based on pupil profile developed in the primary system, accommodating parental input, but with a final decision resting with the school on the basis of approved criteria. Our goal was and remains that all schools should come to be viewed as equal in the value of education they provide. 

 “To fast forward 13 years, what has changed? Where are we now?  The last official 11+ was in November 2008.  We now have non Departmental, non-state, independent tests.  The AQE and the GL Tests have become entrenched into the psyche of parents and children and embedded, albeit unofficially into the system of education in Northern Ireland. 

“Every year more and more children are being entered for the tests, and the private tutoring sector is flourishing. 

“It seems that in this mandate the so called big two of Sinn Fein and the DUP have come to a truce on this issue.  They seem content to let the AQE and GL continue with their tests for Grammar entrance, whilst the Minister for Education can pose as being ideologically pure and occasionally send threatening letters to primary schools for daring to prepare pupils for the transfer tests. 

“This is a thoroughly unsatisfactory state of affairs.”