Ulster Unionist Education Spokesperson, Rosemary Barton MLA, has welcomed the agreement reached on proposals for a common post-primary transfer test.
Rosemary Barton, herself a former teacher for over 30 years, said:
“This is very welcome news. For years I have been deeply concerned at the onerous and gruelling process which thousands of our young people were going through in order to secure a place at one of our many local grammar schools.
“When Martin McGuinness abolished the 11+, he deliberately chose not to replace it. By cruelly allowing a policy vacuum to develop, Sinn Fein effectively privatised the transfer test overnight.
“For almost a decade now the transfer process has been operating on a franchise basis, totally out of the control of the local Department of Education. It amazes me how Caitríona Ruane, John O’Dowd and Peter Weir, as successive Education Ministers, were all content to sit back, abdicate such a key part of their responsibility and allow the situation to continue.
“So whilst I welcome the agreement to move towards a single test, I’m still really quite angry that it has taken so long and that so many young people have had to endure the current unfair and protracted process.”
