Friends of Grammar Schools

Publication date: 31 March 2009

Source: Belfast News Letter

(c) 2009 Johnston Publishing Limited
Sir Ken Bloomfield, from the Association for Quality Education (AQE), said grammar schools did not want to be in a position where they had to set separate entrance exams, but had been forced to act when no consensus was reached in the Assembly.Around 40 schools have indicated they will set an AQE entrance exam for pupils wishing to join their grammar school, and Sir Ken said this at least provided some consistency for P6 children and their parents.He said he understood “people are irritated” by the current state of play in the education system, but defended the need for academic selection.”The whole situation is unsatisfactory,” he said. “We never wanted to have an unregulated situation.

We have consistently said that we bring our proposals forward in difference to consensual agreement.”It would be much better for everybody if we had agreement and a state-sponsored exam.”Quite a lot of schools would rather have a single exam, but in the absence of that proposal people are making other decisions.”He said the situation whereby pupils could sit a number of different exams had caused irritation, but could not be helped.”A very large number of grammar schools are determined to maintain academic selection as long as it’s lawful,” he said.”Of course you will get people saying selection is a bad idea and causes people grief, but opinion all the way back to the Burns Report shows the majority of people do want to maintain some form of academic selection, so what we are proposing to do is democratic.”He said the association had sought legal advice about the guidance document issued by Education Minister Caitriona Ruane in February, which is currently out for consultation, and said it is within their right to set entrance exams.”We are bound to give it an honest consideration but not, at the end of the day, bound to follow it,” he said. “It seems very unlikely that whatever people now say about the criteria this is what the minister will promulgate.”It looks something like 40 schools will decide they do want to keep academic criteria. The majority of this means AQE test feeding to schools to try to save children from doing several different exams.”That isn’t entirely rolled out because some of the Catholic schools are determined to maintain selection on the basis of a different test from us.”The former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, and now chairman of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, defended grammar schools who admit a range of grades – an argument which has been used by those in favour of scrapping academic selection.”I think there’s a great deal of misunderstanding,” he said. “The actual difference between the bottom of an A and the top of a B2 is not all that different.”Our schools can cope with a model of a wide range of abilities. We’re not looking for everybody to be Nobel prize winners, we just don’t want pupils who will struggle all the time and feel demotivated and get left behind.”