Stop-gap transfer exams backed
Simon Doyle
263 words
Publication date: 25 March 2009
Source: The Irish News
Page: Pg. 11
(c) 2009, The Irish News Ltd. All Rights reserved.
The assembly has supported calls to develop a temporary transfer test as a contingency until a permanent new system can be agreed.
A motion tabled by Alliance Party member Trevor Lunn yesterday urged education minister Caitriona Ruane to re-commission a proposed exam she abandoned last month.
Schools, Mr Lunn said, should be allowed to use this for two years.
There will be no 11-plus for pupils this autumn but some are expected to face the prospect of sitting different exams set by grammar schools on different days.
Ms Ruane had planned to phase out selection over three years using a temporary new test. However, the executive failed to reach agreement and the minister scrapped her proposals and instead issued guidance that schools should use non-academic criteria only to select pupils next year.
Mr Lunn said his party’s proposal for a temporary test offered a short-term fix to allow all parties to reconsider the way forward and prevent an impending crisis.
“Temporarily using a CCEA formulated test based on the literacy and numeracy components of the revised curriculum would alleviate the chaos that children, parents and teachers currently face,” he said.
He said grammar schools should not be allowed to use the test results to determine 100 per cent of their first-year admissions.
Ms Ruane said she originally proposed a temporary test for three years, not two.
“I proposed a legislative framework accompanying a test that would limit its use across these three years – thus phasing out academic selection,” she said.