THOUSANDS of children will today take 11-plus style tests for the second weekend in a row - exams labelled by principals as "unnecessary and stressful".
This is the seventh year that grammar schools have run their own entrance exams. The last state-sponsored 11-plus was held in November 2008, when this year's P7s were in their final pre-school year.
Schools largely remain split into two camps using either the Common Entrance Assessment (CEA) or multiple-choice papers set by GL Assessment.
Today, about 7,000 pupils will sit the GL papers at 34 different schools, the majority of them Catholic grammars. Last Saturday, about 7,800 children took the first of three CEA papers.
A growing number of schools now accept the results of either test. Antrim Grammar has this year become the latest to accept results of both. This brings to six the number of non-Catholic schools who admit children based on GL results. No Catholic grammars use the CEA.
The Catholic Principals' Association (CPA), which represents the views of about 230 Catholic schools, said it noted with grave and increasing concern the continued use of unregulated tests to select and reject pupils.
"We can think of no valid moral, ethical, social, logistical, demographic or educational grounds for continued academic selection," the CPA said.
"It is essential that the road-blocks to implementation of a truly Catholic system are identified and specified by those who still advocate academic selection or find its abolition too fraught to implement."
