FOR SUNDAY
A FORMER grammar head has criticised schools' continued use of unofficial 11-plus exams saying they risk failing all children.
Neill Morton said there was a need to consider if high stakes testing "followed by a confused process of selection" was the best option.
The retired Portora Royal School principal made his comments after 11-plus groups announced plans to devise a single exam.
The Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) and Association of Quality Education (AQE) said they were "eager to work together".
The last state-sponsored 11-plus was held in November 2008. Since then, most grammars have been split into two camps using either the Common Entrance Assessment, run by AQE, or multiple-choice papers set by GL Assessment under the PPTC umbrella.
Mr Morton, whose school was a PPTC member, said both groups met before to discuss a single test but "no agreements could be reached".
It was encouraging, he said, that a spirit of greater collaboration was motivating future discussions. He added there was no evidence that one test was superior - "only opinion".
"Both tests have been achieving the intended outcome, which is to ascribe a score to pupils by which they may gain selection to a grammar school. The tests assess the pupils' performances on particular times and in particular circumstances. They do not test the pupils against a curriculum. Pupils do not revise for these tests - they practice," he said.
"For a significant number of grammar schools selection is a misnomer. Every grammar school has agreed an intake quota with the Department of Education. If a school fails to fill its intake quota, under open enrolment it must accept all first preference applicants regardless of test scores.
"There is no selection involved, academic or otherwise. To refuse an application is to commit to an arduous and treacherous route. In 2016/17 eight grammar schools did not fill their places by first preference applications."
Mr Morton added that transfer places in some non-denominational, single sex schools were particularly easy to gain regardless of score or grade.
Former education minister, Peter Weir of the DUP, lifted a ban on 11-plus coaching in school and also announced a team of educational professionals who will "seek to simplify the current transfer test process".
Mr Morton said in any struggling economy, there was an urgent need to "celebrate individual growth, creativity and entrepreneurship wherever it is manifested, however it is achieved".
"In the context of tottering educational infrastructure, we must consider if high stakes testing at 11 followed by a confused process of selection are the best routes to take. Mr Weir has declared that every child should have the opportunity to be educated in a grammar school. Does he not realise that such a thing is more likely without selection than with it?" he said.
"Unless there is a new debate, characterised by mutual respect, grounded in evidence and cohered by compassion around how we best educate every child in this society then the path taken by many under-performing grammar schools once applauded for their academic excellence will be the common path and we will be failing all children, regardless of their ability."
