Northern Ireland

Simon Doyle: 11-plus exams for undersubscribed schools are pointless

Schools are already under pressure to drop entrance exams for 10 and 11 year olds
Schools are already under pressure to drop entrance exams for 10 and 11 year olds Schools are already under pressure to drop entrance exams for 10 and 11 year olds

WHETHER you support the notion of academic selection or not - the 11-plus is a simple way of deciding who gets a place if a school is oversubscribed.

If a school is not filling all its places, well then an entrance test seems a bit pointless.

Even under the old state-sponsored system, several schools trawled deep to fill their spots - taking C2s and D grades.

This has continued and in some areas even the lowest D will be enough now, provided there is an empty desk. And the Education Authority tells us that there are plenty.

A small group of schools has already decided there should be no tests this winter as P6 children have faced significant disruption.

So too have P5 children. They also have been at home for 12 weeks and they won't be welcomed back into P6 en masse in September.

Some schools have already warned that children will be in for as little as one day a week.

It can be assumed that the lockdown knock-on will be felt for some time into the future.

However, if grammar schools can prove they can use non-selective criteria in 2020, they can in 2021 and 2022 as well.

For those holding out, the decision may yet be taken out of their hands.

A situation similar to South Korea, where schools were forced to shut down again shortly after reopening, would end all talk about 11-plus tests this year - and maybe, for many, forever.