I FIRST called for the suspension of transfer tests for post-primary admissions in 2021 in the pages of this newspaper a little over two months ago.
Since then, a number of schools have since demonstrated brave leadership by announcing they would be doing just that. A wide range of political parties, educationalists and parents also agreed that requiring children to complete two sets of tests in November and December, further to months of disrupted learning during a public health emergency, is unwise and unfair. They have legitimately asked of the education minister – what is the contingency plan?
A report from Stranmillis University College has found that "access to and performance in the transfer tests, and eventual placement in a grammar school, were found to be mediated by socio-economic status". The pandemic has further disadvantaged those without the capacity to access private preparation for the tests.
I do not believe non-resit, high stakes tests are a fair or necessary way to transfer Year 7 pupils to a common curriculum in Year 8. However, regardless of one's fundamental position on the matter of transfer tests as a whole, surely it goes without saying children have accessed education in an unequal way during this pandemic.
Even the education minister appears to have accepted this point by seeking to return Year 7 pupils ahead of other cohorts and by his request for alternative proposals for transfer from those advocating that approach. The minister is incorrect in his assertion there are no other methods.
His own department, in circular 2016/15, recommends post-primary admissions criteria to boards of governors of all grant-aided schools. The recommended criteria include a proportion of free school meals, named primary schools, residence in the locality, nearest suitable school and sibling attending a school.
The Department of Education circular recommends all grant-aided schools do not use eldest child, level of preference, family member beyond sibling or parental employment/governorship criterion for post-primary admissions.
Therefore the question needs asked - does the education minister not support his own departmental recommended criteria as an alternative for post-primary admission?
There is a legitimate concern from some parents about what a suspension of the transfer tests might mean for their children and I accept that. But surely it is incumbent on the education minister and all grant-aided schools to have considered alternative or contingency plans for post-primary admissions 2021, given the exceptional circumstances we now find ourselves in.
