Opinion

Opinion: Academic selection fails many children and needs to be addressed

It is sobering to think that some of the children who received their transfer test results at the weekend were not even born when the last state sponsored exams were held.

The tests that took place in November 2008 should have marked the end of academic selection, or at any rate the beginning of the end but in the absence of an official system, an unregulated process filled the vacuum.

In fact, there are two unregulated processes, meaning that a child who wants to maximise their grammar school options could end up sitting five papers over four consecutive weekends.

Parents who are opposed to selection at age 11 but who wish their child to go to a grammar school are placed in an invidious position. If they opt out of the process then their child's options are considerably narrowed.

When the parents of today's Primary Sevens welcomed their newborns in 2008 and 2009, they probably hoped and believed that their child would not have to go through the gruelling 11-plus procedure, that a better way to manage the transition to post-primary education would have been put in place.

Yet, here we are in 2020 and thousands of children have been through the tests and received their results and the likelihood is that those currently in P6 and P5 will also have to sit the exams.

The restoration of the Stormont executive should have provided a glimmer of hope that this issue will be finally and effectively addressed but unfortunately the education minister Peter Weir, who held the same post in the last administration, is firmly wedded to academic selection.

This is despite research and anecdotal evidence that points to the detrimental impact that selection has on youngsters, including stress, damaged self-esteem and the fear of being labelled a failure at a very young age.

The underachievement of boys living in deprived Protestant areas has also been a long held concern and even though it has already been widely examined, Mr Weir has ordered yet another report into this issue.

We have had plenty of reports, it is time for a minister to take decisive action to address what is an unfair and iniquitous system that fails many of our children.