Opinion

Tom Collins: Schools that perpetuate the 11-plus should hang their heads in shame

Tom Collins

Tom Collins

Tom Collins is an Irish News columnist and former editor of the newspaper.

Thousands of children will take unregulated 11-plus tests
Thousands of children will take unregulated 11-plus tests Thousands of children will take unregulated 11-plus tests

We have a lot to thank the 11-plus for. Where would the cause of civil rights in Northern Ireland be were it not for the grammar school kids who channelled the spirit of rebellion in the Sixties and stood up against the iniquities of unionist misrule?

Many leaders in civil society – men and women who do good – passed their 11-plus and were shaped by the schools and universities it gave them entry to.

The Catholic Church embraced selection at 11 and I, and many like me, were the beneficiaries of a two-tier system that weeded out brothers, sisters, cousins and school friends who might provide competition. We flourished, many of those rejected did too – but at greater personal cost.

There was the whiff of meritocracy about the grammar school system. My parents were both working class, yet that did not stop me advancing as their backgrounds once stopped them.

Selective schools were beacons of light – a path to a new Catholic emancipation.

It could be argued that St Columb’s College in Derry, alma mater of two Nobel Laureates, was the cradle of modern Irish nationalism. Seamus Heaney and John Hume helped shape and define us. The system that brought them to prominence must therefore have been fit for purpose.

But – and there is a big but here – selection at 11 always was, is and will remain one of the most iniquitous obstacles to the educational, social, economic and cultural development of our young people.

It has no place in a modern education system, and its continued existence in face of strong evidence of the damage it does is a blight on society and how it treats its young people.

There is no shortage of evidence of the damage. Many of us have seen it with our own eyes. Yet still selection persists, like a pernicious cancer, inflicting pain year in and year out on our young people.

The schools that perpetuate it should hang their heads in shame. Yet many cling to the false supposition that maintaining the 11-plus gives them added kudos and imbues them with a feeling of superiority.

It is self-deluded egomania on their part.

Last week’s report on the mental health impact of the transfer tests makes sorry reading.

It sets out in the starkest terms the impact on many youngsters – sleepless nights, eating disorders, depression and anxiety, loss of confidence and self-esteem.

Perhaps the most shocking figure of all in Simon Doyle’s report here last week was the revelation that 92 per cent of teachers questioned believed the transfer test had “a significant negative impact on children’s mental health” .

For such a high figure to come from the professionals who, day and daily, have been charged with the social and educational development of the next generation, is truly shocking.

Why is nobody listening?

Politicians, civil servants, boards of governors, parents – all believing they are acting with the best possible motives – must stop and take stock.

Look at the evidence.

For decades educationalists have set out in forensic detail the failings of selection at 11. But we live in an era where experts are derided and decisions are taken on the basis of whim, prejudice or wilful ignorance of the facts.

So let’s ignore the experts. Let’s throw the mass of academic reports produced down the decades on the pyre.

Instead let us listen to what our children are saying.

Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old Swedish student, has reinvigorated the climate change debate by cutting through the waffle and dissembling of adults, mobilising young people like her in common cause.

Northern Ireland pupils need their own Greta Thunberg who will cut through the cant, and make the policy makers sit up and listen for once – and act.

:: On a different note, I was intrigued to read research from Queen’s on the censorship of X-rated movies in Northern Ireland. I remember seeing Belfast councillors interviewed on television in the 1970s after a private screening of Emmanuel. Asked what he thought of it, one looked solemnly into the camera and intoned: “It was very photographic.” Not quite up there with Tommy Patton’s complaint that a house was so damp contraception was running down the walls, but it made me laugh.