THE Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) is seeking an urgent meeting with new DUP education minister Peter Weir to raise issues including academic selection.
Mr Weir has said he will consider ways to make the use of selection easier for pupils, parents and schools.
For seven years, grammar schools have run their own entrance exams.
The last state-sponsored 11-plus was held in November 2008, when this year's P7s were in their final pre-school year.
Schools largely remain split into two camps using either the Common Entrance Assessment or multiple-choice papers set by GL Assessment. Some use both.
It is understood that Mr Weir could potentially ask the north's exams board to develop a new state-sponsored 11-plus, which would mean children no longer having to sit tests on four consecutive weekends.
The ministry has previously been held by Sinn Fein, which opposed selection.
Some Catholic grammar schools have moved, or plan to move, away from using unofficial 11-plus exams.
The majority have retained academic selection, however.
The INTO said it would continue to oppose "the archaic system of academic selection which was first introduced here in 1947".
Senior official Tony Carlin said children aged 10 or 11 "should not be made feel like a failure because of a selective system which is so backward".
"Academic selection is detrimental to communities. Why should a system be in place which essentially labels a child in one school as a success and a child in another school as a failure simply because of a grade in state-sponsored exam?" he said.
"Children should not be forced to feel under-valued. Children should not be forced to feel that they are a failure. All children need to be nurtured and academic selection is not the right way to get the best out of our next generation."
Mr Carlin said the new minister had a vital role to play in shaping education in Northern Ireland, and faces difficult budget decisions.
"INTO will be seeking an urgent meeting with the minister where we will be raising a number of issues that are a priority for INTO members and the system as a whole. Academic selection will be high on that agenda," he said.
"Everyone knows the education system is currently under considerable financial stress which means those working in the sector are under a lot of strain. But so too are the children in every school across Northern Ireland.
"Academic selection adds further stress at a time of their lives which will create a divide among our young people."
