Last week’s announcement that a deal had been agreed amongst grammar schools to create a single testing system for post-primary transfer will not have come as a surprise.
The existence of two separate privately run tests, set up in place of the old Eleven Plus, had always rankled with many parents. The system meant they faced the choice of picking one test, restricting their children’s options to schools predominantly from one sector, or opting for both in the knowledge that it would mean compelling their children to sit tests across four Saturdays.
This decision will mean children who sit the two new tests from 2023 will be able to consider applying to all grammar schools. It represents a return to how things were before the old Eleven Plus was decommissioned amidst much misplaced fanfare.
The tests are only required due to the continued operation of a means of primary to post-primary transfer which has long been abandoned in most other societies.
Retaining academic selection is not a consequence free decision. The evidence has been clear for a very long time that the price of preserving the grammar sector in its current form is a long tail of academic underachievement, which continues to have a profound and enduring impact upon our economy and society at large.
Northern Ireland’s population share of individuals holding only basic or no qualifications vastly exceeds that of the Republic and is one of the worst performers when compared to regions across Britain. The proportion of young people holding degrees or post-secondary qualifications is also significantly higher in the Republic than in the north.
Fear is the pre-eminent factor contributing towards the preservation of our archaic education system.
It is the job of every parent to act in the best interests of their children, so it is only to be expected that, in a system which separates children at age eleven, parents will be motivated by a desire to secure a place at a school perceived to provide the best opportunities and prospects for their children to succeed.
A fear of children being left only with the option of places in a school with a disproportionately high number of pupils with academic, behavioural, social or emotional difficulties motivates parents to ensure their children are best positioned to navigate a way through the transfer process in order to claim a place in grammar schools defined by significant under representation of children from the aforementioned categories.
The grammar sector is where the lion’s share of children from more affluent backgrounds will be educated. When the more than 190 post-primary schools in Northern Ireland are ranked in terms of the percentage of children enrolled who are entitled to free school meals, only a couple of grammar schools feature in the top 100 schools (this in spite of grammars constituting one-third of all post-primary schools.)
The most significant obstacle facing those wishing to change our system is that it produces the optimal outcome for those in society wielding the greatest influence and capable of making the most noise. The grammar sector in the north of Ireland provides us with all the benefits of private schools in Dublin, London or large American cities without the sting of the annual fees.
We have wonderful school communities across every sector with dedicated and inspiring leaders and teachers who make it their life’s mission to deliver for the children they have the privilege to share classrooms with through the formative years of their young lives. Whilst it's true that no playing field will ever be truly level when it comes to education systems, ours stands apart as being particularly uneven due to selection.
The popularity of academic selection shows no sign of abating here, and the political veto wielded by unionist politicians means it is unlikely to be abandoned any time soon.
Short of abolishing academic selection and replacing it with a system of transfer based on catchment schools and geography, a third way must be found which can provide much needed support to the non-grammar sector and break the stalemate which has existed for generations.
It is within the gift of the education minister to reduce the size of our grammar sector, a step which would significantly enhance enrolment levels at non-grammar schools, with obvious benefits for sustainability due to the increased pupil numbers and budgets. More importantly, such a move would provide these schools with a cohort of higher ability pupils helping to positively influence and shape school culture, morale and peer aspirations.
No supporter of academic selection could credibly argue against a significant streamlining of the grammar sector. There was a time when grammar schools accounted for approximately one quarter of children. Today, more than 40 per cent of post-primary children will attend grammar schools.
Whilst last week’s announcement will be good news for many children and hopefully lessen test-related anxieties in Novembers to come, the issue of whether or not children sit tests on one, two, three or four Saturdays in late Autumn each year is but a distraction from the substantive challenges we must address in order to finally develop an education system genuinely constructed with the interests and outcomes of all children equally in mind.
