Sammy Wilson MP MLA

“Sammy Wilson comments on statement from the AQE”

Sammy Wilson, Education Spokesman for the DUP, has welcomed the announcement by nearly half of grammar schools in Northern Ireland that they will defy the ideological dictates of Caitriona Ruane and set their own test to replace the 11+. Mr Wilson said: “It is important that a choice of schools focusing on academic excellence should be available to those who wish to have that choice and it is also important that since the majority of parents and teachers in Northern Ireland oppose the introduction of all ability neighbourhood comprehensive schools that the Ministers plan to introduce such a system is thwarted. Over the last number of weeks I have participated in public meetings on this issue across Northern Ireland, some of which were attended by hundreds of people who expressed dismay and anger at the way Caitriona Ruane has kept them in the dark over the transfer arrangements from primary to secondary schools. Equally at the meetings teachers have expressed the same frustrations. Now that the grammar schools have announced their intention and promised to give the details of the test specifications, content and arrangements before the end of this school year, parents now have the chance of having some certainty about the arrangements after 2009. The fact that the grammar schools can do what they have done is because of the guarantees that the DUP negotiated at St Andrews. We have anticipated Sinn Fein attempts to impose the failed comprehensive system from other parts of the UK and the Republic of Ireland and successfully persuaded the Government to leave this decision in the hands of the Assembly, which gave us a veto over Sinn Fein plans and also to provide the default position that would allow the matching of pupils to schools on an educational basis and the maintenance of choice for grammar schools in the absence of any arrangement by the Assembly. Those critics who say that this test can’t work are speaking nonsense. No one can credibly maintain that, whether it is a revised curriculum or traditional curriculum which is taught in Primary Schools, that it is not capable of being tested. The entrance test will measure numeracy and literacy and if critics are really saying that we now have a curriculum that does not allow some assessment of a child’s ability to read and count then it needs to be scrapped immediately. Grammar schools have sought to keep the cost of the test to a minimum and help poor families and the DUP will seek through the Assembly to find a way of circumventing the Education Ministers attempt to block any payment for the test. It’s ironic that for an Education Minister who bleats about equality to create a situation that could disadvantage children from poorer backgrounds, just because she throws a temper tantrum at not getting her own way. The big question now remains – what will the catholic grammar schools do? I suspect that they will not be able to afford to sit on the sidelines whilst controlled and voluntary grammar schools maintain their ethos through the use of educational assessment leaving the catholic sector to go down the road of neighbourhood comprehensives. I suspect that many will now stand up to the bullying of Caitriona Ruane and the bluster of some of the catholic clergy and will avail themselves of the opportunity to use educational assessment to determine their intake. I suspect the alternative will be that catholic parents will vote with their feet and will enter their children for the common entrance test announced yesterday and take their custom to the voluntary and controlled sector.”

ENDS

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