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SDLP MLA BURNS: CRITICISES RUANE'S PLAN TO REPLACE 11+ WITH ANOTHER TEST

SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns has criticised plans to extend academic selection tests for three years:

Mr Burns stated, “This is a major blow for parents of primary 5 pupils who were promised that academic selection would be gone by the time their children transfer.

“To make matters worse, we now hear that the tests are to be held in post-primary schools, taking these young children out of their familiar school environment on one of the most challenging and traumatic days of their young lives.

“I understand the desire to remove the test from the primary school setting but in reality this is a gesture. Primary teachers will inevitably feel compelled to ‘teach to the test’ regardless of this gesture; parents with the means to do so will pay for coaching and children from low-income families will be disadvantaged as they have been by all other forms of academic testing.

“The bottom line is that adding to the stress of the day is simply not in the interests of children. Worse, it is the children who are already disadvantaged by academic testing, who will probably be worst affected by this additional challenge.

“It is hard to believe that four decades after marching for civil rights, we are still struggling for equality of opportunity in education.”

ENDS