My favourite politician is making headlines again although, as Big Ulsterman points out, she hasn't really done anything except release a rather vague (and badly constructed) statement confirming her intention to end academic selection.

Long-time readers will know I have a major gripe with her sabotage of our education system. While the 11+ exam procedure might not be the best way to achieve it, academic selection works. Northern Ireland sends more children from "less well-off" backgrounds to university than anywhere else in the UK. Why? Because places in the top schools are awarded on the basis of merit, not money: something you'd expect a socialist to support, no?

Follow up:

The idea that children are under huge amounts of stress is something I question. If this pressure exists, what projects it onto the children: the system or their parents? I went to a primary school in a less than well-off area, I think there were 4 top grades in my class of 30, yet I don't remember anyone being under vast amounts of pressure. Newsline yesterday featured one girl who was presumably sitting the test this year saying she didn't feel under too much pressure but it did make her focus and concentrate more. It's not often I'll quote a commenter on Slugger but a very salient point was raised yesterday about the way in which the anti-selection crowd "talk shite about the stress of the 11+ (while ignoring the sheer hell of bullying that many academically minded kids go through in sink primary schools here and comps across the water)".

The next Newsline interview, though clearly intended to support Ruane's move, featured a 6th form girl complaining that she "done really bad" because she wasn't the brightest (I think those were her words) then, but now she's one of the smartest in her class. I'd like to thank her for demonstrating another flaw in the argument of anti-selectionists - that those who fail are "irreversibly" consigned to hell a secondary school (I think they prefer the term failure, but that's their label, not mine). I know one person who transferred to my year in my grammar school from a secondary after first year and several instances of people switching schools following their GCSEs (including another one or two into my own year).

I make no secret of my contempt for Caitriona Ruane, and this is the main reason (did I mention she sends her own kid to a grammar school? *CO-hypocrite-UGH*). A lot of crap is talked about "election not selection", i.e. parents and children choosing their school rather than the school choosing the pupil. It sounds lovely, but in reality any system introduced will contain elements of both (for there will always be popular schools) and the only issue is the way in which popular schools select pupils. Finally, let's not forget that 67% of people asked by the Department of Education's own survey backed academic selection in some form.

There are problems with grammar schools and the selection procedure as it stands, but these will be dwarfed by the problems with Caitriona's one-size-fits-all system. For example, some grammars have expensive uniforms, which disadvantages lower-income families. In Ruane's plan, selection for oversubscribed schools will be based on family, geography and community. So compare the price of a blazer to the price of a house in the catchment area of a good school and you'll be getting close to an idea of the scale of this cock-up.

"By concentrating on academic selection she has missed the opportunity to focus on the areas of real need. She has squandered the opportunity to tackle the real causes of educational underachievement."
Basil McCrea (UUP & Assembly education committee)

I also can't help but worry whenever I hear Sinn Fein use the word "community" (and going on these comments I'm not alone). They've abused that word so much I fear it could be used to completely entrench the segregation of schools along tribal lines. This is a much bigger 'crime' than selecting pupils on ability.

Unionists are already saying they will block the legislation, but the UUP would be ineffective on their own and I don't believe a word that comes out of a DUP politician's mouth.

Fortunately there is opposition outside Stormont as well as inside. While the National Association of Head Teachers suggests the Minister for Education's attentions should be focused elsewhere, the Association for Quality Education has said it will introduce a standard entry exam for use in up to 20 grammar schools across the province when the current selection procedure is scrapped. I would be more comfortable if this procedure was overseen by a government body that is accountable to the public, but sadly no such body seems to exist.