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Ruane Under Fire Again
It comes as no surprise to this blogger that our illustrious education minister, one Caitriona Ruane, has once again come under fire this week. Grammar schools have struck another blow against her policy of abolishing academic selection and this morning I hear that primary school headmasters have joined in the criticism and accused the under-fire education minister of reneging on a promise to level out the funding gap between primary and secondary schools.
I was pleased to see that my former school was among the 32 post-primary schools (out of the 229 in the country) that have so far committed to continuing with academic selection via an entrance exam. Lumen Christi has already indicated it will set its own entrance exam and yesterday the Association for Quality Education announced that 31 state grammar schools would be organising a common entrance exam once the Department of Education ends the 11+ test. Incidentally, despite Caitriona Ruane's depiction of the schools as "a minority of a minority", all 4 of the grammar schools I considered attending at age 10 are among the "rebel" schools planning on using the test, which could be bought in from England.
Ruane had a chance to replace the 11+ with a fairer system of testing, perhaps by having more tests spread throughout the year to reduce the pressure from the current big two exams, but without the supervision of the Department of Education there can be no guarantees that the new admissions test will be any fairer or less stressful than the current one (though I must be honest and state that as a 10 year old I could never see what all the fuss was about). In fact, given that the pupils will have to travel to a local assessment centre to take the tests, and parents may have to pay up to £65 to have their children sit it, for all her dogmatic ranting, all supposed socialist Ms Ruane has succeeded in doing is privatising the transfer procedure and increasing the pressure on chldren leaving primary school. Good work.
Follow up:
The grammar schools involved in this private admissions exam are:
- Antrim Grammar
- Ballyclare High
- Banbridge Academy
- Bangor Grammar
- Belfast High
- Belfast Royal Academy
- Bloomfield Collegiate Grammar
- Cambridge House Grammar
- Carrick Grammar
- Coleraine Academical Institution
- Collegiate Grammar, Enniskillen
- Dalriada School
- Down High
- Foyle and Londonderry College
- Friends' School, Lisburn
- Glenlola Collegiate
- Grosvenor Grammar
- Hunterhouse College
- Larne Grammar
- Limavady Grammar
- Methodist College
- Omagh Academy
- Regent House
- Royal Belfast Academical Institution (Inst)
- Royal School, Armagh
- Royal School, Dungannon
- Strabane Grammar
- Strathearn School
- Sullivan Upper
- Wallace High
- Wellington College