Group to consider future of 11-plus

The North's Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness, yesterday announced the establishment of an independent review body to decide if the 11-plus examination should be scrapped.

Mr McGuinness said the nine-member review group, chaired by former Ombudsman Mr Gerry Burns, would report to him by the end of May 2001. As Minister of Education, Mr McGuinness will take the ultimate decision on the future of the existing transfer test which decides whether pupils attend grammar or secondary schools.

However the First Minister, Mr David Trimble, said yesterday the future of secondary education would be a collective decision by the Assembly and Executive. "There will be a collective decision at the end of the day because if there are any significant changes, it will require legislation and that of course would involve the collective view by the Assembly," he said.

Speaking at the launch at Stormont of a major research report into the effects of the selective system of secondary education in Northern Ireland, Mr McGuinness said all those involved in education had to be open to change.

Mr McGuinness and the Sinn Fein party are known to favour the abolition of the 11-plus examination. However, the Minister said he would await the report of the review group before making changes.

Mr McGuinness's call for a debate on the issue has been welcomed by most political parties and teaching unions in the North.

A spokesman for the teachers' union, NASUWT, Mr Willy Carvell, said many primary and secondary school teachers had been opposed to the 11-plus for many years. "The unfair system that currently exists can't continue to exist. However, just to simply wipe it out and start again is a nonsense," he said.