Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
Committee for Educational Affairs
Current Proposals for Transfer to Post-Primary Education from 2010
From the outset the Committee would like to make it clear that as part of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland it represents a sizeable portion of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. The Loyal Orange Institution is a large body and within its membership there are a range of views regarding the Transfer debate and Post-Primary education.
This brief paper is designed to highlight some of these views but the Committee and the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland reserve the right to make further submissions as the debate continues.
Current Proposals
The manner in which the Minister for Education had approached this issue has created much confusion and uncertainty across our society. Nevertheless, the Committee would offer the following observations on the Minister’s ‘proposals’.
It is important that a comprehensive and coherent approach be adopted in considering the future of the education system in Northern Ireland and the need for change.
The current Minister of Education appears to be in such a rush to implement her own short-sighted agenda that she ignores the need for consensus and sidelines the obvious and logical approach of addressing the future of the education system in its totality.
The Committee is of the opinion that both the Minister and the Assembly should avoid making any rash decisions and instead they should create some much needed breathing space so that all the issues surrounding selection, the Education and Skills Authority, the ethos of schools and a multi-sector education system, can be addressed.
In order to allow for this ‘breathing space’, an aspect of academic selection should remain in place as a mechanism of transfer to post-primary education.
Any attempt by the Minister to push ahead with her proposals now would be detrimental to the development of education in Northern Ireland.
11.1 The Ending of Academic Selection: The Committee do not believe that the removal of selection in its totality will have a positive impact on the development of education in Northern Ireland.
The current transfer procedure (11+) has proved problematic and should rightly be removed as an option for determining transfer to the post-primary school environment. However, the Committee are not convinced that the entirely non-academic criteria outlined in Annex A will prove a worthy and appropriate replacement.
The use of geography as a determining factor in school selection will only promote ‘land grabbing’ in areas around what are perceived as ‘good schools’ and will disadvantage children from socially deprived backgrounds. Moreover, this problem will impact on and possibly negate aspects of the remaining transfer criteria.
The Committee are of the opinion that the proposed system of bilateral transfer and gradual phasing out of academic selection will prove problematic and confusing.
In addition, many of the non-academic criteria outlined in Annex A are used by schools at present.
There is insufficient information on the informed election procedure for pupils who will be determining academic/vocational pathways at 14 years of age. How will this operate in relation to the current Junior High School framework in the area that operates the Dickson Plan?
Any new system which is adopted must recognise and reflect local needs and requirements. A ‘one size fits all’ model will not work.
The Committee is currently undertaking a consultation process within the Orange Family about the future of Post-Primary Transfer and the future of education in general. At this stage in our discussions a number of common themes have been identified:
- The need to maintain some form of academic selection or related criteria for Post-Primary Transfer.
- Academic selection should be controlled and administered by a central education authority (Department of Education) and not left to individual schools to establish their own entrance exams. However, if the Minister fails to provide for this, schools will still have the right to implement their own examination.
- Those schools that have an academic criterion must not be allowed to lower this criteria thus impacting on the intake of other Post-Primary schools in the locality.
- The need for increased and targeted investment in the Primary and Post-Primary sector in Northern Ireland with special emphasis on areas of educational disadvantage and maintaining rural communities. While it is important that rationalisation is undertaken the integrity of rural communities, especially along the border with the Irish Republic, must be considered.
- The need to maintain the ethos of the Reformed Faith within the State education sector, which caters for children from the Protestant community.
- The cultural rights of children attending State Schools must be implemented in any future system.
- The recognition that a vocational education is of equal value to that of an academic education.
- Any proposal to set for each school a quote of children from disadvantaged backgrounds will prove controversial and such a scheme would certainly increase the cost of school transport.
The Committee appreciate this opportunity to respond to the emerging proposals relating to Post-Primary Transfer and education in Northern Ireland but would stress again the need for a full and comprehensive debate in relation to all the issues involved, identified above.
The lack of clear and coherent proposals has created much confusion and uncertainty within the community and it is our view that accelerating the implementation of the Minister’s current proposals would be divisive and damaging.
5 June 2008