Grammar schools have been called on to stop using “dubious” unregulated testing of primary seven pupils.
Michele Corkey.
The call comes from the Catholic Principals Association (CPA) ahead of the results of two types of tests this Saturday. In November, thousands of children sat the unofficial transfer tests.
CPA chairperson Michele Corkey, who has called for an urgent meeting on the issue, said the exams were having a “negative and divisive effect” on schools.
Mrs Corkey claimed “many parents” entered their children for “unregulated tests” because they felt compelled to follow “established practice.”
She also said primary school principals had expressed “grave concerns about unnecessary pressures” caused by selection and testing.
She added: “Dubious testing, wide variation in grades for admission and uneven competition between schools are having negative and divisive impact on our primary and post-primary schools,” she said.
“They are undermining the whole Catholic system and are conducted annually in clear and open defiance of successive statements by the Northern Catholic Bishops and opinion of Catholic and other educators.”
She said a survey of principals of Catholic primary schools showed too many felt “pressurised to comply with a system whose values and effects they overwhelmingly reject”.
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