Sinn Fein councillor Patricia Logue
SINN Féin Education spokesperson Councillor Patricia Logue has said that the Education Minister is “out of step” with international best practice with his move to allow schools to to coach pupils towards unregulated testing in terms of academic selection.
DUP Minister Peter Weir MLA has announced that schools can coach P7 children sitting the unregulated tests for entry to grammar schools.
Clr Patricia Logue said: “This is a disappointing and regressive move by the education minster which is clearly out of step with best educational practice.
“This move will split classes and deprive the majority of children of valuable time which should be spent learning the curriculum, devised by experts.
“There is a wealth of international and local evidence, which highlights the damage academic selection has on pupils, the education system and wider society.
“Sinn Féin is not alone in our opposition to academic selection. Many parents, trade unions, churches and children’s and human rights organisations also oppose it.
“Only at the end of last year the OFMdFM commissioned report ‘Links in Achievement and Deprivation recommended an end to academic selection and stated that it reinforced ‘privilege and disadvantage’.
“The huge improvements in educational attainment under successive Sinn Féin education ministers shows how unnecessary academic selection actually is,” added Cllr Logue.
