Transfer test: Business interest 'should not dominate debate'

Business interest "should not dominate the conversation" about whether the school transfer test should take place this year, a Catholic bishop has said.

There has been intense debate this week about the academic selection process for Northern Ireland grammar schools.

One test provider cancelled its exams due to the Covid-19 crisis but another said it would test children next month.

Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown said the test process - which is run by private companies - had become "big business".

'Not just educational changes'

The Association for Quality Education (AQE) said on Tuesday that it intends to run one test in a single sitting in February rather than the usual series of exams.

Parents pay a fee of £55 for their child to take the AQE test.

Bishop Donal McKeown says there "should have been a plan B" for the transfer test system

The Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) - which does not charge for entry to its process - has cancelled its tests in 2021.

Bishop McKeown told the BBC's Sunday Politics Northern Ireland programme: "AQE would have about 9,000 pupils applying this year... that's half a million pounds coming in to run a business.

"And let's say you work on the assumption that parents are spending maybe £250 on tutoring [for their children] - there's another £2.5m.

"We're not just talking about making educational changes - we are talking about a business.

"When business becomes a major element in educational decisions I think, perhaps, we've lost the point."

The AQE told BBC News NI on Tuesday that schools using its test believed the process was the "fairest way of allocating grammar school places".

Politicians split over test

There have been calls for the AQE to cancel its test due to the Covid-19 crisis, with many pupils facing a prolonged period of learning from home amid the tightening of the Covid-19 lockdown.

A small number of grammar schools that would typically use the test to select their pupils for the following academic year have since decided not to proceed with it in 2021.

The transfer test has long been a controversial issue in Northern Ireland, with some political parties opposing its use.

Stormont ministers clashed on Friday about whether to the executive should intervene in the AQE's decision.

Most grammar schools have used the test to select pupils since the 11-plus exam was scrapped in 2008

Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Alliance Party - which all oppose academic selection - argued that the test should not take place due to the pandemic.

But the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said it supports the right for schools to select their pupils.

Education Minister Peter Weir - a member of the DUP - has agreed to present a paper on the issue at a future meeting of the Stormont executive.

The AQE has said that without the test many schools were likely to be even more oversubscribed than in a normal year and that more random criteria would be used to select pupils.

That would include "family ties, geographical proximity to a school or some form of lottery for places".

An Ulster Unionist MLA has suggested an alternative plan but it has been rejected by a headteachers' union.

'Running out of options'

Bishop McKeown said: "The public education system has to be focused on doing the best for the largest number of people.

"It can end up ceasing to be primarily a test of academic ability and more become a measure of those who are financially able.

"I hope our politicians could grapple with that reality - when business enters education we have to ask questions."

Schools that have pulled out of the testing process said they were reviewing their contingency admissions criteria and would publish those in due course.

Bishop McKeown said there "should have had a plan B long in advance".

"We really are out of options now - we have to say: 'How can we focus on doing the best for the largest number, particularly the most disadvantaged?'"