Renewed calls for an end to use of 11-plus tests

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) is opposed to schools’ continued use of unregulated 11-plus tests to admit children.

The union’s annual northern conference in Limavady, Co Derry, heard calls for more to be done to remove academic selection.

Chairwoman Annmarie Conway told delegates she is “someone who puts their money where their mouth is” by sending her children to a non-selective secondary school.

She praised education minister John O’Dowd for his pursuit of a policy that removed the state-sponsored transfer test.

That was eight years ago, she said, with most grammar schools still retaining academic selection. It was now time to “change the narrative”. She added: “We have schools which deliver the same curriculum, offer the same subjects to the same level and in many respects achieve the same outcomes, yet for some reason the perception remains that because your blazer is a different colour or because of the exclusive term ‘grammar’, then by association you are better educated and indeed, do a better class of GCSE or A level.