Why transfer at 14+ doesn't add up for pupils or schools

Education

As the debate continues to rage over a replacement for the 11-plus school transfer system, Paul Hewitt - headmaster of the Royal School Dungannon - argues that Northern Ireland must keep its 11-18 schools

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

In the vain attempt to find a compromise in the education debate between the opposing factions, there has been much loose talk about bringing about transfer at 14+. Compromise in major issues is always a risky business, especially if the outcome is highly unlikely to please anyone.

Of course there are many reasons why this could never work across the whole province - the huge damage which would be caused to outlying rural schools; the massive funding required to implement such a scheme; the legal, contractual, social, psychological and academic problems which would be created to completely restructure and re-train the teaching staff of every secondary school; the ownership of school grounds and buildings; the special character of many schools rooted in gender, history and church related issues; the lack of challenge and stretch for brightest pupils; the major disincentive for weaker and slower pupils and the crucial removal of parental choice.

However, there are a number of other reasons why Northern Ireland should resist the removal of 11–18 or even 11–16 schools whilst allowing for small areas - such as Craigavon - to continue with their own arrangements. All of them are related to the continuity, stability and consistency achieved in 11-18 schools.

High on the list is that teaching and learning would be hugely affected: teachers who are trained and practised in learning methods for bright or slow learners would need to be re-trained and many would not feel competent to deal with types of pupil of whom they have had little experience. Even if they were able, many would not wish to teach the full ability range. Half of the profession would have to settle for never having GCSE and another third A-Level work again. As happened to 25% such teachers in state schools in Britain when grammar schools went comprehensive, many would be likely to leave the profession. Furthermore, teachers having total accountability for pupils' pastoral, disciplinary and academic development from 11 right through to 18 would be lost. This is something that would further disadvantage education in Northern Ireland.

The role models which sixth form pupils provide for the younger teens is something which we lose at our peril throughout all of school life. Teachers by themselves cannot provide this, except in some very limited ways. Despite the trendy disapproval of the comprehensive architects in Burns, Costello and Gallagher, the ability to compete is more crucial to the development of young people in the modern world than ever. This healthy competitiveness provided by the 11–18 schools creates an ethos which other types of school cannot replicate. Indeed, sixth form colleges (another compromise suggested by some) along with academies, totally fail to register in this and many related areas. Bands, choirs, sports teams and societies in schools need the range of ages for full-blooded success to be developed and continued into adult life. They are seen at their fullest only in the 11–18 schools.

The vital sense of loyalty to and identification with school takes years to build up and is much more difficult - indeed sometimes impossible - to form at 14 or 16. Indeed, the huge benefits of strong and active former pupil associations are rarely seen outside the UK's grammar and independent schools that are mostly 11–18. What marks out the top schools throughout the developed world is regularly identified as this sense of purpose, common cause, tradition and loyalty which starts at 11 and comes fully into its own only in the final sixth form years. To commence this at 14 in the middle of adolescence is extremely difficult. Under a Craigavon type plan there are even those who would transfer a third time, to a senior high school, at 16 as well as at 11 and 14.

This cannot help the ethos of the school or the sense of belonging of such pupils. It accounts for why hundreds of Craigavon parents annually opt to send their children to the many 11-18 schools outside the Dickson scheme in Armagh, Dromore, Banbridge, Lisburn and Dungannon - and three inside it - which do not re-select at 14 and 16 to schools. No Catholic parents in Craigavon are obliged to interrupt schooling at 14.

Such a dalliance with a misconceived theoretical solution for the whole of the province, especially one imposed without the consent of schools, would lead to a serious and irrevocable decline in the high standards currently being achieved by the majority of schools in Northern Ireland.

What do you think? Email ktorney@belfasttelegraph.co.uk