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Ruane: Academic selection has been "like a cancer"
Thursday, 26 March 2009
enlargeAs pupils, parents and teachers prepare for life after the 11-plus, Education Minister Caitriona Ruane tells our correspondent Kathryn Torney of her pride in her work.
Academic selection has been “like a cancer” in Northern Ireland’s education system, according to Caitriona Ruane.
The Education Minister made the comment during an interview with the Belfast Telegraph in which she also said scrapping the 11-plus and replacing it with non-academic admissions criteria guidance for schools was her biggest success during her time so far as Minister.
Ms Ruane played down the concern P6 parents and politicians have about the looming unregulated school transfer system which could result in up to 40 schools setting their own |entrance tests.
“Many P6 parents are absolutely delighted that the curriculum is no longer going to be distorted,” she said.
During a heated debate in the Assembly this week, the Minister stressed again that there will be no further state sponsored testing at age 11 and also said she would not establish another working group to examine the issue of transfer.
SDLP education spokesman Dominic Bradley had called for a test to continue to be used for two years “to create space for an educator-led initiative to find a long-term, binding consensus” and to prevent the “chaos and anarchy” which is just eight months away.
UUP education spokesman Basil McCrea said during the debate: “There is no such thing as compromise in this place. This is a dictatorship; it is going nowhere and it will bring this place down.”
During her interview with the Telegraph, Ms Ruane also confirmed she will not bow down to calls from unionist MLAs for her to resign from her post.
“I have no intention of it. I am enjoying my job far too much,” she said.
“It is really good to be in the Department of Education leading a programme of change and fundamental reform. So I'll be here for a long time yet. The biggest success during my time as Minister is Transfer 2010 and bringing about the much-needed change in the system.”
She called on schools planning to set selective exams from next year to reconsider their position.
“If schools choose to break away or opt out of the system, well, they have been informed and advised of the dangers of doing that. I think many grammars are realising now the difficulty of doing breakaway tests. I think reality is dawning on many of them.
“I would urge all of the schools, even at this late stage, not to dig a hole for themselves and join with us in making their excellent education available for the first time on the basis of equality rather than on selection.”
The Minister said she spent many months trying to reach consensus politically.
“I met all different stakeholders, political parties, had public debates and private sessions in private rooms. I offered compromise proposals and I said if we can't reach agreement I will issue guidance.
“I brought my proposals to the Executive in May and the DUP and UUP refused to discuss them. I brought them again a couple of weeks ago and they refused to even put them on the agenda. So, following that, I could wait around no longer. Parents needed clarity as well as teachers and children so I brought forward the guidance and informed the Assembly about that.
“The absolute worst option for us is to continue with the status quo. I am not prepared to do that. People talked about getting rid of the 11-plus years and years ago. They never got rid of it because vested interests, a small minority, were blocking change. I am not going to allow a very small minority to block the change that is needed.
“Selection has been like a cancer in our system which has affected pre-school, our primary schools, our post-primaries and our further education colleges.
“Let's wait and see at the end of the day how many schools actually go forward with their own tests because this isn't just that they have to take account of the guidance. This is the state policy.”
Does her guidance not make a sham of the idea of joint decision making by the Assembly on major issues?
“Well, it is not for the want of trying,” she responded.
And she addressed why she would not discuss other parties’ proposals at Executive level — despite asking the education committee to bring forward other proposals to her.
She said: “It is a Minister's job to bring proposals to the Executive.
“If you are talking about shambles, it would be a total shambles if every time the Minister with responsibility for a particular subject brought forward proposals and one of the other Ministers said ‘oh well actually, here's my proposal’.”
Does she feel having an unregulated school transfer system is a failure?
“You talk about an unregulated system. I don't. What I talk about is Transfer 2010. It is departmental policy in relation to how our children transfer from primary to post-primary and if schools adhere to that we will have a smooth transition.”
What the Minister had to say about. . .
UNDERACHIEVEMENT
The Minister said: “Underachievement is a real priority. It is one of the things I have put on top of my agenda. What we want to do is keep the academic excellence in our system but we want to make it more available.
“Twelve thousand of our young people are leaving school every year without English and Maths GCSE.”
Targets in the Programme for Government include ensuring that by 2015 80% of the working age population is qualified to at least GCSE level or equivalent.
Ms Ruane said: “Everything we are doing now is focusing on improvements for literacy, |numeracy and achievements for young people because they are going out into a very, very tough world.
“We spend thousands and thousands of pounds to keep our Hydebanks and Bangor Juvenile Justice Centres. I have been in both those centres and by and large they cater for working class kids who didn't have opportunities in life.
“If they had been given opportunities at an earlier age, they may not have ended up in the situation they are in.
“How much does it cost to keep a young lad in Bangor Juvenile Justice Centre for a year? A hell of a lot more than we are giving to keep a young person in school for a year and these are the challenges that are facing our society.”
SPECIAL NEEDS
Recommendations from a |review of special education needs provision were brought by the Minister to the Executive nearly six months ago but have not yet been put on the agenda.
The Minister says that barriers to learning need to be identified at an early age and dealt with.
“We are spending £188m on special needs every year, which is a huge amount of money and we have an extra £25m for 2010/11 |because there are changes that are going to be brought about.
“The statementing process is too slow. I’d rather not go into the detail of it but there are going to be radical changes in the way that we deal with special needs.
“A child may spend some time in a mainstream school and some time in a special school. This would give them the opportunity to become part of their community and neighbourhood.
“Instead of having an autistic child in a special school 20 miles away from their home, we are looking at them going to their local school where we would have autistic specialist classrooms with specialist staff.
“The child could be with other children for maybe PE, music and different periods during the day.”
EXTENDED SCHOOLS
The Extended Schools Programme currently hangs in the balance as the Department of |Education does not have the £6.4m required to maintain it at its current level during 2009/10.
Ms Ruane has written to |Finance Minister Nigel Dodds to ask again for funding to cover the important school service which |involves schools offering activities before, during and beyond the traditional school day and engaging with the local community.
The Minister said: “Last year Nigel Dodds did listen to me and I did get an extra £5m. I would hope that I do this year as well.
“I think common sense will prevail because every political representative understands the good work of extended schools. It is a very popular programme.”
What if there is just no money?
“Well, we will just have to find it. Not doing extended schools is not an option.”
SMALL SCHOOLS
“I recently closed three schools but when you look at it, all of them had less than 20 children.
“That is very difficult for teachers.
“It is not fair on teachers to be teaching in a 20 pupil school. It is not fair for the children because they need a group of classmates in a class.
“Many small schools do a wonderful job but you do reach a point where it is impacting on the teachers.
“If you have one or two teachers teaching five or six classes, it can also impact on things like school choirs and sports teams etc.
“The sustainable schools policy is a very important policy and I think more and more members of the Assembly are realising that it is not a policy for closing schools — it is a policy for managing a situation where you have 50,000 empty desks and demographic decline.
“It is dealing with amalgamations or closing schools before the schools are allowed to wither on the vine because that is the |absolute worst thing that can happen.”
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Comments
41 Comments
Mossy, you are talking about "myths", and then proceed to back up your viewpoitnts with absolutely no statistics!
"What about the huge percentage of underachieving children in this selective system?" Err... there's failure in any system. Huge percentage? We have the lowest percentage of public exam failures in the UK. That seems good to me.
Posted by David | 30.03.09, 17:22 GMT
The pro-grammar lobby are pathetic. They simply wish to maintain a form of social apartheid. So many myths are pedalled by these people - the best one is the idea that the N.Ireland educational is the best in the UK/Europe/The World/The Cosmos - take your pick. What about the huge percentage of underachieving children in this selective system? It is the grammar system which actually perpetuates educational underachievment for the vast majority of children.
Posted by Mossy | 29.03.09, 14:13 GMT
Transfer 2010 has as its TOP selection criteria Free School Meals. Given we are entering an almighty economic depression there is every reason to suppose that many once "wealthy" financiers/bankers/property developers are going to become stoney broke, if not already so. Oh the irony that the "rich" set will still continue to have first preference in schooling their children! The unintended consequences of "equality" are everywhere.....FAILURE.
Posted by L Saunders | 29.03.09, 09:47 GMT
A strange sort of cancer - the majority of the public want it, and it produces good academic results.
P6 parent - it amuses me when people complain the grammar school system disadvantages children from poor backgrounds - just look at what has happened to social mobility in England when they got rid of it!
The transfer test is GOOD for children from poor backgrounds because it lets their intelligence, not their parents' income do the talking.
Posted by David | 28.03.09, 00:00 GMT
The fallacy of trying to correct social inequality by educational policies alone was exemplified last year by Durham University researchers when they showed that the 5 most exclusive and socially selective schools in England were comprehensives with less than 5% of children on free school meals.
The disadvantaged, able, aspirational child from Poleglass or the Shankill has the fairest, least expensive route to economic well-being through our grammar schools and academic selection.
Centuries of ambient enlightenment are at their command.
Posted by George | 27.03.09, 17:21 GMT
I agree with Jim. Fewer pupils can pull themselves out of their class in the comprehensive system or indeed have any wish to. The comprehensive system encourages failure more than it brings on success. Perhaps having occassional Dickson plan type schools within each board would give the same chance for the minority who 'FAIL' at 11+. Then the other 97%, who are happy, can get on with continuing to be part of the most successful school system in the UK!
Ruane will ruin this education sytem!
Posted by Teacher | 27.03.09, 11:57 GMT
Keep repeating it for the mugs (Patrick 12:00) who support her - Catriona Ruane chooses to send her child to a grammar school.
McGuinness appealed for people to "vote" - he used the word on TV - on the future of selection. Unfortunately they didn't give him the answer he wanted.
Posted by hypocrisy stinks | 26.03.09, 23:29 GMT
Some people complain about children 'suffering' 2 exams (fact of life!). My 11 year old niece who lives in London last year had to sit 20 exam papers for approx 10 different schools from grammar schools, in boroughs that still retain them, to fee paying private schools. Everything that could be done to avoid a local comprehensive school was done. Luckily she was very successful. Increasingly in London children are sitting 11 plus type exams as their only way to avoid comprehensives. The Comp system is a failed ideology that our own 'loony left' still want to bring in here. It does nothing to raise the standards for the least bright children instead it brings others down to their level when these children actually need schools dedicated to their needs!
Posted by Stephen | 26.03.09, 20:03 GMT
Catriona Ruane fails to recognise the benefits that the 11+ brought to families like my own who could never have funded the quality of education received as a result of being successful in the 11+ and this was due in no small measure to the encouragement of parents who never had the opportunity themselves but who valued it for their children.
To describe interested parents and their commitment as a cancer is offensive and indicative of her own warped values and perspective.
She doesn't have to go she is a lame duck who has already gone in the minds of the public and only survives through the patronage of the hierarchy of her party
Thomas, Derry
Posted by Thomas | 26.03.09, 20:01 GMT
I was forced to 'sit' the 11+ exam in February 1964 when I wasn't yet 11. I remember feeling decidedly under the weather that day. When the dreaded letter arrived some time later, I was informed I was a failure; no mark, no grade, nothing to say how I had done or how close I'd come to passing - simply FAIL! How psychologically damaging, especially when neighbourhood friends and other peers passed. Life truly became US and THEM.
I went to a Secondary school and was 'streamed' to the GCE class, along with many kids who had passed their 11+, but whose parents couldn't afford Grammar school fees. Even though I would now be taking GCE exams the same year as my Grammar school (now former) friends, I was still regarded as inferior, simply because of the badge on my blazer.
Posted by 'failure' | 26.03.09, 19:12 GMT
First time I ever heard of voluntarily inflicted cancer! Didn't Ruane put her own children through a grammar school?
Posted by Centaur | 26.03.09, 16:39 GMT
This whole argument about the 11 plus being socially discriminating is utter nonsense.
I come from a working class background, passed the 11 plus and went on to obtain a First Class Honours and then a Ph.D. in the sciences.
When I was growing up we had next to nothing.
Thanks to the system I was able to pull myself into the middle class. I know many others who did the same thing.
Kids should be sorted based on academic ability.
Posted by Jim | 26.03.09, 16:02 GMT
What an insult to people who are suffering from this hidieous disease or to realtives trying to come to terms with news of a loved one coming through treatment. Not only Ms Ruane uses this language (I have listened to clergymen) to try and show how serious the issue is! As one of many who has seen relatives and friends go through treatment and then die it is about time when this term is used that the person making the satement should realise the difference - With cancer one is not in control of the circumstances, however this minister is in control and appears to pussy foot around the issues and not make real decisions - Glad she is not making decisions on the treatment of cancer victims!
Posted by Bryan | 26.03.09, 15:57 GMT
Obviously we all know the scrapping of the 11 plus transfer procedure is going to be devastating to the people of Northern Ireland (both Catholic and Protestant). This is just another way for Sinn Fein to attack an establishment which they perceive to be British. Gerry Adams went to a Grammar School. So what are his quips on the 11 plus and not some person who didn't even attend school in Northern Ireland. I have met and worked with people from all over the world and have yet to meet people who are so well adjusted and forward thinking as my friends who attended Grammar Schools. One thing is for sure they are way more left wing and socialist than Sinn Fein.
Posted by Michael Falkes | 26.03.09, 15:28 GMT
This is an absolute farce. We have the best education system in the United Kingdom by far. Teachers in England regret the day they ever abandoned the 11+
To have the educational greatness of Northern Ireland's children placed in jeopordy by someone of Mrs Ruane's calibre is astonishing and an example of weak Unionist leadership.
I would dearly love to know the ministers educational background I think it might make for some explosive reading.
Posted by Gareth | 26.03.09, 15:07 GMT
The cancer in the Northern Irish academic system is not that of the 11 plus, but that of religion based schooling.
The minister should be talking about getting rid of that first.
Posted by Ken | 26.03.09, 14:43 GMT
The point is 60+% of the population who expressed a view in the consultaion exercise when the Deputy First Minister was Education Minister wanted some form academic selection retained, he ignored this and went along the comprehensive route. His dismissal of public opinion was then redressed in negotiation at St Andrews where Sinn Fein agreed to academic selection being retained in legislation. The current Education minister has ignored this agreement too and persued her own agenda. The majority public/electorate view as expressed in the consultaion exercise and the subsequent political agreement have both been ignored. This can not be acceptable irrespective of which side of the educational argument you're on. The minister has no legitmate majority or agreed support for her position. A democrat without agreement or majority support, builds consensus or comprimises the Minister fails to do this, same old Sinn Fein.
Posted by Mark | 26.03.09, 14:28 GMT
p6 parent,
What utter nonsense! How can we revisit problems next year with a more informed approach if things don't work out? The damage will already have been done for the current raft of P6 pupils!
Also, my local grammer school, which best suits the needs of my P6 son, currently only accepts A grades and some B1 grades. This is why we need a test, to try and ensure that pupils are sent to the schools which best cater for their differing abilities.
Oh, and by the way, under Ms Ruane's system she will bus all of the catholic pupils in my area 8 miles past this grammar school (and past at least three other secondary schools) to ensure they go to a catholic maintained school - hypocrital or what?
Posted by Jeff | 26.03.09, 14:24 GMT
'Academic selection has been “like a cancer”.' What absolute nonsense! What was Mrs Ruane thinking about when she compared academic selection to a cancer? Has she had any close relatives who have died recently from cancer? Does she know anything of the pain, the anger, the horror, or the fear that cancer sufferers and their loved ones go through. Mrs Ruane's words are insulting. Academic selection has served well those who work hard and have the ability and the desire to succeed. It has also acted as a spur to many of those who did not pass to work a lot harder than before and prove in later years that they too could succeed academically.
Posted by T J McClean | 26.03.09, 14:02 GMT
Cancer is where bad overcomes the good, where the shabby values of those lazy families who do not hold education in high esteem tend to overide the advantages of good schooling. This is every parents real concern, and the reason why the Minister has sent her children to a good grammar school.
Posted by Malachy McAnespie | 26.03.09, 13:58 GMT
41 Comments