Hi °C | Lo °C 
Those who so vehemently oppose the removal of selection from the transfer system to secondary education seem to be woefully unaware of the abomination which this selection system inflicts on the children who fail the test and who are, by the way, the majority.
We are always being exhorted in Northern Ireland to move on to a new society.
So why can we not allow our children to go forward to a new education system instead of leaving them stuck in the present out of date and divisive system?
In the existing system there is one set of grammar schools, which, we are told, are the good and best schools, but which are available for only a minority of pupils, and then another set of secondary schools which, we are told, are not so good, but which the majority have to attend.
If this kind of system prevailed in the Health Service and we had one set of good hospitals only available to those in relatively good health, and a second set of hospitals which were only available to those bad health, there would be an outcry of protest. Yet this is what exists in our present education system.
The pro-selection lobby claims that the Northern Ireland education system is the best in the UK and then use this as a justification for retaining selection.
This is largely a myth as Northern Ireland schools are not at the top of the league tables for the whole of the UK.
B E Belfast
