Hi °C | Lo °C 
Let's hope Paul Butler isn't getting tired. The Sinn Fein MLA was wheeled out by his party again yesterday to defend Education Minister Caitriona Ruane. He's done it before, and no doubt he will be called upon to do it again.
Faced with a revolt by 32 grammar schools — the 31 who form the Association for Quality Education and Catholic grammar Lumen Christi — Mr Butler insisted that the Education Minister is planning "a democratic, a fair and a world class education system".
Heartwarming though it is to see Mr Butler's faith in his party colleague, what parents would really like to see now is some concrete evidence that Ms Ruane's "vision" will even function, regardless of its place in the world rankings.
Ms Ruane finds herself under further pressure after AQE announced the formation of a company to administer a common entrance test, effectively their own version of the 11-plus. Lumen Christi will do the same with an individual test.
In itself, this is not good news for education in Northern Ireland, potentially creating even more division and giving new life to an ugly and antiquated system of selection.
Nonetheless, expect parents to flock to it, for one simple reason: certainty. Where the Minister offers waffle, the rebel grammars' plan has the virtue of offering something they know.
This is especially attractive to the parents of current P5 pupils. As the end of their children's primary school education creeps ever closer, they get little more than shrugs from teachers when they ask about the next stage. They get even less from the Minister.
When she eventually responded to the AQE's announcement yesterday, Ms Ruane dismissed them as a "minority of elitist grammar schools" and rumbled about school governors being brought before the courts.
There are two problems with that thinking: attacking people concerned about their children's education as elitist is not going win any arguments, nor is it likely to make them more receptive to the Minister's plan, if and when we ever see it.
And it's a bit rich of her to be talking about legal action when she and her party have been considering creative ways to circumvent the law and push through changes without the approval of their partners in the Executive.
Sinn Fein should be aware that this problem is getting worse and will ultimately harm more than Ms Ruane's political career.
Remember, it was Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness who abolished the transfer test in 2002 without having any idea what would replace it.
Six years later his party, and the Minister they selected to safeguard his decision, appear to have made few, if any, advances. Ultimately that hurts their argument against selection, as more people equate their position with cluelessness. A classic example of why you should look before you leap.
