The chaos in Northern Ireland’s education sector is amply underscored by our story today that one of Caitriona Ruane’s flagship reforms is being almost totally ignored by both grammar and secondary schools.

Only 15 secondary schools – out of a total of 200 — are following her recommendation that free school meals should be the first of the entry criteria used to select pupils. Another 47 use it further down their selection criteria.

What that demonstrates is that the Education Minister has no authority. She has abolished the 11-plus selection test, but has been unable to get Executive or Assembly approval for her replacement policy. And now the schools have overwhelmingly rejected one of her key recommendations. The grammar schools, of course, have also rejected Ministerial advice and set their own selection tests.

Using free school meals as a primary selection method is to employ a very crude and blunt instrument. While the Minister may feel that this will give children from more disadvantaged homes a better chance of getting to the school of their choice, it could also skew the pupil demographics of any school.

It is correct to attempt to give all children an equal chance to a good education, although primarily that will require greater investment in the secondary sector. However, the Minister seems set to impose her own dogma on the education system and the inescapable fact is that it is not working. There appears to be an unbridgeable gulf between the wishes of the Minister and the practice of schools, both state and Catholic.

As this newspaper repeatedly has argued, it is time for the Minister to sit down with her colleagues in the Executive and sort out the chaos. Already time is running short to find a way forward in time for the next academic year. The Minister cannot continue to stick her head in the sand and pretend that there is any popular support – political or educational – for her reforms as presently constituted.