The words of David Canning, local president of the National Association of Head Teachers, should strike a chord with the parent of every child due to leave primary school next year. He asks very pertinently of the shambolic fallout from the abolition of the 11-plus examination: “Is the whole thing going to degenerate into a debacle?”

The evidence as it currently stands points very firmly in that direction.

The abolition of selection was meant to remove what was seen as an iniquitous test at too young an age and thereby reduce the pressure on young children and their parents. So what has resulted? Two competing sets of grammar schools each with their own selection tests. The Association for Quality Education, comprising of 34 grammars, will set three examinations in November and December. The GL Assessment tests will hold two examinations in November on behalf of another 34 grammars. It is

thought some parents will put their children in for both sets of tests in an attempt to ensure they obtain a grammar school place in either the controlled or maintained sectors.

As Mr Canning quite rightly asks, what are primary school teachers supposed to tell parents, and how do they prepare the pupils for examinations which have no precedent here? Instead of being under less pressure, the strain on parents and children this year will be enormous. There is every likelihood that the final adjudication will come through the courts if par

ents take cases challenging either the accuracy of the tests or their fairness to all pupils. What also of those parents who decide to follow the advice of the Education Minister Caitriona Ruane and not put their children through the trauma of selection, instead relying on the minister’s preferred route to second level education through school criteria? Will they not feel they have been the victims of injustice if by following this route they find their children’s places taken by those who sat selection tests?

The current shambles is the result of political fail

ure. Politics is supposed to be about the art of the possible. Ms Ruane knew from an early stage that her decision to abolish the 11-plus and railroad through another system of transfer was doomed to failure. She should have heeded advice to take things more slowly and find compromise with her political opponents. There is a significant proportion of the population which agrees with the abolition of the 11-plus in principle, but it needs to have a workable alternative. Neither Ms Ruane nor her principal opponents in the DUP can gain an absolute victory in this power struggle, nor should either continue to seek such a victory.

With just 12 weeks to go until thousands of pupils start taking tests which could decide their educational future there is a bounden duty on the politicians at Stormont to find a solution to the transfer puzzle. If the parties do not seriously seek a workable compromise, then neither those children nor their parents will forgive them.