Half Truths and Misinformation

The debate - if such it can be called - on the structure of Post-primary education in Northern Ireland is becoming increasingly sterile. That is due in no small measure to the complete intransigence of the Department and successive Ministers to take any account whatsoever of the strident arguments against their proposals. Successive public polls have shown that the people of Northern Ireland want to retain some form of selection, although not necessarily in the form of the present transfer test arrangements. There can be no doubt that the proposals in their present form would not be introduced by any devolved administration in Northern Ireland.
The whole debate has been running since the publication of the now discredited Burns report some 4 years ago. Throughout that period the Department and successive Ministers - we are now on to our fourth - have been attempting to persuade the people of Northern Ireland that our schools are a shambles and can only be saved by moving to a non-selective system. This so called status of our existing schools runs contrary to any available evidence. At its worst that evidence suggests that our schools are on a par with schools elsewhere - at its best it suggests our schools are much better than those elsewhere - and I am not just referring to grammar schools.
The people of Northern Ireland have been subjected to a major propaganda exercise in an attempt to persuade them of the folly of their ways. Like all such exercises it has been based on a combination of scare mongering, half truths and fairly blatant misinformation.
A few examples. We have been assured that the proposals will not affect in any way the ethos of grammar schools. That assertion is blatant nonsense. Everyone knows that grammar schools simply cannot retain their existing ethos if they are not allowed some way of matching their admissions to what they have to offer. We have been told that there should not be a problem with admissions as most grammar schools are not at present heavily oversubscribed. Of course they are not when everyone realises that pupils must reach a certain academic level for admission to most grammar schools. Once that is removed there can be no doubt that most grammar schools will be heavily oversubscribed.
That leads to perhaps he greatest misrepresentation of all. We have been constantly been told hat the new arrangements will not result in admissions by post-code. The then Minister made that assertion when Costello was first published. We were promised that the Department would undertake detailed work to produce a range of criteria not primarily based on distance from the school. Cut through the gloss of the latest consultation paper - on of the worst which the department has ever managed to produce - and what are we left with? Feeder primary schools parishes and geographical areas inevitably mean post-code. To suggest, as the Minister appears to have done, that this will not affect pupils in outlying and rural areas beggars belief.
We have been told that he proposals will not lead to the introduction of a comprehensive system of schools - do even he supporters of the new proposals believe that. We have been told that the new arrangements will improve standards. But there is not a shred of evidence to support that assertion. We have been told that the proposals will increase choice, how so when he only choice is likely to be the nearest school. I could go on.
Yet in spite of all of this the Minister - or is it the Department - has now brought forward firm legislative proposals to ensure that any form of admissions based on aptitude or ability will in future be banned by law. This represents an arrogance of the most extreme kind . The really worrying thing is that the Minister may be able to roll this legislation through Parliament by the truncated process used for northern Ireland legislation. We will then be faced with a fait accompli. Despite all that has gone on beforehand all those with an interest in our schools and in the future of our young people must persist in pointing out to the Minister and the Department the error of their ways. If they want to dig a hole for themselves so be it.