A REPORT published by Ulster University, which concludes that academic selection reduces social mobility and increases social segregation within communities, has been welcomed by a local MLA.
The report comes after we reported last week that St Mary’s Grammar School is to temporarily suspend the use of academic selection until at least 2022.
The report says that the process of academic selection at the age of 11 does not raise achievement across the system and may be one of the main contributors to the long tail of underachievement across the North.
In concluding, the academics responsible for compiling the report hit out at the Catholic Church and political representatives for treating learners as “a political football”.
They said: “The Catholic Church seems to swither between deploring state-sponsored disadvantage and protecting its top grammar schools; the Governing Bodies Association (representing Voluntary grammars) vigorously defends what it sees as the cream of UK education; the DUP seem to ignore the negative impact of selection on their heartland working-class constituencies; and Sinn Féin continue to be somewhat ambivalent despite their public pronouncements about removing selection.”
Reacting to the report, Sinn Féin MLA and Deputy Chair of Stormont’s Education Committee, Pat Sheehan said: “This report is the latest in a long line of studies which have exposed the cruel and damaging impact of academic selection on children.
“The process of selecting and rejecting young children based on their performance in an unregulated test is cruel and traumatic.
“The overwhelming evidence from human rights organisations, the Children’s Commissioner, trade unions and churches is clearly pitted against selection and its damaging impact on children. In light of this latest study, school Boards of Governors should now show leadership in favour of building an inclusive and non-selective education system for the benefit of all our young people.”
