Consultation ends on education review

The author of recommendations into post-primary education in Northern Ireland has conceded the whole plan may not be accepted.

Friday is the final official day for people to give their verdict on the Burns report.

Its proposals include scrapping academic selection, using pupil profiles to help parents choose a school for their child and clustering schools together in collegiates.

Martin McGuinness set up education review body

The Burns review of Northern Ireland's education system, set up by Education Minister Martin McGuinness, recommended an end to the controversial 11-plus transfer test.

The exam is a selection test for children in primary seven and determines to which type of school they will transfer.

The plans have been welcomed by some, and fought by others.

Tempers have flared over the Burns proposals, whose author is former ombudsman Gerry Burns.

Response forms

Grammar schools have encouraged parents to send in responses which would vote for keeping some sort of academic selection.

They want the right to choose pupils of the highest ability, while others feel the plans are not radical enough.

Mr Burns has conceded there may be variations in the final plan and he regrets the way politicians voted along party lines.

Although Friday is the final day to send in response forms, those which were delivered late to homes in parts of Northern Ireland will be accepted next week.

There is no question that the education system needs reformed and that the current system is failing many pupils

Monica McWilliams
Women's Coalition

Meanwhile, the nationalist SDLP has called for the introduction of all-ability comprehensive schools in Northern Ireland.

Responding to the Burns proposals, the party said it was strongly against academic selection.

Education spokesman Tommy Gallagher said he had been campaigning for an end to the 11-plus since the 1970s.

He said a radical overhaul of the system was needed to address the disadvantages experienced by many children.

However, the Women's Coalition said the Burns Report provided "the best compromise between different attitudes to education".

Assembly member Monica McWilliams said the report did not contain everything her party wanted, but she felt it was a "good compromise" between the different preferences for the schools system.

"There is no question that the education system needs to be reformed and that the current system is failing many pupils," she said.

"We are supporting the Burns proposals as the best compromise between different attitudes to education, while protecting the interests of each young person."