Spotlight falls on selection choices

The education minister said she will not re-introduce academic selection

On November 14, thousands of children in Northern Ireland will be sitting down to take the test that wasn't supposed to happen. On Tuesday night BBC's Spotlight programme wades into the debate over the 11-plus and its ad hoc replacements.

Last year brought an end to the 11-plus, the exam that became a defining juncture for generations of pupils - splitting them between grammar and secondary schools.

But the controversy surrounding the examination did not die with it.

Nearly every grammar school in Northern Ireland is defying Education Minister Caitriona Ruane by staging unofficial transfer tests in place of the old 11-plus.

That's affecting more than 10,000 10 and 11-year-olds.

Impact

Over the next month, some will go through as much as five hours of testing in pursuit of a grammar school place.

With political agreement still absent at Stormont, thousands more look likely to be affected over the coming years

Abolition of the 11+ was announced in 2002 by the then education minister, Martin McGuinness.

Spotlight turns to the class of 2002 -who were meant to be among the last group of children doing the 11-plus - to get their verdict on the exam.

They also discuss the impact the test has had on their lives.

Preparation

"It was very pressurised, I remember I started revising from the summer," recalls Sean McLaughlin, now a pupil at St Aquinas Grammar in Belfast.

Roisin Crawford didn't take the exam. "If I did the 11-plus and failed it, people would have called me stupid… so I really thought I was better off not doing it at all."

When Catherine McFerran's son Neil didn't get into a grammar school, she was initially concerned that she hadn't done enough preparation with him.

"I think when the marks came through for him, yes, I would have said `I wish I'd sat him down more'," she said.

"But in hindsight he's moved on, he went to high school, he did very well in high school. He's doing his A levels and you know I think I was right when I said 'you know it's what you do now'."

Neil adds: "The 11-plus is kind of like the fork in the road of which way your life is going to go, but my life's turned out very well, and I'm happy with the choices so far."

Spotlight, 3 November 3, 10.35pm, BBC 1 Northern Ireland