Education – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:30 pm on 25 January 2010.
Cuireadh tús le haistriú 2010 cheana féin, leis an mbéim atá anois á cur ar chomhionannas rochtana chuig an iarbhunscoil. Cuireadh cuid mhór eolais ar fáil do thuismitheoirí agus do scoileanna lena chinntiú go mbeidh páistí ábalta aistriú chuig an iarbhunscoil ar bhealach ordúil faoi na socruithe do aistriú 2010 atá anois i bhfeidhm.
Transfer 2010, with its emphasis on equality for all children in post-primary education, is now well under way. A significant volume of information has been provided to parents and schools to help ensure that children are able to transfer in an orderly fashion, with equality at its core, under the transfer 2010 arrangements that have been put in place.
My Department published two advice leaflets for parents of P7 children in September and December 2009, and it also issued detailed operational guidance to schools in September 2009 initially, with an updated version issued in December 2009. That was supplemented with separate and detailed advice on the issues of setting workable admissions criteria that abide by the law and the obligations of primary school principals facing demands for information to assist breakaway schools with the application of academic admissions criteria. That will be kept under review, and further advice will be issued as necessary.
Earlier this month, education and library boards published transfer booklets containing details of all schools’ admissions criteria. Those booklets, along with school open nights, which are currently happening, will inform the process of parents completing a transfer form at a meeting with the primary school principal in February. Boards, or the education and skills authority, if it is established in time, will process transfer forms to reflect parental preference and the availability of places over the ensuing weeks, with equality at the core — [Interruption.]
Order.
That will lead to the issuing of placement letters at the end of May 2010. Parents who are unhappy with school placement decisions may submit an appeal to an independent appeals tribunal.
Before I call Mr Kennedy for a supplementary question, I remind Members that it is important that they continually rise in their place if they wish to ask a supplementary question — “continually” is the important word.
In light of the clear fact that the vast majority of schools are ignoring the Minister’s transfer 2010 policy, does she not now, even at this late stage, accept that her vision has failed? Will she join with other parties in entering talks on the issue of post-primary transfer without preconditions and with her mind open to the wishes of not only the House, but the vast majority of parents?
Unlike Members on the opposite Benches, who claim to represent the unionist community, I do not hide my head in the sand. I do not ignore the numbers of young people leaving our schools with inadequate literacy and numeracy. Neither I nor my party has ignored the number of young people who have been failed by our education system. The past distortion of the primary school curriculum has been a major factor in leading to the numbers of young people who are leaving the system without the levels of literacy and numeracy that we would like them to have.
The Members opposite can continue to ignore that and pretend that there is no impact, or they can join with the rest of us in understanding the impact of the selective system in the past on our primary curriculum and on our young people as they move on.
We have had the talks and the discussions. I think that there are questions that the SDLP must answer to its constituency. Is that party departing from a 40-year policy of saying that it is opposed to academic selection and inequality?
My party is totally and utterly opposed to academic selection and to inequality in the education system, and we will not continue with a system that discriminates against children, whether they are from the Catholic community, the Protestant community or any ethnic minority community. We are putting equality — comhionannas — as the cornerstone of the education system, and we are proud that we are doing that.
B’fhearr liom córas rialaithe aistrithe a bheith i bhfeidhm, agus tá mé réidh le hoibriú chun sin a bhaint amach.
I would prefer that a regulated system of transfer were put in place, and I am ready to work towards that. We cannot move forward on the issue until there is a common understanding that testing children at age 10 or 11 is unnecessary and detrimental to their educational development. Children should be entitled to education; it is theirs by right, not because they failed or passed a test.
The Minister says repeatedly that equality is at the heart of all she does, so will she explain how, as shown by the publication of the education and library boards’ prospectuses for schools, hardly any schools have taken her advice on equality in regard to free school meals? One of the schools that have ignored the Minister happens to be that of a senior bishop of a religious order in Northern Ireland of which I am not a member. Why has the controlled sector been ignored yet again, and why have councillors not been appointed to the transitional arrangements leading to the reconstitution of the education and library boards? Can the Minister explain that, and, for the first time, give the House an answer?
Thankfully, the vast majority of schools in the system have operated fair admissions criteria. Only a small number of schools have departed and operated breakaway admissions criteria. I am glad that the Member has noted what the Catholic Church is doing, and I hope that he will join me in commending the Catholic Church at the highest level, as expressed by Cardinal Brady, on telling all schools in the Catholic sector that they should abide by transfer 2010 and that they should not operate breakaway tests.
Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. How many schools have adopted the transfer 2010 guidelines? Will the Minister agree that the schools that will use the guidelines are already doing so in any case and that the majority of schools have ignored them, rendering them ineffectual? Will she further agree with me and with her colleague Jennifer McCann that the problem of transfer continues because nothing has been put in its place?
I certainly agree with Jennifer McCann that equality needs to be the cornerstone of the education system. [Interruption.]
Order.
I listened carefully to what Jennifer McCann said, and I pay tribute to her for her stance in opposition to academic selection and for her support for equality to be at the core of the education system. Jennifer, like me and every Member on the Sinn Féin Benches, understands the importance of not failing children. I urge Members on the other Benches, who have their heads in the sand, to get a transcript of Jennifer’s interviews and listen to and take advice from her. [Interruption.]
Order.
Jennifer and I agree on the matter. As the Member said, the vast majority of schools have been operating a fair system in relation to free school meals. Members will know that the secondary sector has a higher proportion of children who receive free school meals. That is not fair, and it will not continue, because we need more equality in the system.