Northern Ireland Education 25/3/08
INTO Press Release: Statement by John Carr, General Secretary, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, on Northern Ireland Education
25 March 2008INTO welcomes end of 11+ Exam
INTO General Secretary John Carr told Northern Ireland Education Minister Catriona Ruane that the union supported the Minister’s vision for ending academic selection at 11 for transfer to post-primary schools. He said generations of children had their primary schooling distorted by teaching for the 11+ test.
“But,” he said, “the INTO deplores the decision last week of the Lumen Christi Catholic Grammar School in Derry to seek to perpetrate the 11+ into the future by creating its own academic selective test for pupils at 11 seeking to attend that school.” He called on Bishop Seamus Hegarty, in his role as the senior Catholic Trustee, to make a public statement with regard to Post-Primary Review in the Diocese of Derry.
He said the INTO would support the Minister in building a post-primary system in the North which cherished all children equally.
He said another welcome development in the budget was the securing £12 million for teaching principals in schools. The Minister had announced that from September all teaching principals in the North will at long last have 2 days free from teaching to carry out their principals and administrative duties.
Mr Carr also welcomed the Minister’s commitment to better consultation with the union. He said that from now on consultation with teachers’ unions should be a meaningful exercise and not “the sham, tick-box exercise” it has been.
He said the first test of this would be consultation on ‘Every School a Good School’ –the proposed new School Improvement Programme.
He called on the Minister to take the lead from the Scottish Education Ministerial colleague and commit to protecting teachers from compulsory redundancy, to guarantee teaching numbers at their present level and to use demography to enhance the education of all children.
ENDS.