DUP and Sinn Fein Con Parents - McCrea
Ulster Unionist spokesperson for education Basil McCrea MLA has reacted angrily to a leaked Sinn Fein document which has exposed the Educations Minister Caitriona Ruane’s intention to bullying Northern Ireland grammar schools into submission.
In a statement he said: “This internal Sinn Fein paper demonstrates that the promises supposedly negotiated at St Andrews by the DUP are worthless. Despite all the claims made by the DUP, the Sinn Fein Education Minister is determined to introduce guidance for post-primary schools that will make any use of academic criteria in the transfer procedure next to impossible.”
“The DUP has conned the parents of Northern Ireland and unless urgent action is taken the destruction of the grammar school sector will be completed by stealth and political inertia.”
Criticising the DUP’s public meetings on post-primary education he added: “These public meetings throughout the country purport to listen to what worried parents and teachers have to say but in truth they can offer no reassurances. They know that the St. Andrews agreement does not do what the DUP claims. It does not safeguard academic selection and it only ensures that it cannot be made illegal - This is not the same as saying schools will be allowed to use it. Sinn Fein as their internal paper makes clear are confident in their position, preferring to end academic selection by agreement if possible but able and willing to use other means if necessary.”
“In secret meetings with Sinn Fein, DUP negotiators are reduced to arguing for ‘the retention of academic selection at least in a number of schools.’ Hardly a ringing endorsement of the use of academic criteria in the transfer procedure.”
“In truth the DUP and Sinn Fein positions are not that far apart. They both believe that the greedy grammar schools are destroying the non-selective sector by poaching more and more pupils. They both agree that there should be a significant reduction in the number of grammar schools places – this is something that is evident from the document which went public today.”
Looking specifically at the leaked document he said: “The Sinn Fein paper uses coded-phrases such as ‘persuade the majority of grammar schools’, ‘the objective realities of the introduction of the guidelines’ and ‘a number of factors will cause them [i.e the grammars] to adopt a more pragmatic approach’ – these words are merely code for the Education Minister’s intention to bully the grammar schools into submission. She will refuse to fund any transfer tests. She will refuse to assist any grammar school facing legal action from disgruntled individuals, and she will use her powers to set enrolment numbers in such a way as to undermine post-primary schools that use transfer tests.”
“It is also extremely worrying that the DUP’s new policy of reducing grammar school places shares the same values outlined in this Sinn Fein paper. The paper attacks the grammars for being successful schools, attractive to parents. Any school – whether grammar or non-grammar – that is succeeding and attracting parents should be allowed to expand, rather than being artificially capped by the Department.
We should be about giving choice to parents, allowing them to choose successful schools for their children.”
He explained that the vast majority of grammar schools particularly those outside Belfast will not be able to attract sufficient pupils to be economically viable. They will be faced with the choice of charging top up fees or becoming all-ability and as the Sinn Fein paper makes clear the Minister for Education does not intend to make life easy for them.
“The position of those schools that chose to remain grammar schools would become increasing untenable as top up fees prevent children from poorer backgrounds (no matter how gifted) from taking up places destroying any semblance of equity. Eventually such schools will go private, he added.”
The UUP believes in putting informed parental choice at the centre of education system and the expansion of successful schools to meet demand.