Allister warns of new threat to grammar school education
19 December 2008
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister MEP
“It seems to me that the full import of acceptance of the Education and Skills Authority (ESA) as the control mechanism in education, has not dawned on many people, maybe not even on some politicians in which parents have placed their trust.
The key knock-on effect of the DUP accepting the ESA, which Sinn Fein has long supported, is that the “Revised Curriculum” has also been accepted. ESA will control the curriculum and it in turn is controlled by the authors of the fatally flawed revised curriculum.
Parents who wish their children to attend grammar schools should be particularly alarmed, because under the revised curriculum primary schools will refuse to prepare pupils for grammar school. It is clear that the Revised Curriculum and the type of instruction required for success in grammar school tests are incompatible. For example, the Revised Curriculum focuses on cross-curricular skills while traditional teaching focuses on knowledge in individual disciplines. The Revised Curriculum is pupil-centred, a fundamental departure from the teacher-centred approach of the recent past, which made Northern Ireland outcomes in education the envy of the rest of the UK. The Revised Curriculum disapproves of marks and grades (because competition damages the child’s concept of self) and favours “comment-only marking.” In traditional teaching the teacher has responsibility for assessing the child and offering feedback; in the Revised Curriculum responsibility for assessment moves away from the teacher to the pupil.
To support ESA is to support the Revised Curriculum. The DUP’s stance on grammar schools and selection is contradicted entirely by their support for ESA. The DUP’s support for ESA will ensure that children will be denied the right to be prepared for a place at grammar school. Such will not be permitted by ESA. Thanks to the DUP if any child wants a grammar school place, the parents will have to employ a private tutor, but what of those who haven’t the financial means to do so? Underprivileged children will be the big losers.
I have to say the DUP dangled the prospect of a grammar school education before Northern Ireland parents only to negotiate it away through their support for ESA. The DUP claimed that at St Andrew’s they guaranteed the future of our grammar schools, and of late they have also been making much of their commitment to primary six parents and pupils. But by joining Sinn Fein in creating ESA they have, in effect, placed insurmountable obstacles in the way of primary six children, particularly from poorer backgrounds gaining grammar school places. Moreover, support for ESA could potentially invalidate the “unregulated” entrance test. I am therefore calling on the DUP to perform a rapid volte-face in respect of its support for ESA. Otherwise all of the work done by the “nonconformist” grammar schools could be lost and ESA will be used to realise the Minister’s nightmare vision for Northern Ireland education."
