Teachers’ union president says academic selection is ‘brutal’

Teachers’ union president says academic selection is ‘brutal’

13 June 2018

A KILLYLEAGH teacher has described academic selection as “brutal and harrowing.”

Mrs Cumper, vice-principal of Killyleagh Integrated Primary School and president of the Ulster Teachers’ Union, criticised the current system and said all children deserve the best education.

Mrs Cumper made her remarks ahead of last night’s final episode of Who Will Get In?, the BBC2 series about academic selection and the 11-plus system.

Mrs described as “harrowingly brutal” one scene in the series when a child was told they failed to get a grammar school place.

“It’s such an emotional and emotive scene yet it’s a scene which is all too familiar in households across Northern Ireland when results of selection tests are published every year and it is surely an experience that says everything you need to know about the sheer brutality of a system which effectively labels children ‘failures’ because they don’t pass a test aged 11,” she said.

“Everybody pays for education so why should there be a two-tier system? Why should parents want children to attend grammar schools? We want all our schools to be good schools.

“If parents are not happy with exam results, then a selective system won’t ultimately change that,” she continued.

“Schools and teachers need resources and support — that’s the first thing which will improve outcomes but we can’t have that when we don’t even have a functioning government here.

“Education is paid for by the taxpayer and so should therefore be uniformly excellent in all schools and as technology improves, this uniformity will become increasingly achievable. The shared education model in Northern Ireland will also go a long way towards this end as schools share resources.”

Mrs Cumper said the pro-grammar school debate in Northern Ireland was becoming “increasingly specious” as more children, who in previous years would not have scored highly enough to secure a place, were now gaining admission.

“This is because, as the birth rate falls it leaves grammar schools with desks to fill in order to secure funding – so they admit children with lower scores than in previous years,” she claimed.

“In fifth year, all our children sit exactly the same exams, which is an improvement on the bygone era when secondary schools could only offer CSEs, and you only have to look at exam league tables to see the success of non-grammar schools to wonder at the basis of the pro-grammar lobby’s arguments for retaining this divisive system.”

She added: “All children deserve the best education if we truly believe that all options should be open to everyone.”