Coronavirus: Transfer test bodies accused of 'cancelling Christmas'

The organisations who run the transfer tests have been accused of "cancelling Christmas" for Primary Six pupils.

Representatives from the Association of Quality Education (AQE) and Post Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) faced questions from MLAs on Stormont's Education Committee on Wednesday.

The 2020 transfer tests have been delayed by at least two weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The tests are used by the vast majority of NI grammar schools to admit pupils.

Darrin Barr from the AQE told MLAs that they had sought to delay holding the tests until January 2021, but that had not been possible.

"The powers-that-be could not accommodate what we thought was a reasonable request.

"I'm not sure what more we can do in terms of delay."

Education Minister Peter Weir later told the committee that if the tests had been held in January that would have had consequences for the entire post-primary transfer process.

"The problem is that if you're to do - for example - examinations in January, you wouldn't then be producing results, we've been told by AQE, until the middle of March," Mr Weir said.

The minister told MLAs that could mean some pupils not starting school until October if they appealed their post-primary place.

However, while hearing evidence from AQE and PPTC many MLAs said they were unhappy the tests were going ahead at all.

"How is it fair to have children sitting tests this November and December in the middle of an emergency?" the Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle asked.

Sinn Féin MLA Karen Mullan said many parents were concerned at how well prepared their children would be and that this year provided an opportunity to "do away" with the tests.

"I've been contacted like other members by worried parents, but in particular key workers who feel that their children will be at more of a disadvantage as they are unable to spend the time teaching and coaching them," she said.

Daniel McCrossan from the SDLP said that with most children not in school wealthier families would have an unfair advantage in the transfer test as they could pay for online tuition.

"The stress levels of parents and pupils have gone through the roof since this announcement has been reached in recent days," he said.

"We could see a second outbreak of this by the autumn. That is going to present difficulties for schools that'll have to close again in the autumn term.

"There doesn't seem to be any realistic understanding of this," Mr McCrossan added.

"You're cancelling Christmas for these children."

Dr Bob Cummings from the PPTC said that grammar schools would have to have contingencies in place about how to admit pupils if the tests could not go ahead as planned.

"There will be a responsibility on every single academically selective school to bear in mind that they may have to make completely different arrangements or that the plans that they have could be altered," he said.

But the DUP MLA William Humphrey also urged the AQE and PPTC to "revisit" the timing of the tests.

"I've been inundated by parents concerned about why tests are being set during Covid-19," he said.

"You need to revisit that - two weeks isn't long enough.

"More young people in working class, hard to reach, communities will suffer negatively because of the situation."

Later in the session in response to a question from the UUP MLA Robbie Butler, Mr Weir said there was no reason why the transfer tests could not be held in primary schools rather than grammar schools.

Pupils have had to go to grammar schools to sit the tests since they replaced the state-run 11+ exam over a decade ago.

"There is no bar within the system on doing that," Mr Weir said.

"I don't think you can force them to be a venue, but there is no bar on them being a venue.

"There may well be some level of reluctance among the examining bodies to use primary schools because unless you're using every primary school will that mean, for instance, that some pupils who are sitting a test in their home primary school might have some level of advantage on those who are travelling."