Should the Eleven Plus be abolished?

Martin McGuinness gets plaudits for the most memorable piece of legislation from the old Stormont Executive – abolishing the Eleven Plus examination. No one can serious argue that the exam was not antiquated, and inadequate for testing abilities beyond the crude aggregate measure of IQ. But as Angelique Christafis points out, this is a step that the British government is reluctant to take in England and Wales. Peter Hain talks about the apparent contradiction. Will it put NI’s high levels of social mobility at risk? Will middle class Catholic parents vote with their feet and go independent?


Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.