The Education Reform Group of Reclaim the Enlightenment has commissioned an opinion poll by Lucid Talk on the Transfer Test.
This follows on from Reclaim the Enlightenment’s commitment to the principles of our 18th century forebears who were advocates of ‘free and universal education’. In November 2003 we held a major conference the proceedings of which were published as Is Our Education System Failing Our Children? at a second major conference held in conjunction with Ulster University in May 2004.
These proceedings identified a whole range of dysfunctions in our education system – the failure to cater adequately for integrated education, the undue influence of the churches, the huge costs of duplication in provision and of transport, but above all the baleful effects of the transfer test.
Subsequently the Education Reform Group which includes academics, teachers and parents was established and decided to focus on the transfer test. We were aware that the Department of Education in commissioning reports on educational disadvantage had specifically ruled out any consideration of the effects of the transfer test. In our view this is the elephant in the room.
In order to test public opinion on the subject we commissioned an opinion poll from Lucid Talk.
The key finding from 1,051 respondents namely that 43% were opposed to the test while 40% were in favour may appear inconclusive but when we consider that 43% of pupils go to grammar schools and evidently their parents view them as beneficiaries of the system – turkeys do not vote for Christmas – this explains the level of support for the system. That leaves a marginal majority who are opposed to the system and overwhelmingly those whose children who either fail the transfer test or do not sit it at all. Indeed c. 50% of children do not take the test.
Members of our group can offer anecdotal evidence of what this means in practice. A 12 year-old from the Shankill in Belfast had not done the test but nor had any of his friends. Another 12 year-old from Downpatrick was bitterly disappointed to have failed the test and declared that he hoped never to do another test or exam.
Among the subsidiary questions that we asked the most significant result related to mental health with 42% saying that the test had an adverse effect on the mental health of children while only 28% thought that the effect was positive.
It is well known that the Unionist parties are broadly in favour of selection while Nationalists and Republicans are broadly opposed. This is not an absolute. While 67% of DUP voters favour it 21% are against. Conversely 64% of Sinn Fein voters are against selection while 19% are in favour. Nor is this a matter of faith or identity – for example the Catholic hierarchy opposes selection but the Catholic grammar schools have resisted any reform.
While under the St Andrews Agreement of 2006 it was agreed that the Unionist parties could exercise a veto on change, we would argue that it is wholly inappropriate that they should interpret this as a ban on rational debate on the subject. This is all the more the case when subsequently research from a variety of quarters, though not from the Department of Education, has highlighted the baleful effects of the transfer test.
The need for this debate is all the more pressing when we consider the crisis of under achievement that afflicts our working-class children. The Unionist parties have highlighted the problem in respect of Protestants, although it is equally a problem for those with a Catholic background.
In Northern Ireland in 2017 16.6% of residents had no qualifications at all as compared with 8% in the United Kingdom as a whole. In 2019 over 35% of our 24-30 year olds had only a primary and lower secondary education as compared with 11% in the Republic. At the other end of the scale only 40% of our population had post secondary or higher level qualifications as compared with 65% in the Republic.
These stark statistics have disastrous consequences for our economy and our overall social well-being.
Consider a key difference between the systems in the different jurisdictions. In the Republic and in England there is no transfer test! In England it was abolished by the 1976 Education Act, and partly because the academic research on which it was originally based was revealed to be bogus.
Why, against all the evidence, do we hang on to it?
Reclaim the Enlightenment is a charity founded in 2017. It has had a particular focus on education and its Education Reform Group organised a major conference in November 2023 the proceedings of which were published as Is Our Education System Failing Our Children which was launched at a second conference in May 2024. The Group is currently campaigning against selection at 11.
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