They didn’t have courage to lead and have failed the class of 2021

EVERYONE in Northern Ireland has a transfer test story to share. Whether it’s the story of the person who didn’t get the grade they expected but still flourished at secondary school or the high-flying executive from a disadvantaged background who had a world of opportunity opened up by passing their test, everyone has a story to share.

Except for this year, our P7s will not be afforded the opportunity to tell their story, rather, it will be the success of a sibling, a parent’s academic journey, accident of family birth order or postcode lottery that decides their fate.

I have a daughter, Charlotte, who has worked tirelessly to write her story and gain entry to the school of her choice; she worked through the spring lockdown, giving up her time on summer holidays, even sitting a test the day after Boxing Day. Like all our P7s she was focused on writing a test that would allow her to stand on her ability alone, to write the next chapter in her life for herself. For that chance to have been taken away is unfair, yet another thing Covid has cruelly stolen from our kids.

But what compounds the unfairness is the fact that it did not need to be this way. When schools closed in spring last year, the critical question was: what will happen to examinations? While GCSES and A-levels stuttered to a solution, no planning seemed to be carried out for the transfer test. If any strategy did exist, it was cross your fingers and hope for the best. By not implementing a notest contingency plan in spring last year, the Minister of Education and the testing bodies failed the class of 2021.

This failure to plan was compounded by the decision, without consultation, to move the tests back by two weeks in the autumn. This opened the door to judicial review proceedings, the settlement of which pushed the tests further back to January. With winter health pressures looming, it was obvious that the prospect of the tests being cancelled was real. But yet again the Minister and testing bodies failed to put in place a contingency plan. If not planning for the cancellation of the tests in spring 2020 was a failure, not implementing a plan B in the autumn was catastrophic. Our kids deserved better.

Peter Weir is right when he says he has no legal power to intervene in the transfer tests, but as Minister of Education he has, at the very least, a moral duty to lead. Deflecting from the issue at hand, the Minister spent the autumn and winter telling parents and children this was a matter for the testing bodies alone. He had a duty to put forward a plan, he failed to do so. But he was not alone. Our education committee also failed to lead. Several education spokespersons from various parties, preferred to point the finger at the Minister’s failings, rather than propose a way forward of their own. Only Robbie Butler of the UUP grasped the nettle and proposed an alternative. While his plan has its flaws and needs legal refinement, it represents a base upon which to build.

This week, the Minister has stated that academic criteria can still be employed by schools as part of the admission process. It is therefore not too late for the Minister to finally take the lead, Peter Weir has one more chance. In the absence of a test, he needs to set out clearly and without ambiguity what that academic criteria is, giving Boards of Governors confidence that selecting on academic grounds will be legally robust. It will not be good enough if the Minister, once again, hides behind a legal smokescreen saying it’s nothing to do with him, passing the buck to schools and their Boards. It is past time for Peter to lead and build on the Butler plan. When this year’s transfer story is told, it will be a story of children being failed by the system. It will be the tale of people not having the moral courage to lead in a pandemic. But, it will also be the story of resilience. One thing I’ve learned in this period of uncertainty is my daughter is much tougher than I knew.

Our kids have been the heroes of this year’s transfer process. They have spent hours writing tests and working on their Maths and English. Whatever school they end up in, we know they will thrive because us parents, the reluctant home-schoolers, have daily glimpsed how great they’ll be.

‘It will not be good enough if the Minister again hides behind a legal smokescreen’