EXAMS FALLOUT Absence of assessment denies some children school more suited to them

THE recent tweet by the Minister for Education, Peter Weir, in which he describes the implications of AQE’S decision not to go ahead with its assessment due to the coronavirus pandemic as a “denial of opportunity” for some pupils, was, in his own words, “clumsy”. Nevertheless, it does bear further examination.

I know of teachers in schools which select on non-academic criteria who have sent their children to an academically selective school, believing that it would provide the best environment for their child to flourish.

Equally, I can also think about teachers in academically selective schools who have happily sent their child to a non-academically selective school, believing that the school in question would offer the best environment for their child.

For me, the noise created by some in relation to Peter Weir’s remarks illustrates the success of our current system, not its failure: it doesn’t matter which type of school one attends, there is the chance to thrive in either.

However, it would surely be foolish to ignore the choices made by the people who teach in our schools and might be expected to have some knowledge of what best suits their own child.

What Peter Weir might have said is that the absence of a centralised assessment system is likely to deny some children the opportunity of being educated in the school most suited to their needs, whether that be a non-academically selective school, or an academically selective one. MARCAS MAC PHAIDIN

Belfast