§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what analysis has been made of the questions used in the transfer examinations to determine whether either gender has been advantaged by the type of questions on the examination papers. [16254]
§ Mr. AncramThe questions used in the tests are trialled to seek to ensure that they are free of bias in relation to any factor, including gender. My Department is, however, commissioning an analysis of the responses of pupils to the 1995–96 transfer test.
§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what was in(a) 1993–94, (b) 1994–95 and (c) 1995–96 the total number of children involved in transfer procedure; how many were (i) boys and (ii) girls; which grades were obtained; what was the percentage of total entrants awarded each grade; and what was the percentage variation between boys and girls. [16253]
§ Mr. AncramThe numbers of pupils transferring from primary to secondary education in the years 1993–94, 1994–95 and 1995–96, analysed by gender, are shown in Table 1:
Table 1 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 Boys 13,258 12,976 13,570 Girls 12,164 12,723 12,736 Total 25,422 25,699 26,306 Tables 2 and 3 show the numbers of pupils who obtained each grade, and the percentage of the entrants for the tests in each year which those numbers represent, analysed by gender.
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Table 2 Grade Boys Percentage of test entrants Girls Percentage of test entrants Percentage variation 1993–94 A 3,354 37.1 3,378 36.8 0.3 B 1,170 12.9 1,261 13.7 0.8 C 1,339 14.8 1,384 15.1 0.3 D 3,173 35.1 3,168 34.5 0.6 1994–95 A 3,049 34.7 3,566 38.0 3.3 B 1,268 14.4 1,314 14.0 0.4 C 1,235 14.1 1,332 14.2 0.1 D 3,235 36.8 3,176 33.8 3.0
Table 3 Grade Boys Percentage of test entrants Girls Percentage of test entrants Percentage variation 1995–96 A 3,436 38.5 3,278 36.1 2.4 B1 731 8.2 723 8.0 0.2 B2 654 7.3 652 7.2 0.1 C1 662 7.4 720 7.9 0.5 C2 627 7.0 673 7.4 0.4 D 2,805 31.5 3,034 33.4 1.9