§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the level of support in the Province for academic selection in post-primary education. [187454]
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§ Mr. GardinerThe responses to the consultation on the recommendations of the Burns Report showed a diversity of views on the issue of academic selection. Of the 16 per cent. of the population who responded to the household response forms, 64 per cent. were opposed to the abolition of academic selection, as were 37 per cent. of the schools that responded, the Governing Bodies Association, the Institute of Directors, Ulster Unionist Party and Democratic Unionist Party and the Secondary Heads Association. Those in favour of abolishing academic selection included 36 per cent. of the respondents to the household response forms, 73% of the schools that responded, the five education and library boards, the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Fein, the Progressive Unionist Party, the Women's Coalition, the Workers Party, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the five main teachers' unions. There was conditional support for ending academic selection from the Northern Catholic Bishops, the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, the Confederation of British Industry, and the Catholic Heads Association.
The Costello Working Group took account of all the consultation responses and the Government have accepted that Group's recommendations that it is educationally unsound to select pupils and commit them to particular pathways at age 11 and also unsound to believe that the more able should follow only academic courses.
Full details of the responses to the consultation are available on the Department of Education website: http:// www.deni.gov.uk/pprb/response_to_consultation.htm