Fury as McGuinness scraps 11-plus exams

Sinn Fein Education Minister Martin McGuinness has announced that 11-plus exams for pupils in Northern Ireland will be scrapped in two years.

As furious defenders of the controversial Transfer Tests accused him of “political malice“, Mr McGuinness made his move just days before the devolved Stormont administration’s expected suspension.

He said: “I am announcing that the last Transfer Tests will be held in November 2004.”

Mr McGuinness has been fighting for the abolition of academic selection at the age of 11 ever since he took office.

He claimed there was overwhelming public support for the tests to be done away with.

As the clocked ticked down on Northern Ireland’s latest attempt at power sharing over allegations of IRA espionage inside the Government, Mr McGuinness has acted before direct rule ministers were imposed.

He said: “I am determined that the wishes of the people on this key issue shall not be thwarted by political developments and so the Transfer Tests will be consigned to history in 2004.

“I would prefer that no more children would have to take the tests but, for practical reasons, pupils currently in P5 and P6 will have to sit the tests and transfer under the current arrangements. However, they will be the last to do so.

The Department of Education will now be forced to come up with new arrangements.

But unionists who have fought to retain the selection process were incensed by the action.

Danny Kennedy, the Ulster Unionist chairman of the Stormont Education Committee, said: “This is an act of political malice and educational vandalism.

“In the final act of his ministry, with no real guarantee that he will ever be in office again, he has behaved disgracefully.”

Mr Kennedy claimed 64% of teachers and parents surveyed on the transfer procedure favoured academic selection.

And he warned: “The Ulster Unionist Party will strive to ensure the minister fails in his objective to remove academic selection as part of the educational system.”