A third of grammar schools could close in the North, warns MLA

A third of grammar schools could close if changes to the education system go ahead in the North, it was claimed today.

Falling pupil numbers and DUP plans to save selection for only the most demanding schools places over 20 grammars at risk, the UUP added.

Sinn Féin Education Minister Caitriona Ruane wants to abolish academic selection after this year’s transfer tests with colleges filling their places from the local community.

However, UUP MLA Basil McCrea alleged: “The DUP has conned the parents of Northern Ireland and unless urgent action is taken the destruction of the grammar school sector will be completed by stealth and political inertia.”

Rural schools could be hardest hit by any change to attendance based on where pupils live.

There are over 50,000 empty desks at present, with demographic change promising further decline in pupil numbers.

Sinn Féin and the DUP are concerned about the impact on secondary school enrolment from grammars which take pupils without grade A’s. Only seven are restricted to grades A and B1.

Mr McCrea added: “The promises supposedly negotiated at St Andrews by the DUP are worthless.

“Despite all the claims made by the DUP, the Sinn Féin Education Minister is determined to introduce guidance for post-primary schools that will make any use of academic criteria in the transfer procedure next to impossible.”

He said most grammars will be faced with the choice of charging top-up fees or becoming all-ability.

“The position of those schools that chose to remain grammar schools would become increasing untenable as top-up fees prevent children from poorer backgrounds, no matter how gifted, from taking up places destroying any semblance of equity,” he added.

“Eventually such schools will go private.”

Sinn Féin Stormont Education Committee MLA Paul Butler confirmed grammars were maintaining their numbers at the expense of secondaries.

“It is no secret that the Minister Caitriona Ruane has sought to achieve the maximum consensus among stakeholders, educationalists and political parties on the way forward,” he said.

“She is currently concluding this process. When this happens the minister will bring forward detailed proposals on the way forward within the framework set out in her December 2007 statement to the Assembly.”

Meanwhile, St Mary’s teacher training college in west Belfast has warned that it may have to close if plans to link official funding to student numbers go ahead.

The top-performing university may be left with a £1m (€1.2m) deficit within two years under the proposals.

Speaking to Stormont’s Employment and Learning Committee, director of Finance Brian McFall called for a solution which took into account fixed costs like running the building.

“It will threaten the contribution that St Mary’s makes to teacher education in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“We cannot over-emphasise the damage that this mechanism will do at St Mary’s.

“The issue is absolutely critical to our very existence.”

He added that costs at present were lower than the UK average and warned Departmental estimates of a £650,000 (€805,576) reduction in payments was grossly below the true cost to the school’s coffers.

Mr McFall said the number of students fluctuated from year to year.

“We do not have the same degree of freedom to increase our numbers as colleges in England have,” he added.