Education in Northern Ireland
At age 14, pupils select which subjects to continue to study for General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations.
In addition, pupils usually choose to continue with other subjects and many study for eight or nine GCSEs, and possibly up to ten or eleven.
Those choosing AS and A2 levels normally pick three or four subjects and success in these can determine acceptance into higher education courses at university.
In some pre-schools, pupils can leave when they turn 4 and enter into an optional Reception class in their local primary school.
However, issues around post-primary transfer and academic selection receive a high level of media coverage, as many parents regard a place for their child in a grammar school as a form of social mobility.
The test, a form of academic selection, was retained in Northern Ireland whereas England and Wales moved towards a comprehensive school system, which is also in place in Scotland.
The differences in political opinion regarding academic selection, with unionists generally in favour and nationalists and the Alliance Party broadly opposed, reflect differences between Conservative and Labour in Great Britain; a Conservative government introduced the eleven-plus in the 1940s and a Labour government introduced comprehensive schooling in the 1970s.
As Minister of Education in the first Northern Ireland Assembly after the Good Friday Agreement, Martin McGuinness commissioned a review of post-primary transfer – the Burns report – which (in 2001) proposed the ending of the eleven-plus (and academic selection in post-primary transfer) and a system of formative assessment through a pupil profile to provide a wider range of educational information to teachers, parents and pupils.
In the subsequent public consultation, a majority of respondents favoured the abolition of eleven-plus tests, but not the end of academic selection, and most wanted all schools to use the same criteria for entry with parental preference to be the most important criterion.
The Assembly was suspended in November 2002 and, under direct rule, Education Minister Jane Kennedy commissioned a post-primary transfer working group, chaired by Steve Costello, which reported in 2004 and broadly supported the Burns Report and recommended a broader curriculum through a model known as the entitlement framework.
The Assembly was restored in March 2007 and then Education Minister Caitríona Ruane reaffirmed the decision by her predecessors to abolish the eleven-plus; the last government-run test took place in 2008.
The majority of grammar schools, however, decided to set their own entrance exams which, at present, are available in two types – AQE and GL Assessment – although a single test is planned from 2023 onwards.
The Controlled Schools' Support Council (CSSC) therefore became operational in 2016; its headquarters are in Stranmillis University College, Belfast.
The membership of the CCMS includes representatives of the Department of Education, trustees (Catholic bishops in Northern Ireland), parents (drawn from the local community on a voluntary basis) and teachers.
The IEF seeks to bridge the financial gap between starting integrated schools and securing full government funding and support.
[4] Plans for investment in Northern Ireland schools and youth facilities were published in 2005, intended to address a reported problem of "historic under-investment".
Many young people choose to travel to Great Britain to continue their education although this has, for many years, caused concern about a 'brain drain' effect and the difficulty in retaining skills and knowledge in the region's economy.
The relatively low cost of living and higher quality of life in smaller and closer-knit communities, though, is an attraction for many students and graduates from Britain, the rest of Ireland and elsewhere.
