11-plus opponents meet at Stormont

Politicians, teachers and community leaders, have met at Stormont today in a show of solidarity in support of the abolition of the 11-plus Transfer exam.

Those attending the meeting included representatives from Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the Alliance Party, teacher associations and the voluntary and community sector.

Speaking at today's meeting, Naomi Long of the Alliance Party said they were not "knocking what had gone before."

Ms Long said: "What we have got to do is look at how we move forward, we don't educate our children for the past, we don't even educate them for the present, we educate them for the future."

The Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) said many politicians, teachers and leaders of civil society "support the ending of unfair and irrational selection of children at the age of 11."

A spokesman for NICVA said: "The powerful grammar school lobby has been active on the issue but many other groups and individuals take a different view."

In January 2004, the education minister at the time, Jane Kennedy announced that the government planned to scrap academic selection within Northern Ireland.

The last 11-plus exam is expected to take place in 2008.

(EF/SP)