Imagine undergoing a high stakes education assessment at the age of 11, and that result dictating many of the options available to you for the rest of your life. The detrimental impact of academic selection on self-esteem has been noted (Furlong & Lunt, 2020), but, nonetheless, it remains an enduring feature of education in Northern Ireland (NI). In this blog post we highlight the impact of academic selection on individuals and on the education system as a whole.

For many children in NI, the type of school they attend after primary school – academically orientated grammar schools or supposedly less academic non-grammars – is determined by a set of examinations. The process is, in many instances, already self-selecting; around 50 per cent of children are not entered for the tests, perhaps because parents perceive grammar schools as not for ‘people like them’. In a few areas, geographical isolation dictates that post-primary education is, in effect, comprehensive as there is only one school. A few schools delay academic selection until age 14. However, across most of NI, academic selection at the age of 11 is commonplace, despite its widespread abandonment in Great Britain since 1965 following mounting evidence that it did not deliver the meritocratic system it promised.

After the civil unrest of the ‘Troubles’ erupted in 1968, discussion on educational change in NI largely ceased. Following the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday peace agreement, fresh research was commissioned into the effects of academic selection (DENI, 2001) which recommended ending it. However, the required cross-party political support was not achieved. Notwithstanding the political impasse, in 2008 the NI Education Minister declared that state-supported academic selection was to cease. Grammars responded by establishing their own self-regulated admission tests, developed by private companies (Roulston et al., 2023).

‘In 2008 the NI Education Minister declared that state-supported academic selection was to cease. Grammars responded by establishing their own self-regulated admission tests, developed by private companies.’

Academic selection particularly impacts on ‘the young and most vulnerable in the most disadvantaged Catholic and Protestant communities … [which] manifestly fails to serve their interests’ (Hughes & Loader, 2024, p. 432). It also has had a negative impact on the education system as a whole (Brown et al., 2022). Far from promoting social mobility – one of the early selling points for Grammar schools – disadvantaged pupils (as measured by Free School Meal entitlement) are largely absent from Grammar schools in NI with ‘… the odds of a child securing a place at grammar school five times less if they are entitled to free school meals’ (Connolly et al., 2014, p. xxii). Academic selection has also been implicated in creating underachievement across the system (Henderson et al., 2020, p. 19), with a socioeconomic attainment gap concentrating some learners in schools where raising ambitions is challenging.

The Transforming Education project aims to encourage discussion. A debate in NI’s regional parliament, prompted by the briefing paper on academic selection, produced 159 speeches for and against academic selection. A Private Members’ debate does not inevitably result in changes, but the weight of argument seemed clearly in favour of change. With one political party being a resolute defender of academic selection – despite this not serving their constituents well – it is a challenge to enact change because the consociational political system in Northern Ireland requires cross-party support. Arguably, more work needs to be done to raise the debate about the impact of selection across communities to put pressure on obdurate politicians.

However, for the present, ‘the future life-chances of thousands of children play second fiddle to party politics and middle-class pressure’ (Gardner, 2016).

References

Brown, M., Skerritt, C., Roulston, S., Milliken, M., McNamara, G., & O’Hara, J. (2022). The evolution of academic selection in Northern Ireland. In B. Walsh (Ed.), Education policy in Ireland since 1922 (pp. 371–399). Palgrave Macmillan.

Connolly, P., Purvis, D., & O’Grady, P. J. (2013). Advancing shared education. Report of the ministerial advisory group on shared education. Department of Education (Northern Ireland). https://pure.qub.ac.uk/files/14596498/Filetoupload_382123_en.pdf

Department of Education [DENI]. (2001). Report of the review body on post-primary education (Burns Report). https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/publications/report-review-body-post-primary-education-burns-report

Furlong, J, & Lunt, I. (2020). Social mobility and higher education: Are grammar schools the answer? Occasional Paper 22. Higher Education Policy Institute.

Gardner, J. (2016). Education in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement: Kabuki theatre meets danse macabre. Oxford Review of Education, 42(3), 346–361 (at 357). https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2016.1184869

Henderson, L., Harris, J., Purdy, N., & Walsh, G. (2020). Educational underachievement in Northern Ireland: Evidence summary. Stranmillis University College, Belfast: Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement.

Hughes, J., & Loader, R. (2024). Is academic selection in Northern Ireland a barrier to social cohesion?. Research Papers in Education, 39(3), 420–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2022.2135016

Roulston, S., Brown, M., Taggart, S., & Eimers, E. (2023). A century of growing apart and challenges of coming together: Education across the island of Ireland. Irish Studies in International Affairs, 34(2), 78–121. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/isia.2023.a899832