The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster today lent his support to plans to abolish the 11-plus examination in Northern Ireland.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of Ulster’s  winter graduation series, Professor Richard Barnett criticised what he called the "unfair and wasteful" examination.

“I welcome Minister Ruane’s recent announcement that the 11-plus is to be abolished. 

“The 11-plus is an unfair and wasteful examination and, of course, in its current form it has relatively few supporters. Many people graduating today, and indeed several members of this platform party, will at the age of 11 have been labelled as failures. 

So not only is the current 11-plus system unfair and wasteful it is also a nonsense.  And in making this point I wish to emphasise that it is a criticism of the system – not of our many excellent schools, both in the grammar and secondary sectors.  And it is most certainly not a criticism of our teachers – who are amongst the very best in these islands.”

Addressing  an audience of parents, students, fellow academics and opinion formers at the Jordanstown ceremony,  the Vice-Chancellor continued:

“I am of the firm opinion that 14 is a much more appropriate age at which informed choice, complemented perhaps by some form of selection, can take place and can be meaningful.  It is important, though, that up to the age of 14 all pupils are provided with a high quality, broadly based education and that indirect selection does not take place at the age of 11 due to the school that a pupil happens to be admitted to at that age. 

“This is a challenging agenda for those involved in post-primary education but I very much hope that everyone will engage constructively in the debate.  If they do, I am confident that we will be able to develop an educational system that serves all of our young people

“This university has a proud track record of widening access to higher education and we are determined to ensure that this remains the case and as a university we are committed to working with whatever post-primary education system the government deems appropriate.”

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young