Prep schools and ministerial solo runs. SF put party before powersharing yet again.

The Minister for Education will probably loose a vote in the Assembly today over her decision to unilaterally withdraw funding for prep schools.

Not because of lack of agreement about whether the state should not reviews its relationship with this fee paying sector but because of how she has taken a unilateral decision without any consultation or attempt to seek consensus.

It all smacks of electioneering from SF. 

It’s another case of Ms Ruane using children as pawns to pursue her own partisan interest. The pledge of office requires Ministers to put the regional interest above party one. Ms Ruane gets an A for always ignoring that bit.

I have put my name to an amendment to the motion before the Assembly calling for dialogue between the department and the prep schools before any decision is taken. We believe our SDLP amendment will be acceptable to the DUP.

You can follow the debate here live from around 5.00pm.

Education Minister Caitriona Ruane must go

I called for the Minister for Education’s resignation last night at the SDLP Conference. Full text of my speech below:

The history of this island is littered with occasions when the poor, the weak or the young have been used as political pawns.

For centuries our young men were sent to fight other people’s wars.

Throughout the troubles selfish ideologues sacrificed an entire generation’s hopes on the bomb fire of their political vanity. We know this.

The SDLP was there supporting teachers, youth workers and councillors in communities across the north who offered young people an alternative to the false promise of IRA or UDA martyrdom.

This party of teachers gave hope and educated the generation who are now building the new North. Working people with dreams passed down from the classroom and parents who held the line when the streets were calling.

Despite the current economic gloom, we have never had more opportunity then we do today. Yet for the past thousand days a minister has ignored the opportunity for a better future for our children opting instead to use them as canon fodder in a failed ideological battle which she is incapable of winning.

The proclamation of independence demanded that we cherish all of the children equally. That we put them first and let politics serve them not rule them.

It is an indictment of this Minister delegates that tens of thousands of children will receive the results of a private test tomorrow.

Over 100,000 parents and countless teachers are living under a cloud of uncertainty, unable to answers their sons and daughters questions and unable to take the important decisions which will play such an important role in shaping their future.

There is no debate about the fact that the 11 plus is not working. There is no credible voice on any side saying the solution is to keep it.

Four years ago a British Labour Minister, filling in while the DUP and Sinn Fein took their time getting their act together got the parties, all the parties, to agree to a set of principles. The 11plus would go, there would be a structured discussion about how and if children were selected and when.

Within a week of arriving in office Caitriona Ruane dismissed the Angela Smyth initiative and set us all back to square one.

Her performance since then has led many to do their own thing. The issue has also become a sectarian football, feeding the worst prejudices of both the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Delegates, you know things are bad when the Belfast Telegraph has to step in to do the minister’s jobs. I know you will join my in saluting the leadership, Dominic Bradley has shown on this issue. Unlike the Minister he is building new relationships and standing shoulder to shoulder for a better future even if our minister cannot.

We should support him and use the floor of the assembly and the committee room in Stormont to promote a child centred debate which leaves tired old ideology at the door and brings only a shared desire to build a system we can all be proud of, and which cherishes and grows the abilities of all our children.

Ms Ruane is loosing in office. She is trampling all over the very principles of republicanism. Her face is synonymous with failure, in government and in the class room.

It is time for her to go in the interests of children and in the interests of the Executive.

Let a republican who believes in and is willing to be guided by the cherished principles of equality and justice to the job.

Serious process or publicity stunt?

What is the difference between serious talks and a publicity stunt?

None according to Sinn Fein!

They have dismissed today’s talks between the SDLP, UUP, Alliance and DUP on the future of education in the North as a publicity stunt. Its not clear whether there problem is that the Belfast Telegraph was involved in the process which led to today’s meeting or whether they simply do not believe there is a crisis which needs talked about in the first place.

Last week Caitriona Ruane claimed parents were not worried about the current deregulated system. Many will wonder if she is referring to parents in Northern Ireland or parents in Disney Land?

Will summer holidays break the education deadlock?

Yesterday the Minister for Education, Caitriona Ruane, formally tabled her guidelines to school’s on Transfer 2010. The proposals were welcomed by her party colleagues in Sinn Fein and questioned by every other MLA in the House. After nearly two and a half years of devolved government it appears the Minister is no more able today to build a consensus then she was when she took office.

Speak to many in the educationsector and they will tell you there is a major crisis looming. Ask the Minister’s fellow MLAs and they will say that she appears to have very little interest in finding compromise on the issue.

Nearly a year ago an eminentand progressive educationalist warned me that were now in a “race to the bottom” where everyone would be a looser.

Some months ago I floated a series of principles aroundwhich a positive discussion might take place. As there appears to be damn little else being suggested I commend them to all for summer reflection. If the DUP and SF are unable to agree a way forward surely the other big parties could seek common ground?

• Agreement that 14 is a better age at which to exercise pupil and parental choice about possible transfer for the final four years of education;
• Agreement to further develop thinking about a collegiate based system;
• Agreement to guarantee parents and pupils access faith based education;
• Agreement that an early intervention strategy should be developed to support children from deprived socio economic backgrounds during primary and early second level education;
• Agreement to consider and draw on international best practice when developing these proposals;
• Agreement that the system must be based on a commitment to social equity and educational excellence at every level;
• Agreement that the change programme would be rolled out over at least a five year period, allowing up to ten years for any institutional realignments to take place;
• Agreement that an interim regulated system should be introduced immediately.

Is Sinn Fein trying to split the education system?

There are suggestions that the emerging splits in the Catholic education sector are politically motivated. Speaking this morning on Good Morning Ulster, Bishop Donal McKeown, the Chairperson of the Catholic Commission on Education pointed to the fact that there are principals and teachers in every part of the catholic education sector who have political agendas on this issue.

This is nearly certainly so.

What is also true is that these opinions are now being aired in public not because these people wish their personal political views to be aired at work but because of the failure of a Sinn Fein Minister to show leadership on the issue and find compromise with her fellow public representatives. That professionals are becoming politicised in this nature is a total indictment of politics and a negative development.

Following the Bishop’s interview the programme was flooded with texts from people claiming to support the primary school principals who have opposed the Catholic grammars’ plans. What was noticeable about the texts was how aggressively they attacked the grammar schools and the bishops. The language was very similar to that used by Sinn Fein in recent months.

I wonder how many SF press officers were posing as ‘concerned parents’ this morning? My experience of cathoilc parents, be they working class or not, is that they are angry and think the Minister is failing their children. But then maybe people just tell me what they think I want to hear.

On the other hand maybe there is an election in the offing.

Education chaos guaranteed as reality of Catholic 11plus and Protestant 11plus hits home

Ten years after the Good Friday Agreement a Sinn Fein Minister has delivered the ultimate act of educational segregation and division with the effective creation of a Catholic 11plus and a Protestant 11plus.

The BBC reports that The Commission for Catholic Education has given the go-ahead for Catholic grammar schools in Northern Ireland to set entrance exams.

However, it has also restated its position that academic selection of any kind should end by 2012.

Some Catholic grammar schools have said they will set entrance exams in the absence of an official test. The commission said that in the absence of a regulated system of transfer, academic test may be appropriate in the short-term, particularly for those post-primary schools which are oversubscribed.

NICCE chairman Bishop Donal McKeown said: “This is a clear statement from the Catholic trustees that academic selection at age 11 has no place in a modern education system.”

The commission stressed that Catholic schools which opt to use the tests must ensure they do not discriminate against any child, avoid a multiplicity of tests and should be used for only a limited period of time.

The church has been trying to keep the support of Catholic parents who want their children to go to a grammar school but who could choose to leave the sector and apply for non-denominational grammar schools instead.

Today’s decision is an honest act on behalf of the Catholic Commission to show some leadership on this issue. It will however do nothing to prevent the inevitable chaos which will now ensue. It is a dark day for politics and a total indictment of Caitriona Ruane’s stewardship as Education Minister.

It will also increase pressure on Ms Ruane to back down from her pledge not to reinstate a selective test for a limited period to allow time for political agreement on a way forward.

The DUP, Ulster Unionist Party, SDLP and Alliance Party have all urged her to reintroduce a test for a couple of years in a bid to prevent the looming chaos likely to take hold under an unregulated school transfer system.

Since when was the environment a sectarian issue?

Since today, that’s when!

The DUP is using an Assembly mechanism designed to ensure cross community support on sensitive issues to defeat a motion on climate change today. Yes folks, the environment is now a sectarian issue for 30 DUP MLAs who willingly signed the petition of concern which means the motion which is critical of DUP Environment Minister Sammy Wilson will be defeated because it will not enjoy the support of a majority of  unionists (i.e. the DUP).

Storm in a tea cup I hear you say. Not so I retort. The requirements for cross community voting on issues which could cause sectarian tensions is an important parliamentary procedure in a divided society. The DUP are making a mockery of this and making a joke of what is a really important issue for the vast majority of people in this region.

It all give politics a bad name. It also begs a series of questions; 

• does this party respect the views of others, and;
• will any issue on which the DUP is in a minority in the Assembly now be turned into a sectarian one?

The Bishops’ are publishing their response to the Minister for Education’s proposals to de-regulate education today.  She is reported to have rejected suggestions from the hierarchy for an interim state exam whilst this mess gets sorted out. 

Meantime children will suffer. 

But who cares as long as you are right Minister.

Mick over on Sluggerpicks up on the debate today with a couple of good links. Also Pete has uploaded yesterday’s Politics Show debate which is worth a watch.

Education chaos could trigger classroom segregation

I attended a parent information meeting last night to hear a dedicated a highly successful Primary School Principal talk sadly about what he called the “dogs dinner” that is the transfer process here in Northern Ireland.

Our school has a progressive ethos and a mixed community intake. It’s a place where they teach children rather then just prepare them for a selection test. If you asked most of the teachers for their personal opinion they would tell you that asking kids to sit an exam at 10 is not the way to get the best of them or the education system.

Our principal expressed his concerns about the AQE test – a private exam set by a private organisation. Even though his school has one of the highest transfer rates in the North, he is clearly very unhappy about having his pupil’s travel from school to school taking private tests which his teachers have had no input into the preparation for.

The department is telling him not to prepare children for the AQE and the trade unions are telling his teachers not to cooperate yet it is clear that parents do not want their children caught up in this political failure. He now has the impossible job of trying to ensure children are able to complete a test whilst sticking to the rules and staying within the law. This is a terrible place to put children and teachers.

The Minister for Education, Caitriona Ruane, has caused chaos. She is also triggering segregation in mixed schools. If the Catholic tests and the AQE tests are different what will happen in the classroom when teachers are trying to support their children in the run up to them?

Will the Catholic kids sit in one corner and the Protestants in the other? 

It is so sad that an issue like this is going to creep into a nine year old’s life and into a school where children, learn, play and grow together.

Shame on you minister. Shame on you.

Black day for education

The Minister for Education will make a statement to the Assembly on her proposals on the future of selection at noon today. Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, has a full page (ironically on page 13) in the Irish News today saying the eleven plus should go and that his minister is showing leadership.

On his first point, he is doing little more than stating the obvious – even the DUP agree the 11plus should go - and on the second he is in denial. “He is presiding over the worst performance in office by any minister anywhere on these islands in living memory” was the conclusion of a senior political commentator I asked.

You can watch Ms Ruane at noon online http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/stream.htm .

From a PR perspective this is going from bad to worse for Ms Ruane and Sinn Fein. It just goes to show you. Stand off and highstakes peace talks are one thing, running a government is something quite different. You wold wonder if their heart is in the latter.

Elsewhere on the Assembly floor there are two motions for debate later on. The DUP are condemning Eames – Bradley and the SDLP are calling for the Assembly to focus on doing the job it was elected to do by bringing forward a revised budget and programme for government.

We will see.

Leadership?

The Minister for Education has now lost the confidence of the entire catholic grammar sector. She lost political unionism and the non-maintained grammar sector quite a while ago,

Now she tells us it is time for real leadership. That the time for talking has ended and the time for action has come.

The majority of MLAs in the Assembly clearly do not support her approach. The people of Northern Ireland do not support her approach.

The question on O’Conall Street this morning is when are they going do something about it?