Letter to the Review Body on Post Primary Education
22 Bodoney Road,
Trillick,
Co Tyrone.
BT78 3SQ
18 March 2001
Review Body on Post Primary Education,
Enterprise House,
3rd Floor,
55-59 Adelaide Street,
Belfast.
BT2 8FE
Dear Sir,
For many years, the 'eleven plus' served students in Northern Ireland exceptionally well, with minimal fuss as to whether or not it should be replaced by a more appropriate system. However, as soon as fundamental flaws in the English comprehensive schooling system began to come to light, with major politicians admitting to the vast number of the population whose potential has not been realised as a direct result of these, the Province's proletariat decided that if England was entitled to an educational crisis, then so were they.
In an age where human rights are of paramount importance, and in a country where the population as a whole is more than usually well informed as regards the impingements of these, it is remarkable that the same people are prepared to deprive their children of their right to a better standard of education. If the selection procedure at eleven were to be replaced by a system of comprehensive education, only private schools would be able to offer any form of assessment at this level. This would result in the economically disadvantaged being set at a further disadvantage, that is, an intellectual one, and inevitably only an élite would reap any long-term benefit from the system.
22 Bodoney Road,
Trillick,
Co Tyrone.
BT78 3SQ
18 March 2001
Review Body on Post Primary Education,
Enterprise House,
3rd Floor,
55-59 Adelaide Street,
Belfast.
BT2 8FE
Dear Sir,
For many years, the 'eleven plus' served students in Northern Ireland exceptionally well, with minimal fuss as to whether or not it should be replaced by a more appropriate system. However, as soon as fundamental flaws in the English comprehensive schooling system began to come to light, with major politicians admitting to the vast number of the population whose potential has not been realised as a direct result of these, the Province's proletariat decided that if England was entitled to an educational crisis, then so were they.
In an age where human rights are of paramount importance, and in a country where the population as a whole is more than usually well informed as regards the impingements of these, it is remarkable that the same people are prepared to deprive their children of their right to a better standard of education. If the selection procedure at eleven were to be replaced by a system of comprehensive education, only private schools would be able to offer any form of assessment at this level. This would result in the economically disadvantaged being set at a further disadvantage, that is, an intellectual one, and inevitably only an élite would reap any long-term benefit from the system.
