From Unity, 7 February 2009

Ending discrimination in schools

by Lynda Walker

The argument about the abolition of the Eleven Plus and what will be put in its place has raged ever since the announcement by Martin McGuinness that the Eleven Plus would be scrapped.
     There was an attempt to turn this into a sectarian issue, with Protestants being in favour of the Eleven Plus and grammar schools and Catholics being against. But of course it was not that simple, and trade unions and political parties like the PUP recognised the class nature of the issue and called for an end to a system that is inherently unfair.
     Caitríona Ruane inherited the whole parcel of problems when she became Minister of Education. Now, when it comes to replacing a system that has provided some of the best education for those who go to grammar schools but provides some of the worst education for those in secondary modern schools, Caitríona Ruane has a headache.
     When the changes were made in Britain back in 1964 they were done so under Harold Wilson and a Labour government that was heeding the advice and expertise of people who could show, without any doubt, that the Eleven Plus was an examination that was introduced under false premises: that at the age of eleven a child’s intelligence was fixed, and therefore it could be justified to make the decision to send a child on its way to academic, technical or “mundane” vocation.
     Many other aspects of the Eleven Plus were also discredited. Comprehensive schools and neighbourhood schools were established. Since that time comprehensives have also been discredited, for a number of reasons; but it must be remembered that more working-class children got to university under this system, and also that Thatcher was never committed to them and ran them down.
     The changeover to comprehensive schools in the 1960s was very complex and faced much opposition, but nevertheless the whole policy had government backing and support. The proposals that Caitríona Ruane put forward regarding transfer did not even make it onto the agenda of the Executive meeting. So it is hard to see how she could go ahead with the far-reaching reforms without its backing. In fact it is the same lobby that opposed the change in the education system here in the 1960s that continues to oppose changes now.
     Whilst we can criticise the Minister of Education for the lack of clarity regarding the future of the transfer system, we cannot criticise her for the education system that she has inherited. We have single-sex girls’ and boys’ secondary modern schools, (state) Protestant and Catholic schools, co-educational secondary modern (state) Protestant and Catholic schools, integrated schools, Irish-language schools, state grammar schools, independent grammar Catholic and Protestant single-sex, and finally independent grammar co-educational schools. At the primary level the catchment area or attachment to a grammar school can be the making or breaking of a child’s education. Children here must be the most bused-to-school children in Ireland or Britain.
     It seems that the main discussion regarding education is around how a child can be transferred to another school at the age of eleven, in particular what measurement can be used. Grammar schools (independent Protestant and Catholic) say that they will go ahead with their own tests, and they are no doubt a very strong lobby.
     It may seem obvious to say that what is needed above all is a shake-up in the primary and secondary sector, to have smaller classes, and more money and resources. But at the end of the day a real democratic education system is not possible under capitalism. You will only get revolutionary education in a revolutionary situation.

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