Church must challenge ‘unjust’ education system

Family of Catholic schools fear division and loss of high quality education

Catholic principals in the North are calling on the hierarchy to step up the fight against Catholic schools that still test children for admission. While the transfer test to decide which second level school a child should attend – the so-called 11-plus – was abolished in 2008, some Catholic grammar schools still operate unregulated tests.

The annual general meeting of the Catholic Principals’ Association (CPA) heard passionate calls for Church leaders to engage with these schools to ensure that the tests are a thing of the past.

The Northern bishops were supportive of the abolition of the 11-plus examination.

The principals are calling on the Northern bishops to set out in a pastoral letter their opposition to the tests. They also want the bishops to establish a timeframe to indicate when the tests might come to an end.

Michele Corkey, outgoing chairperson of the Catholic Principals’ Association, said: “We feel that a pastoral letter is necessary because there is great fear that our family of Catholic schools is under threat as a result of the division caused by academic selection. There are other threats as evidenced by the integrated movement being continually promoted by politicians and the media.”

Unchallenged

She said that “in recent weeks, there have been many articles and statements from prominent politicians both here and in the USA which attack the ethos and core values of our schools. Regretfully these were left unchallenged.

“We need our bishops to reference the important role our Catholic schools play in providing high quality education for our young people,” Ms Corkey said.

She said that, “at a time when integrated education is being championed as the way forward, we must remember that our family of schools offers students a positive experience which focuses on developing their abilities and makes a contribution to multicultural awareness.

“We can never have any doubt of the quality of our education and must work together to create a just and fair system that allows every child to succeed,” she told more than 100 principals at the meeting in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone.