Now
that the constitutional monstrosity at Stormont,
the assembly, is in place (it is the belief of
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein that the monstrosity
will soon collapse, and the sooner the better),
in the meantime it should be appropriate to look
at an issue of government in the 6 counties, namely
selection at eleven. It is clear that Late Sinn
Fein and Right Wing Union Jack Union Unionism
are at loggerheads over this.
I
first met up with the issue of selection in education
during the Harold Wilson administration when selection
was to be abolished and comprehensives were to
be set up in the U.K. At that time I was President
of the Irish National Teacher's Organisation in
Belfast and dealing with selection and comprehensives
was part of my remit as union president. It has
to be realized that selection is a sine qua
non of education; what remains to be decided
is at what age selection should take place and
who should do the selecting.
The
age of eleven for selection is quite arbitrary.
That age was set up in the 1948 Education Act
which set up secondary schooling for all. At that
time compulsory schooling ended at 14. In the
new secondary schools, the government decreed
the period of attendance in the new schools would
have to be 3 years at least so the age set for
selection was eleven. So selection at 11 is arbitrary,
but even so, for Union Jack Unionism the age is
sacred and is carved in stone.
The
INTO at this time campaigned for abolition of
selection and the introduction of comprehensives
in N. Ireland but this was defeated by a powerful
grammar school lobby. My personal position was
that selection be abolished and that pupils be
given the opportunity to select themselves at
school and shouldn't be divided by the state into
sheep and goats at the age of 11. With that in
mind, the system of schooling I backed in the
union was an all ability primary education with
transfer at eleven to an all ability middle school
education with compulsory schooling ending at
16. Those who wished to follow an academic bent
in education could do so in 6th form colleges
of education. The chief aim of the middle school
was to turn out a school population at 16 that
was highly literate and numerate; such a population
is basic to a modern economy. The system of education
outlined is similar to the system in Craigavon
as of now. In such schools the pupils select themselves
at 14+, the pupil being supported in the career
route chosen by career counselling and vocational
guidance and by individual academic profiles.
It
is evident that Right Wing Union Jack Unionism
is hellbent on retaining selection at 11 and it
is rumoured that a deal has been struck on this
in Scotland. Be that as it may, it is difficult
to understand how Right Wing Unionism can reconcile
State selection with Right Wing philosophy. It
was the purpose of Margaret Thatcher's philosophy
to roll back the State. If Right Wing Union Jack
Unionism were consistent they would roll back
the state out of the lives of children. Children
should select themselves; the state should be
kept out of it. The Right Wing is inconsistent
in this but then their only consistency is sectarianism.
In
all of this one must look at comprehensives in
general and at education in the inner city and
in the suburbs When looking at inner city education
I have in mind Late Sinn Fein which has adopted
a stance towards education in the Shankill that
is blatantly sectarian. I have heard Late Sinn
Fein claim on TV that there is a low level of
educational attainment in the Shankill. More recently,
I heard Caitriona Ruane repeat this on TV after
attending a NAS/UWT conference in Belfast, but
in singling out the Shankill in a problem that
is an inner city problem in education Ms Ruane
is being sectarian.
At
the time I was President of the INTO in Belfast,
I was doing research at the Faculty of Education,
at Queen's, into numeracy levels in inner city
schools in Belfast. The neighbourhoods selected
for research were:
-
The Shankill
- The
Lower Falls
- Donegall
Pass
- The
Markets
The
research looked at:
- Basic
Numeracy. This took as its criteria pupil
ability to do simple addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division at the end of primary
education. The research established that over
one third of the school population in the inner
city couldn't do these basic operations at the
end of primary education and were thus innumerate.
When the statistics were tested rigorously for
significance, the performance of pupils in Maintained
and Controlled Schools did not differ, so the
levels of innumeracy in the Shankill and Donegall
Pass are the same as the levels of innumeracy
in the Lower Falls and The Markets. So why does
Ms Ruane and Late Sinn Fein single out the Shankill
when it comes to an inner city problem in education?
Do they believe that innumeracy is connected
with religion and politics?
- Overall
numeracy. This level of numeracy was established
in a wide ranging test of mathematical knowledge
at the end of primary schooling. When this overall
test of numeracy was tested for significance
between Maintained and Controlled schools, it
was established that pupils in Controlled Schools
significantly out- performed pupils in Maintained
Schools. So this research suggests that pupils
in the Shankill and Donegall Pass are overall
more numerate than pupils in the Lower Falls
and The Markets. There is other research at
the Faculty of Education at Queen's that backs
this up. So why does Late Sinn Fein knock the
Shankill by singling it out? But there are swings
and roundabouts in all of this. It has also
been established in research that pupils in
Maintained Schools out-perform pupils in Controlled
Schools in verbal ability.
To
take a still wider view of the matter, one must
consider Inner City Schools in Belfast in relation
to schools on the leafy Malone suburb of Belfast.
Had the research outlined been also carried out
in the Malone district it would have been found
that the pupils of the Malone would have out-performed
Inner City pupils. While this anomaly is true
of Belfast, it is also true of cities in all of
Ireland, in GB, and cities in the USA. It was
originally thought that comprehensives would correct
this anomaly in England and Wales but that did
not prove to be the case. There is now talk of
bog standard comprehensives in England, but the
comprehensives thus described tend to be found
in the inner city. Comprehensives in the suburbs
fare well and have high academic standards. The
current Labour Government has tried to raise standards
all round by having the State invade the classroom
in telling the classroom teacher what to teach
and how to teach it, but this has proved ineffective
so far. It could be that the cause of this anomaly
is bound up with the relative values that suburban
families and inner city families place on education.
This
is the educational problem that Ms Ruane and the
assembly will have to tackle in the 6 counties.
The numeracy and literacy standards in rural schools
will also have to be taken into account. So what
is the point of Ms Ruane and Late Sinn Fein singling
out the educational standards of the Shankill
for special note? To do that is raw sectarianism.
In light of that Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein
would urge the people of the Shankill to demand
an apology from Ms Ruane in the press and in the
media for misrepresenting them. If that should
fail the Shankill should go as a body to Stormont
and make clear to all that sectarian Ms Ruane
must go.
