Northern Ireland Transfer Test News

The Department of Education has been criticised for moving the delivery of the P7 pupils post-primary placement letters from a Saturday to a Tuesday.

In previous years the letters arrived on a Saturday which give parents the weekend to help their children come to terms with any disappointment. This was changed, when last year a significant amount of letters didn't arrive in the Saturday post. As it was a bank holiday weekend, it was Tuesday before any late letters arrived or Education & Library Boards were contactable.

More than half of the post-primary schools in the North Eastern Education and Library Board (NEELB) area could close because of financial pressures.

A document for the North Eastern Education Board, leaked to the Ballymena Guardian suggests cutting secondary schools from 49 down to 20.

However, an education board spokesman stressed the leaked document was a draft. The spokesman said final decisions were up to the minister.

A Catholic grammar school was responsible for a “serious security breach” of post-primary entrance papers sat by primary seven children, a Department of Education independent investigation found.

Education Minister John O’Dowd said yesterday: “The investigation concluded that, while there had been a breach of post-test security, there was no evidence that any child had either been advantaged or disadvantaged by this breach.

“The investigation concluded, however, that the potential for a serious breach had been demonstrated and still exists.”