History

The education system in Northern Ireland is ancient and divisive. It's quite Edwardian in its outlook on life in many ways. We have schools for boys, schools for girls, schools for Protestants and schools for Catholics, schools for young, schools for old, and schools for the rich smart and the not so smart.

To make matters more complicated, we have Goodie Goodie organisations which have tried over the last decades to buck the system by allowing a mixture of groups to be educated together. For example, Integrated schools tend to educate (middle class) Catholic and Protestant children together. They have received government financial incentives to do so, and they have had some success. However, their success comes through a system of positive discrimination, since they are obliged to meet recipe targets for their mixture.

Secondary schools now tend to educate girls and boys together. Primary schools also. But these are very definitely associated with one religious grouping or another. Grammar schools, intended for the brightest 20% of the populus, are still more discriminating about the groups they will accept.

To divide up children on grounds of ability we have the Transfer Test, formerly called the 11+, now referred to in England as the Key Stage 2 SAT test and recently re-abolished in Scotland and Wales. To divide children up on grounds of religion, we have the Bishops of the Catholic church, who still hold masses of power within the Maintained (catholic) education sector.

The University of Ulster provides a handy timeline of facts, which you may prefer over my ramblings.

Disclosure

I myself attended a grammar school, officially non-denominational but only for boys and with few Catholic boys in attendance. I can attest to the fact that I learned many things there. My school adopted a policy of streaming classes at an increasingly defined and fine grained level as you rose up the school. This led to rapid learning for those who could and smaller class sizes for those who needed a little more help. I appreciate the effort that went into this streaming and hope that those further down did too.

I understand the need to educate children together in a group which has similar talents. It does not hold, however, that this has to be done in separate buildings. Streamed groupings within a single school could be an equally effective method.

This is not an unbiased account. I am a parent who is about to face these changes and someone who remembers the failings of the system I went through.

Success and Failure

As a result of this division, Northern Ireland has both the highest grade average for any part of the UK and the highest percentage of drop-outs with no qualifications at all. Working class areas, long ravaged by economic deprivation, distrust and violence, are particularly badly affected by the problem.

This is a self-perpetuating problem, because parents who did badly at school are poorly equipped to assist their children, who more rapidly become disaffected and are more likely to truant and leave school young, perhaps with children of their own.

The curriculum is failing many children. It takes little account of the needs of children themselves. The drive for academic excellence is a laudable one, but it is currently being practised at the expense of the majority of children.

The Dilemma

Political groupings within Northern Ireland, who only recently have deigned to share a room together, find it hard to agree on difficult and divisive issues, even if their constituencies are in agreement. A recent Belfast Telegraph poll showed that two thirds of almost any political colour were in favour of Academic Selection, but that two thirds were against the current means of making that selection (the Test). In response, the (Sínn Fein) education minister has announced that she intends to end the practice of Selection and will scrap the Test. Grammar schools have responded by announcing their own Entrance Examination. However, falling numbers of pupils is putting them under pressure: 27% or even 35% of pupils will soon be eligible for entry, if the schools wish to remain at their current size and number. We could end up with a Test leading to no actual Selection.

A Step Back

Politicians should step back a few paces and look at what parents actually want. Here is my list:

1. I want an early curriculum which focusses on preparation for learning rather than learning itself: a narrow range of skills taught well, rather than a broad curriculum.
2. I want all children to be able to read and write before they leave their first school. I don't mean perfectly with full vocabulary, I mean decipher letters into sounds and words and replicate these into sentences of their own.
3. I want small children educated within walking distance of home. First years at school should be stress free in small groups of already familiar people. This builds communities for later in life.
4. I want the curriculum to broaden as my child blossoms: new ideas in response to questions, new stimulus in response to success.
5. I want foreign language skills taught younger. Most children here reach puberty before they get any exposure to another language: too little, too late. I want more variety taught too: more Mandarin, Russian and Arabic; less French. Let's start with Spanish from age 8: a world leader, and Britain's most popular holiday destination.

My Suggestion

I believe we should scrap all of our current divisions in education. This includes the endless drive to teach children of the same age in the same classes. We should relax all assumptions if we are going to do this right.

Foundation Schools

A firm foundation means you can build bigger and better. Let's start here, aged 4. We can start at a different age (3 to 5 is currently normal so it seems reasonable.)

Children are grouped by ability not by age. The school is more of an entity than a series of year-groups. Many things are taught collectively, with younger children gaining exposure to 'hard' ideas by watching older children succeed.

Children move between classes on a termly basis and their progression is measured by achievement. Slower children take longer to bubble up.

Deliverables

A child that can read and write effectively, and express opinions verbally.

A child that can add and subtract and can measure.

A child that can colour and draw, cut and build with paper and clay.

A child that can play a percussion instrument, and hum a tune.

A child that knows about Seasons and Weeks, routine and growth.

A child that knows right from wrong and not to accept lifts from strangers.

A child ready for school.

Estimated duration

4 years. However, older children who arrive in the country and need basic literacy skills in English might progress through in a year. There will be no automatic departure, but an earned one.

Distribution and Size

Locally, and small. Perhaps only three or four teachers would be needed to run these schools successfully. Teachers need to be talented in inspiration and re-enforcement (as well as be able to spell, punctuate and count). These will not be a cheap option, but would be worth the money.

Preparatory Schools

Accepting children who understand the basics of English and Mathematics, these schools will broaden children's expectations and experience. They will teach music and science and languages from the off. They will provide children with choices and show them what they are good at.

Deliverables

A child that can describe and explain, and knows how to ask questions.

A child that can express feelings and preferences.

A child that can play a musical instrument or create art.

A child that understands and can speak another language to a basic level.

A child that can calculate and estimate mathematically.

A child that knows where it lives, from street to European level

A child that can make its own breakfast.

A child that knows where to get help in emergencies.

A child that knows the difference between love and sex.

A child ready to make choices.

Estimated duration

6 years. Progress through should be fairly uniform, but not as rigid as at present. Children should be able to take an extra year or one fewer where an obvious need arises. However, with a firm Foundation, this should be less necessary and less obvious because children will already be of different ages.

Distribution and Size

They will be larger schools: one per town rather than one per townland.

Trade Schools

Forget any prejudice from the title. I know its poor. This is for children who want to work with their hands.

Core subjects would include budgeting, planning, employment law, IT and management skills. Specialist subjects would include plumbing, carpentry, electrics, computer programming.

Let's complete the stereotype with a brass or pipe band. But let's fund it properly and train people to become skilled in something.

Deliverables

These schools will teach their best children how to run a small business and how to work hard. At very least, each child should leave with one practical specialisation.

Estimated duration

2 to 5 years. This should include a period of time spent with an employer.

Business Schools

Core subjects will be focussed around the office environment.

Corporate skills would be paramount here and taught in a practical manner. Core subjects would include bookkeeping, employment law, IT and management skills. But also languages, secretarial skills, speech writing and oration. Here you will learn marketing, economics and forecasting.

Deliverables

These schools will teach their best children how to work in a corporate environment. At very least, each child should leave with one practical specialisation.

Estimated duration

2 to 5 years. This should include a period of time spent with an employer.

Research Schools

Reserved for those whose skill is more abstract, here pure sciences and complex mathematics compete with history, geography and religion for attention.

Deliverables

These schools will teach their best children how to get a First at Oxford.

Estimated duration

3 to 4 years.

Backlash

I'm ready for you. It's uncosted. It's untried. It's arbitrary. Well it is, yes. But it is based on the people I know and the system I feel would benefit them. I don't stipulate which schools will send children on to University (because I believe they can come from anywhere with the right stimulation). Nor do I say whether a child should leave school at 16, 18 or 20, because I believe they should leave when they're ready.

In many ways, the modular examinations we have at present with KS3-SATs, GCSEs, AS Levels are ideal for this, provided we let children take the exams when they are ready and provided we offer them a transcript on leaving education which describes their overall ability and motivation.

It's not Tripartate that I advocate. It is largely comprehensive. But neither is it a one bucket system. I believe that children who have not mastered reading and writing cannot master the rest of the curriculum. Children, especially young children, mature at different speeds and should be allowed to do so without feeling inadequate.

Let's stop playing at this. Let's not pretend that breaking down the barriers put up by the Grammar School lobby are the only division in our society. Let's make changes to school structure. Properly.