'Our children should not be discriminated against'
SIR, Eight years ago, 2010 was hailed by many as being the year of great educational reform for 10 and 11-year-old children.
Equal opportunity for every child with purpose-constructed, post-primary, all-embracing community schools equipped and staffed suitably to provide the required education in both academic and vocational to satisfy the needs of all children.
This is 2009 and what have we – turmoil, limbo and worse still, our children of 10 and 11-year-old and under being mentally abused?
The question is: who is responsible?
Is it the people for whom we voted to form a power-sharing government at Stormont who have failed our children by falling at the first important hurdle by non-agreement and what looks like party politics?
Where do our children go in September 2010, 2011 and 2012? Will they be queueing up all night on a first-come, first-served basis at the chosen school.
Children have rights, should not be denied entry to a chosen school on the grounds that they are a first-born child, or from a disadvantaged area, or eligible for school meals, or vice-versa.
Exams are stressful to the majority of children, but at this young age to be asked to sit multiple tests in strange surroundings in the midst of strangers is hardly a recipe for good performance. Other schools seem not to be able to make up thier minds. It could be said that the educational experts fiddle while parents and children sink into despair.
Having no agreed guidance from our Assembly on this serious matter, one would think that concerned staff at the second level schools would agree on a single test to be taken in the primary schools on a stated date.
Something must be done urgently. It has gone beyond a joke. Maybe we should bring back the pre-1947 system, with Government inspectors examining the class to determine the child’s ability to pass on to a higher grade.
There is an old saying: “Never throw out the dirty water until the clean water is in place”. Stormont, please note.
“Larne granny”,
Name and address withheld.
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Weather for Larne
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 19 C
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