Unionists and nationalists have joined forces in the battle over a controversial exam, reports Suzanne Breen, Senior Northern Correspondent
It has been described as the greatest act of educational terrorism in Northern Ireland history. But it is one incident for which Sinn Féin will not be apologising.
It was certainly a last-minute attack. In the final hours before the suspension of the Stormont administration, former education minister Mr Martin McGuinness abolished the 11-plus exam.
Introduced in 1948, it has been controversial for over two decades. In their last year of primary school, the North's 11-year-olds sit the test which generally decides whether they will go to grammar or secondary school.
The pass rate is around 35 per cent. Critics say it is grossly unfair that young children take such an important exam. They claim it effectively forces youngsters down an academic or non-academic route, closes the door to many future careers, and brands as failures those who don't pass. They also say it disadvantages working-class children.
Mr McGuinness himself failed the exam. He says he wanted to "create a modern and fair education system that enables young people to achieve their potential, irrespective of their background".
When Northern Ireland Office Minister, Jane Kennedy, took over the education portfolio after the suspension of the Stormont Assembly and Executive, she endorsed his decision. The 11-plus will be abolished from 2004 but so far no alternative system has been put in place.
Opponents say this "educational limbo" has created considerable stress for parents who are clueless as to what will happen when their children reach 11. They don't know how it will be decided which school the youngsters progress to or whether they should be preparing them for some other exam which could be introduced.
Mr McGuinness is unrepentant: "There is a clear demand for change and an end to the injustice and unfairness of the present arrangement. My decision to end the 11-plus in 2004 was based on an assessment, given the emerging consensus, that alternative arrangements can be put in place by that time.
"With political will and the necessary effort and enthusiasm, I have no doubt this can be achieved." DUP Assembly member, Mr Sammy Wilson, who sat on the education committee at Stormont, points to a recent major household survey.
Ordered by Mr McGuinness's own department, it showed that while a majority were against the 11-plus, 64 per cent of respondents supported continuing academic selection. "This was the most extensive consultation exercise ever undertaken by the Assembly, with 200,000 people taking part," he says.
"The questions were loaded against academic selection and yet there was still two-thirds support for it. Martin McGuinness behaved liked a dictator. Neither the Assembly nor the education committee had a chance to discuss or vote on the issue, he simply abolished the 11-plus and put nothing in its place."
The five main teachers' unions support Mr McGuinness. Mr Wilson claims they are out of touch with their members as 62 per cent of teachers in the survey wanted continuing academic selection. Mr Wilson, a former teacher, comes from working-class east Belfast. His father was a lorry-driver, his mother worked in a bakery. He says the 11-plus opened up opportunities for people like him. "Everybody agrees the exam must be changed - it has to become more broadly based.
"But academic selection remains the fairest way of making educational decisions. A system of solely continuous assessment of pupils would be unpopular with teachers who would be under enormous pressure from parents. They would also be open to claims of discrimination.
"There could be concerns that children who are a bit rebellious, or like me were always in trouble at school, could be disadvantaged. An impersonal exam, with external assessment, is the solution."
If academic selection is abolished, selection for the best schools will either be by postcode or the old boys' club, he says. "Some schools will be over-subscribed and it could come down to living in the catchment area. Wealthy parents will simply buy houses there.
"If it is left to the headmaster to decide on pupil entry, his decision could well be influenced by which parents he plays golf with. Single mothers could be frowned upon because the head thinks they wouldn't be much use in appeals for funds for a new school minibus." Mr Wilson rejects arguments that exams at the age of 11 are wrong. "Life is selective. Life is competitive. Not everybody can play in the school football team, sing in the choir, or play in the orchestra. Why frown on academic selection but not oppose selection in drama, music or sport?"
Progressive Unionist Assembly member, Mr Billy Hutchinson, who represents the Shankill area of Belfast, says academic selection breaches children's human rights. "Very few children in my constituency, or other working-class Protestant areas, pass the 11-plus. This is an issue of social justice.
"Those born into middle-class families have all the advantages. They go to grammar schools which receive the vast majority of public funding. I am strongly in favour of abolishing privilege and introducing a comprehensive education system in Northern Ireland."
Mgr Dennis Faul, the former headmaster of St Patrick's Boys Academy in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, says the comprehensive system has failed in Britain and would seriously jeopardise the North's record of academic excellence. Studies have shown primary schoolchildren in Northern Ireland are a year ahead of their English and Welsh counterparts in literacy and numeracy, he says.
The latest statistics also show 57 per cent of pupils in the North achieve at least five grade A to C GCSEs compared to 49 per cent in England and Wales. Mgr Faul says that 50 years ago, only wealthy Catholics went to university whereas today nearly 60 per cent of students at Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster are Catholics. The 11-plus was "an enormous ladder out of the ghetto" for many working-class Catholics. Abolishing academic selection could have "disastrous consequences", he says.