The North's Education Minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, has announced that the 11-plus examination will be abolished in two years.
The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, is due to suspend the North's power-sharing government today. The Sinn Féin minister was determined to scrap the exam before losing his post.
Defenders of the 11-plus, including the Ulster Unionist chairman of the Stormont education committee, Mr Danny Kennedy, accused Mr McGuinness of "political malice and educational vandalism".
However, the move was welcomed by teachers' unions.
Mr McGuinness has been an opponent of the examination ever since he took office. He claimed there was overwhelming public support for abolishing it.
"I am determined that the wishes of the people on this key issue shall not be thwarted by political developments," he said.
"So the transfer tests will be consigned to history in 2004. I would prefer that no more children would have to take the tests. But, for practical reasons, pupils currently in P5 and P6 will have to sit the tests under the current arrangements. However, they will be the last to do so."
Mr Kennedy said: "In the final act of his ministry, with no real guarantee that he will ever be in office again, he has behaved disgracefully."
The Ulster Unionist Assembly member said two-thirds of teachers and parents surveyed recently favoured academic selection. "The UUP will strive to ensure the Minister fails in his objective to remove academic selection as part of the education system," he said.
The largest teachers' union, the NASUWT, described the abolition as "an historic moment".
Its regional officer, Mr Tom McKee, said: "Grammar school selection was a necessary step forward 50 years ago but such a system is now well past its sell-by date. It segregates our children unfairly and distorts teaching in P6 and P7 classes.
"Our only regret is that the tests have to continue for another two years. The really difficult challenge now is the restructuring of our secondary education system.
"We need to move from a system of destructive competition between schools into a system where schools co-operate in the interests of all children and deliver equity of access to education courses for everyone."