EDUCATION:TENS OF thousands of children in the North are caught in the centre of an unsavoury scrap between the DUP and Sinn Féin, one delegate told conference.
Addressing the education debate, Conall McDevitt from Belfast said there was something wrong with a political system that allowed what he called the incompetence of Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane to go unchecked.
He accused Sinn Féin of using primary schoolchildren as tokens in a sectarian fight with the Democratic Unionists.
He argued that it was “unsound to divide children at 11” – a reference to the 11-plus schools transfer test – and criticised Sinn Féin for its “failure to provide an educational future for our children”. He noted “the Minister’s inability to lead on the issue of post-primary education, creating a nightmare for 30,000 children and 60,000 parents”.
It was telling that politicians had left the field to such an extent that church leaders had attempted to fill the vacuum.
Fermanagh delegate Rosemary Flanagan said that politicians needed to stop hanging on to outdated ideas about schools and move on from in-fighting and scoring political points.
Mary Muldoon, a former school principal from Belfast, produced to the conference a copy of an SDLP newsletter dating from 1977. She read out a headline which claimed “The days of the 11-plus are numbered”.
Thirty-two years later, she said, schools reform has been seen to be a “big nothing”.
“We now have our own Minister of Education and what have we got? Another big nothing,” she said to applause.
Children and teachers are in limbo and not even the Minister knows what is to happen, she claimed.
The void was being filled by short-term measures rather than by a considered policy.
The party’s youth group proposed that the University of Ulster be prevented from enacting a policy halting political parties from having stalls at freshers’ meetings.
The conference heard that the policy derived from a mistaken fear that to allow such stalls would bring sectarianism onto the campus.
The youth wing also called for the abolition of third-level fees.
Stranmillis delegate PA MagLochlainn, another former teacher, called on the conference to demand a special taskforce to tackle educational underachievement, especially in socially deprived areas.
Education spokesman Dominic Bradley, Assembly member for Newry and Armagh, said the party remained a firm supporter of parental choice, backing particular the Irish-medium sector.
He accused the Minister of failing to convince her opponents of the need for reform and of treating children and parents unfairly, giving rise to uncertainty and fear.
“Where is the leadership in all of this? It is non-existent,” he said.
He also accused the DUP of proposing nothing other than a limit on the numbers admitted to grammar schools.
“In the name of pupils, teachers and parents, I say to the Minister: get it sorted – and get it sorted now,” he said. “The Minister should vacate her position before she does further damage.”