The North's Minister of Education has been accused of using financial blackmail to force schools to accept the scrapping of the controversial 11-plus transfer test.
During an Assembly debate on the Burns report, the DUP's Mr Sammy Wilson said Mr Martin McGuinness was putting a "financial armalite" to the heads of schools opposed to his reform plans.
Mr McGuinness had warned grammar schools resisting educational reforms proposed in the Burns report that they might have to go it alone. The report recommends the abolition of the 11-plus exams as well as the introduction of a collegiate system.