"As a primary school principal, I welcome the Minister's announcement that first and foremost the transfer test is to end.
"The Costello report puts the child at the centre and acknowledges that while the current arrangements serve some well, they do not meet the needs of all pupils. From a primary perspective, the new proposals remove a distortion of the curriculum from Primary 5 (pupils aged eight and nine) upwards and the concept of teaching for a test.
"This without doubt will eliminate the over prescription of subject content and allow for a more enjoyable and enriched curriculum with the opportunity to develop the necessary skills. Furthermore it also alleviates the extreme pressure which this high-stakes test at 11 causes for children, parents and teachers.
"The proposals create a context for a non-selective system for the first time in Northern Ireland. There are major implications for post-primary schools but the report sets out a framework of educational entitlement for every pupil in these schools.
"This entitlement programme copper fastens access to various curricular pathways, including the academic, vocational and technical. I feel that children are more ready to make informed choices at age 14 and welcome the delaying of such choices."
Mr Wilfred Mulryne, Principal ,Methodist College Belfast.
"I welcome: the assumption that the needs of children are central rather than doctrinaire views; the decision that there will be a lead-in time of a number of years (until 2008) to ensure satisfactory alternative arrangements; the refusal to impose a 'one size fits all' solution - local arrangements can be devised and there is to be no universal comprehensive system for Northern Ireland; the prospect of grammar schools continuing to exist if the people of the province want them, as they have clearly shown . . . ; the removal of the Burns embargo on post-primary schools having access to pupil profiles, sensible advice can therefore be given to parents by both the primary and post-primary schools.
"There is of course much uncertainty. Will we be able to find a way of ensuring that pupils enter the post-primary school most suited to their needs without a test of some sort? Is there going to be an attempt to elevate 'distance from school' to a compulsory criterion, thereby effectively creating 'post-code selection'? Will there be flexibility post-11 to ensure that pupils can easily change schools if a wrong decision is made at transfer?
"Despite concerns, however, there are many opportunities to ensure that we not only retain the well-known strengths of our current system, but enhance them."
Mr Ingram Bill: Chairman of the Governing Bodies Association which represents the majority of grammar schools.
"I have to ask the Minister: why has her department ignored the results of their household survey which showed a clear majority favoured the retention of academic selection? That majority view is further reinforced by the BBC survey on post-primary education.
"The transfer criteria of family and geography proposed by the department perpetrate inequality of access and are insufficient guidance to pupils, parents and principals in determining who will go to which school. Frankly, unless more can be made of the Pupil Profile, we will have a smoke and mirrors approach to the transfer arrangements.
"We will be consulting widely among our member schools. I see difficulties in these transfer arrangements. There is also the absence on the report of any costing of resources and an obvious increase in the layers of educational bureaucracy. More clarity needs to come from the Minister on these points.
"The delay in abolishing the 11-Plus until 2008 will be essential if we are to see refined thinking on the transfer arrangements."
In interviews with Dan Keenan