Education:Education Minister Caitríona Ruane was singled out for criticism by the SDLP conference.
Spokesman Dominic Bradley accused the Sinn Féin Minister of failing to provide an alternative to the 11-plus schools transfer test or a settlement for industrial action involving primary school classroom assistants.
He said it was time to end her "prevarication" and called on the Minister to bring forward proposals and to make decisions.
"Parents are unable to answer their children's questions, 'Mammy/Daddy will I be doing the 11-plus?' Parents are asking their children's teachers the same question and teachers, the elected representatives," Mr Bradley said, accusing the Minister of responding only by saying she will not be rushed.
"She would not be rushed six months ago, she would not be rushed four months ago, she would not be rushed two months ago, she would not be rushed a month ago," he said.
"Here we are at the beginning of November 2007 and she still has not come up with her alternative." He said the Minister should learn from Minister for Social Development Margaret Ritchie and make a decision.
"For classroom assistants, yet another story of procrastination," he added. "The Minister who had stood on the picket-lines with classroom assistants told them that she was 100 per cent behind them. What did she do when she got into power? Same as before. Nothing." It took a series of Assembly debates, questions and letters from the Education Committee to move her, he claimed.
"We face a further period of prolonged industrial action. It would take very little to bring this dispute to an end but still the Minister equivocates. The Minister is certainly making a profile for herself, a profile of procrastination, equivocation, and indecision."
Education, he said, was "a passport to opportunity for our young people, an engine for economic growth for our society".