Both earth bound readers and alien visitors alike will welcome the revelation, though those in the intergalactic ship were probably already aware of their own existence.

Intergalactic and international local news coverage - well Derry and Donegal are in two different countries aren't they?

Experts from around the world spun into a frenzy for more details on the flying saucer pic taken by Michael Harkin of Galliagh.

Poor Michael, there were more questions asked of him and his photo than of a Catriona Ruane exam policy. Was it a lamp post, tax disc, which street was he in...One 'truth seeker' at www.derryjournal.com asked which direction he was travelling in?

Many parents and teachers are asking Ruane the very same thing.
Michael swears that the object hung in the sky for a few seconds before "disappearing." Unfortunately Minister Ruane's disappearing act seems a little more long term.

Her announcement this week that academic selection for primary school children is to continue for the next three years before making the exam a 'historical anomaly' scares me. More scared probably however, are the 10 and 11 year olds who had been hoping to avoid what was, the worst exam pressure I ever experienced.

Ruane's "vision" of education with no selection exam is, it seems, less likely than a return to the Waterside by the little green men.
I recall being told: "Yours will be the last class ever to sit the 11+," by some 'politician type' in the assembly hall of Holy Child PS many years ago.

It was in that same hall six months ago, Minister Ruane promised current pupils they would experience a fairer education system and that the 11+ was an 'unjust thing of the past.'
That now will simply not be the case for at least three of those primary school classes.

With the greatest of respects to the Shinner, at this rate, by the time we do get rid of the 11+, which is hated by 99% of those in education, we will probably have the first Sinn Fein Minister - on the Moon!
To be fair, Minister Ruane does seem intent on killing the exam, which considering how long it has been around and the difficulties in replacing it, is no small task.

Is it too simple to suggest that the party of equals bring the education system here into line with that in the South, which according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), is ranked as the second best in Europe, eighth in the world?

PISA places the UK, which let's be straight Northern Ireland is a part of, 24th for Maths and 17th for literacy. Just for the record South Korea and Finland were first and second respectively.

For those who argue we are in Ireland, not the UK, even Sinn Fein now recognises the border, not to mention the courts and that bombing people on the way to work, rest or play is bad but I digress.

Newly qualified teachers are equipped to teach in both North and South so the expertise is there. And if we are interested in giving our children the best chance, why not?

No Donegal granny ever sat the 11+.

Start the curriculum change with Primary one in September and hey presto you have a built-in endgame for an exam described by NI BT teacher of the year, Derry man (Ok he is from Strabane) Gaelscoil Eadain Mhoir's, Mr. Risteard MacDaibheid as "immoral, unjust and bordering on child abuse."

Now that, unless we can learn from our intergalactic visitors, seems like a good idea to me. Granted, the idea is perhaps better than my implementation policy so let's have some sympathy for our Minister of Education.

Though the good news is that those in the sky, perhaps trying to study us, didn't have to sit an exam to get into thier choice of comPREHENsive. So why leave so soon?

Though why they choose Prehen in the first place I'll never know. They flew all the way from 'Planet Where-ever' to Prehen and I wouldn't even cross the bridge, but that friends, is a matter for another day.

(Cahir McDaid will be back next week)