Peter Weir rejects NI transfer test suspension call

Both Archbishop Eamon Martin, the Derry-born Catholic primate, and Dr Donal McKeown, Bishop of Derry, said it would be in the best interests of children.

They both urged schools in their respective dioceses not to use selection to admit pupils in September 2021.

Bishop McKeown, in a letter to Catholic grammar schools in the Derry diocese, said that socially disadvantaged pupils would be “seriously disadvantaged” in the transfer tests as they would have been out of school for almost six months.

He added: “Furthermore, the same pupils often do not have as much educational support at home or access to technology as others. This is a reality that, as educators in the Catholic family of schools, none of us can ignore.

“Therefore, in the interest of fairness to pupils and in the interest of maintaining a mix of pupils in the school community, I would ask your board of governors to consider how you could respond to this.

“This may well be a situation where criteria other than transfer test grades should be included for at least a substantial proportion of the 2021 entry cohort.”

Bishop McKeown also said that he would be happy to discuss a way ahead with the grammar schools in the diocese.

However, Peter Weir says there is no “viable alternative to put in its place”.

The minister said he acknowledged there were “very real concerns out there.”

But, he added: “If we are going to have academic selection, then we need some form of a testing system”.

The transfer tests are to be held two weeks later than usual in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.