A Review of the DE’s Latest Policy Document: A Curate’s Egg?

TransformED NI presents an ambitious vision for educational excellence through enhanced teaching, curriculum reform, and professional development while strategically sidestepping contentious structural issues, such as academic selection, which research identifies as key barriers to genuine educational equity.

Strategic Ambition, Structural Silence: Promises and Limitations

Addressing the challenges of educational reform in Northern Ireland requires confronting deeply rooted social divisions, systemic inequalities, and political sensitivities. Shaped by community segregation and socio-economic disparities, our education system embodies longstanding barriers that resist resolution. In this context, TransformED NI presents an ambitious vision for revitalising education, emphasising teaching and learning as vital catalysts for change. However, its reluctance to consider structural reforms—especially concerning academic selection—poses a significant obstacle to achieving the equity to which it aspires.

Strengths and Ambitions: Elevating Teaching and Learning

At the core of TransformED NI is a coherent framework focused on improving teaching quality, curriculum design, and professional development. It rightly identifies teaching as the “single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for pupils” (p. 26) and prioritises evidence-based strategies to raise standards. The “Ten Point Plan for educational excellence” (pp. 59–60) promotes a knowledge-rich curriculum, enhanced literacy and numeracy, and a commitment to teacher induction and professional learning, aligning with international best practices.

This education strategy emphasises equity through the Department’s investment in the commendable yet somewhat contentious RAISE Programme. This programme aims to support disadvantaged communities and ensure that “all learners remain in education, apprenticeship, or training until age 18” (p. 55). These measures reflect a philosophical commitment to addressing widely recognised achievement gaps and promoting inclusion.

The Elephant in the Room: Academic Selection at Age 11

While this strategy presents promising initiatives, its failure to engage with academic selection at age 11 undermines its potential to achieve genuine equity. Research consistently identifies academic selection as a key barrier to equity in education in Northern Ireland. Indeed, it has been noted that “equality and equity are not the only casualties of a system that had already been deemed deeply flawed”. Yet this latest strategy dismisses such basic concerns, asserting that “for too long, we have focused on structural issues… whether that be academic selection or types of schools” (p. 5). This rhetorical choice aims to reframe these critical issues as distractions rather than pressing concerns, effectively sidelining any meaningful debate on reform.

Academic selection perpetuates socio-economic disparities by benefiting children from affluent families who can afford private tutoring while disadvantaging those from deprived backgrounds. Borooah and Knox (2015) found a significant underrepresentation of disadvantaged students in grammar schools, which offer better resources and academic outcomes. Furthermore, the stress and stigma associated with the transfer test disproportionately impact children’s mental health, confidence, and self-esteem, further exacerbating inequalities. Despite these well-documented harms, TransformED NI fails to acknowledge the role of academic selection in institutionalising inequality.

Internal Contradictions: Politics Over Equity

The document’s approach to selection mechanisms is jarringly contradictory. While it critiques GCSE-level selection, particularly the practice of “teaching to the test” (p.47), it fails to apply a similarly critical perspective to the transfer test, despite the latter’s significant impact on educational trajectories. This inconsistency highlights the prioritisation of political considerations over pedagogical evidence despite the questionable origins of early selection as a strategy.

TransformED NI also emphasises the significance of mental health and well-being (p. 9) but fails to recognise the psychological harm caused by high-stakes transfer tests. Similarly, its commitment to equity disregards the impacts of private tutoring. Although troublingly referred to as “a proven and effective educational intervention” (pp.18–19), this disruptive shadow education system worsens socio-economic disparities by favouring wealthier students who can access additional preparation resources. A 2020 Assembly Briefing Paper succinctly captures the equality issues related to tutoring and other negative aspects of academic selection.

The promotion of Shared Education (p. 10) introduces another contradiction. While it fosters cooperation between religiously segregated schools, Shared Education falls short of achieving genuine integration, the preferred model for most parents. Without clearer pathways to transition from collaboration to full integration, this approach risks entrenching divisions rather than dismantling them.

It is inappropriate to select Singapore as an educational comparator for Northern Ireland (p. 18). Rather than looking to East Asia, a more helpful comparison can be made with European and North American countries such as Estonia, Finland, and Canada. Unlike Northern Ireland, which relies on academic selection at age 11, these countries demonstrate that achieving top OECD performance does not require high-stakes testing. Instead, they emphasise equity, teacher quality, and student well-being. By eliminating early selection, these nations have attained excellence and fairness, offering more suitable models for reform.

Opportunities for Reform: Strengthening the Strategy

To realise its vision of excellence, TransformED NI will need to address the structural barriers undermining equity. The following measures offer possible pathways for reform:

1. Abolish the Transfer Test and Academic Selection:

• Academic selection at age 11 should be abolished entirely because it perpetuates socio-economic inequality and creates undue stress for children.

2. Promote Resource Parity:

• Until the system can be reformed, ensure that all schools—grammar and non-grammar—receive equitable resources, teaching expertise, and infrastructure.

3. Expand Fully Integrated Education:

• Policies should focus on fully integrating schools across socio-economic, religious, and cultural lines rather than merely supporting shared education, which maintains the current divided system.

4. Address the Shadow Education System:

• Instead of accepting private tutoring as a necessary support for the transfer system, resources should be redirected to ensure that all students have equitable access to educational support.

5. Foster Inclusive Policy Debate:

• Engage communities, educators, and policymakers in honest, evidence-based dialogue about the detrimental impacts of academic selection. This dialogue should shift public perceptions around selection, dispel the myths of meritocracy, and build consensus for transformative reform.

Conclusion: A Framework for True Equity

TransformED NI represents what appears to be a sincere attempt to improve education in Northern Ireland through enhanced teaching and professional development. However, its reluctance to confront academic selection—the cornerstone of educational inequality—limits its transformative potential. Without addressing this central barrier, the policy risks perpetuating systemic disparities instead of resolving them.

To achieve meaningful reform, such a strategy must embrace equity as its guiding principle. It must also tackle structural inequalities with the same rigour as procedural improvements. Only by dismantling academic selection, addressing resource disparities, and prioritising integration can our education system progress toward the truly equitable future that all our children deserve.