26 August 2004

Education: a future political battleground?

David Vance will no doubt be pleased that the outstanding performance of Northern Irish GCSE candidates have made it into the leader of the Daily Telegraph this morning.

Martin McGuinness's plans to abolish the 11+ will be executed by a Labour government in 2008, if 1) there is no change in the UK government in the elections widely expected to take place next year, and/or 2) a nationalist MLA manages to negotiate the Education post in any reconvened local Executive.

But it opens intriguing possibilities for any future administration formed on the d'Hondt principles. A Belfast Telegraph poll had all MLA's (with the exception at least one of the PUP's representatives) split on strictly sectarian lines on the issue.

In the inevitable horse trading, there must be serious incentive for Unionist (of either party) to take that particular post and cancel, stall or otherwise circumvent the abolition of the selective test.

You can read David's latest suggestions, which include abolishing all Training Colleges in favour of on-the-job training, here.

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