William Crawley’s critique of the school transfer test on BBC Radio Ulster Talkback was inspirational

I want to pay tribute to William Crawley for the compassionate and caring way he discussed the transfer test (11 Plus) on Talkback yesterday, especially the way he used his own experience of the 11 Plus to illustrate the effect this test can have on children.

I have just retired from 29 years teaching in a non-selective school and every year I would see Year 8 pupils who needed reassured that they were still intelligent, still capable of doing well academically and that they should not give up.

While we all welcome the attempts to reduce the number of transfer exams pupils will have to sit, we should acknowledge that at the age of 11, a child’s brain is still developing so any test of potential will be very inaccurate.

Even worse, young children will not have enough confidence to reject the outcome of the test and come to believe that they are not ‘smart enough’.

Some (mainly boys) will avoid risking repeating this feeling of failure by avoiding future academic challenges; they will underperform for years.

As the product of a grammar school, I fully supported the 11 Plus, until I saw the negative effect it had on the young, predominantly Protestant pupils in my classes; the negative effects seeming to be greater among the boys — the outcomes from schools across the province would support this.

As my views changed, I would talk to pupils about how brains keep developing and would use the example of my own family, where I ‘passed’ the 11 Plus but a younger brother who ‘failed’ went on to achieve higher qualifications and a significantly better salary than myself.

I hope I helped to restore the enthusiasm for learning among my pupils, but realistically some pupils never regain enough confidence in their ability to commit properly to academic challenges.

William Crawley’s comments on Talkback were inspirational; had I not just retired from teaching I would have been trying to encourage my school to invite him to speak at our next prize day.

I hope he finds time to talk to some schools.

Arnold Carton, Belfast BT6

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