Plans for single transfer test by November 2017

According to BBC News NI, the Department has begun a formal process to find a common test, with the aim of having it in place by November 2017.

The BBC has also reported that Professor Peter Tymms, from the school of education at Durham University, has been appointed to lead the initiative, dubbed “Towards a common assessment for the purposes of academic selection”.

Education Minister Peter Weir told BBC Northern Ireland’s Good Morning Ulster programme it was clear that while there would not be political agreement around a “state transfer test”, academic selection was “here to stay”.

“It hasn’t gone away because there is a strong demand out there for academic selection,” he said.

“I want to try and make the system as easy as possible for the parents of children that are going through this, I think that is a laudable aim.”